Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Enduring Impact of Trauma
Shame and the Stigmatization of Pain
Projection and Denial
The Vicious Circle of Isolation and Social Awkwardness
Summary
Analysis
It’s finally the day of the musician’s gig. Eleanor has followed through with all of her preparations and waits in anxious anticipation for it to be time to head to the venue: tonight is the night she will meet the musician, the night she will “rise from the ashes and be reborn.”
The imagery of the phoenix evokes Eleanor’s belief that moving forward from her traumatic past will come about in a fateful, miraculous way rather than as the result of personal growth psychological work. Essentially, Eleanor wants the miracle of rebirth and the promise of a fresh start without incurring the burden of revisiting her past. The phoenix imagery is even more significant now, as the reader knows with certainty that Eleanor experienced a traumatic fire, and phoenixes are reborn from ashes in a burst of flames. Given this, Eleanor’s evocation of the phoenix to symbolize rebirth takes on a more literal significance.
Themes
