You're Ugly, Too

The plot of this short story is really slow and seems to drag out. The thing that really helps move the story along is the characters, the protagonist in particular. Zoe has many eccentricities that I don't like about her. For me, they make her less sympathetic as a character. However, her quirky sense of humor with her jokes, her situation as a single and middle aged woman, and her positive attitude through her struggles move the story along. The only action that ever takes place in the story is when Zoe is invited to go visit her sister's home in New York to go to a Halloween party. Even though Zoe's jokes carry the plot of the story, they are taken too far in the final scene of the story. When Earl, the recently divorced man that Zoe meets, makes a stab at her by saying "he shouldn't try to go out with career women" and that he would "do better with women who have part-time jobs", Zoe reacts in a rash and exaggerated manner. She shoves Earl from behind as he looks out over the balcony, and he backs away from her after being horrified. Zoe says that she is "just kidding", but I think this choice takes Zoe back to square one where she began. I feel bad for Zoe because she is alone and single, but I think that she does it to herself because of her eccentricities and strange behavior.