Lust By Susan Minot example essay topic
422 words
LUST is a short, autobiographical, serious fiction, written by Susan Minot. The author talks about her fleeting, lustful relationships which were seemingly interesting in the beginning eventually faded away leaving a feeling of disgust, guilt and vacuum within herself. The common theme of the story is that of various adventurous sexual encounters of the author with different boys lasting only too shortly. However at the end of the story, excitement in each encounter changes to the feeling of disgrace, disgust and depression. The main character of the story is the author herself who adopts the first person participant voice. However, readers cannot completely rely on the information given by the author because she does not reveal every aspect of her encounter with the boy. She fails to report her part of involvement in the relationship. The narrator portrays herself as a lascivious but emotional person capable of analyzing the feelings resulting after each breaking relationship. Yet, the author fails to give any kind of specific portray of any of her boy friends'. The plot is that of inconsistent relationships based solely on the selfish physical desires and pleasures associated with the aftermath of fulfillment of those desires.
The conflict lies in the author's lustful desires vs. the feeling of disgust, emptiness, disgrace and remorse. The author however does not resolve the conflict for the readers. The author's style of writing is unique. She adopts a discontinuous, unrelated and unconnected method of writing which gives it an effect of excerpts taken from a personal diary. Also, she keeps switching between the first person point of reference and second person point of reference. e.g. "For a long time, I had Philip on the brain. The less they noticed you, the more you got them on brain". (pg. 582, 4 Th Para.) In this manner she sometimes makes the reader an observer and at other times, a participant.
The mood is variable throughout the story but the conclusion leaves the reader depressed. The setting is variable too throughout but ending in a gloomy. The pace of the story is fast. Each incidence is short. The paragraphs are many but small containing few sentences.
The story is difficulty to understand because of the discontinuous style of writing. By the end of the story the reader begins to have a feeling of disgust toward the relationships which are built completely on the foundation of lust.
