Dressing up

Over the years it has become more and more essential to project an image of individuality. Especially in the teen-years, it is crucial to find oneself. Along with the self-awareness comes the increasing focus on other people’s image. If somebody possesses qualities that seem attractive, some people might assimilate that specific person’s behavior or style with the hope of obtaining these qualities. This is shown in the short story ‘Dressing up’, where the reader is presented with two sisters, Rachel and Flora. One of which (Rachel) possesses qualities that the other one (Flora) lacks. Flora therefore turns to drastic measures in her attempt to obtain Rachel’s qualities.
‘Dressing up’ is a short story that provides the reader with an insight into a typical, modern family that consists of a single mother who lives with her two daughters. The mother turns forty, and her birthday is the pivotal point of the short story. The story is structured in a way that gives the reader a full individually description of each of the three women involved. Throughout the whole story the reader is shown the mothers lack of capability handling her two daughters. As soon as the three of them are gathered in the restaurant, the mother senses a distance between her daughters. Her reaction is very dissimilar from the normal reaction of a parent. ‘The mother sat down between them, nibbling olives, talking incessantly, aware of the hollow silence between them,’ (page 2, line 57-58). She becomes nervous and uncomfortable by the situation instead of handling it. She does not have the bravery to confront them with the void between them, until after a while where she eventually asks if there is something wrong. The girls reply by saying that nothing is wrong, and the mother drops the whole thing instantly. She instead turns her attention towards another partying group at the restaurant, ‘In the centre of the room there was a colorful, boisterous party, who kept exploding into wild shouts and shrill laughter,’ (page 2, line 66-67). To describe the party, the writer uses powerful adjectives such as: colorful, boisterous, exploding and wild. This is done to contrast the two parties. In contrary to the party in the middle of the room we have the mother’s party. Here the atmosphere is unpleasant to a degree where adjectives are superfluous. The mother forgets about the discord between her daughters and begins to feel sorry for herself. She wanted nothing but a nice and easy birthday but the void between the two girls has ruined that for her. Instead of trying to solve the problem between them, she gets upset and acts like a child. ‘”I don’t want pudding,” she said, rather childishly,’ (page 4, line 121). The fact that she is upset leads to a character change within the mother. She goes from not handling the problem to solving it by being harsh and unforgiving. The very distinct description of the mother’s way of handling her girls makes parenting on of the themes of the short story.
Another theme is sisters and how they interact with one another. As mentioned earlier the story revolves around two sisters called Rachel and Flora. The reader is first presented with Rachel and a vague image of her is already drawn in the second line of the story: ‘Her thin body was taut, her whole body shook,’ (page 1, line 2). The reader instantly takes notice of the words ‘thin body’. This image of Rachel as ‘the lucky one’ of the two sisters remains throughout the short story, and the image created of Flora just reinforces the image of Rachel. The first thing the reader learns about Flora is that she has absolutely no order in her room, ‘… disordered heaps of crumpled discarded clothes, empty cigarette packets, broken lighters, dried-out mascara brushes and lidless lipsticks,’ (page 1, line 6-8). The lack of order in her room symbolizes that Flora is unorganized as a person as well. This image is reinforced when Flora is late at their mother’s birthday party and when she spills her bright red drink allover Rachel’s dress. The obvious contrast between the two sisters is drawn in this sentence: ‘It made her[Flora] feel taller, braver, cleverer, and Rachel was all those things already,’ (page 2, line 36-37). With these words the reader is shown that the true problem is not the fact the Flora has stolen Rachel’s dress. The true problem is that Flora sees Rachel as being better than her and she envies her. She therefore steals Rachel’s dress. The dress is not just a dress. To Flora it means much more than that. When she wears it, she feels more like her sister. The dress symbolizes qualities that Rachel possesses and that Flora would like to obtain. The mother’s bad permeability could be the reason to why the difference between the girls is that outspoken. If she had concentrated on making Flora see her own values and qualities, then maybe Flora would not try so desperately to obtain her sister’s qualities.
Ultimately this little discord between Rachel and Flora results in Rachel leaving to go live with her father. Flora has pushed Rachel away from her. Flora wished to possess Rachel’s good qualities and ends up looking great a couple of hours at the cost of her sister’s friendship. It is good to strive for improvement of oneself, but it is always essential to look at the side affects and consider ‘Is it worth it?’.