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
Eleanor was able to discover where the musician lived when he posted a photo to Twitter with a visible street sign in it, and she heads to his apartment after leaving the pub. Eleanor reaches the apartment and sees Johnnie Lomond’s name listed beside the buzzer. She buzzes his apartment, pretending to be delivering a pizza to his neighbors. He answers, unenthusiastically directs her to the top floor, and buzzes her in. Eleanor enters the building and finds Johnnie’s front door. She takes a piece of paper and pencil out of her purse and makes a brass rubbing of Johnnie’s nameplate.
Eleanor could knock on Johnnie’s door and introduce herself, but she chooses not to interact with him. This suggests that, at least on a subconscious level, she acknowledges that her infatuation with him is unattainable and merely a projection of her longing to improve her life and become less lonely.
Themes
Eleanor investigates Johnnie’s apartment through the opaque glass of his exterior door. Standing as still and as quietly as she can, she watches as he composes a song on his guitar. Eleanor presses her face against the glass and swoons as she listens to his voice.
The opaque glass of Johnnie’s door symbolizes Eleanor’s delusion: she might think she’s seeing Johnnie clearly, but the glass through which she views him is clouded by her misguided idealization of his character.
Themes
Eleanor returns home and realizes she won’t be able to sleep after her daring adventure. She changes into one of her two nightgowns, both of which are lemon-yellow. The color of these nightgowns reminds Eleanor of old-fashioned candies, which she finds to be a comforting image despite not indulging in many sweet treats as a child. To Mummy and her sophisticated palette, the only acceptable sweet treats were Belgian truffles or Medjool dates. Eleanor recalls “a time shortly before…the incident…when she shopped only at Fortnum’s.”
Eleanor repeats June Mullen’s language from earlier when she references “the incident.” Eleanor’s memory of Mummy’s refined tastes is similar to many of the other concrete memories Eleanor has of her mother in that they all focus on trite details—in this case, Mummy’s culinary preferences—to avoid thinking about the more complicated and painful memories Eleanor has of her mother. Honeyman reinforces Mummy’s highbrow tastes to show how Eleanor has internalized her mother’s unreasonably high standards and propensity to see herself as different from others.
Themes
Eleanor still feels too wide awake to sleep, so she picks up Jane Eyre, which she’s read so many times that she can open to any random page and know exactly where she is in the plot. Eleanor relates to the novel’s “strange” protagonist: like Eleanor, Jane is a “lonely only child” and has known pain from an early age. Eleanor closes her eyes, remembers something that she’d rather forget, and grows frustrated that shutting one’s eyes doesn’t stop one from seeing. She tries to distract herself with nice thoughts to lull herself to sleep.
Jane Eyre is a novel by British author Charlotte Brontë, published in 1847. Eleanor’s comparison of herself to the orphan Jane confirms what she has already alluded to: that her life in the foster system—and perhaps before it—was lonely, chaotic, and devoid of love. Eleanor’s declaration that she, like Jane, is a “lonely only child” triggers an unpleasant memory—given Eleanor’s proven unreliability as a narrator, it’s logical to interpret the triggered memory as a sign that Eleanor is repressing something from herself and from the reader that is related to not having a sibling.
Themes
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Eleanor wakes up and feels unrested. On Sundays, she tries to sleep as much as possible to pass the time—a “prison trick” she learned from Mummy—but it’s difficult for her to do so on summer mornings. Eleanor has been awake for hours when Raymond calls at 10 a.m. to ask if she would like to accompany him to the hospital—Sammy is feeling better, and Raymond wants to visit with him. Eleanor agrees to meet Raymond at the hospital that afternoon.
Eleanor stresses how fine she is throughout the novel, yet she admits that she regularly sleeps as much as possible on Sundays to pass the time. Given that excessive sleep is a symptom of clinical depression, Eleanor’s admission is further evidence that she isn’t fine and that the reader should see her as an unreliable narrator. Eleanor’s revelation that sleeping all day is a “prison trick” she learned from Mummy implies that Mummy is in prison, so it’s a possibility that Mummy was jailed for her involvement in Eleanor’s incident. However, this remains uncertain and the reader is still in the dark about Mummy’s whereabouts.
Themes
Eleanor takes her time getting ready, looking in the mirror and wondering if she could ever be a “muse” to the musician. All things considered, she feels fine about her appearance. She’s an average-looking woman, and even the scars on the right side of her face are nothing to be upset about, as the alternative would’ve been death. Eleanor compares herself to a phoenix rising out of the ashes. She touches her scars and thinks: “I didn’t burn, Mummy […]. I walked through the fire and I lived.” Eleanor knows she has “scars on her heart,” too, and she hopes that she isn’t too damaged to love and be loved.
In folklore, the phoenix is a bird that is reborn from the ashes of its predecessor. In some variants of the phoenix myth, the bird is reborn from flames. In comparing herself to a phoenix, Eleanor expresses her desire to be reborn: to move on with her life and to persevere in the face of trauma. The phoenix’s connection to fire, as well as Eleanor’s direct comment about having “walked through the fire” is further evidence that the mysterious incident to which Eleanor has alluded was, in fact, a childhood fire. Eleanor addresses Mummy when she makes this statement, which builds a case for Mummy’s involvement in the incident. Eleanor’s fear that she has “scars on her heart” speaks to her uncertainty that she can open herself up to people after experiencing so much trauma physical and psychological trauma.
Themes
