Funny Story

“If it was fate, then it’s reasonable to assume fate a little bit hates me.”

After describing her fairytale meet-cute with Peter, Daphne quickly relates how the fairytale ended in Peter canceling their wedding. In a sarcastic tone, Daphne anthropomorphizes fate as a person out to get her since meeting Peter led to the worst heartbreak of her life. The quote also reinforces the novel’s theme of the unpredictability of life and how the worst moments can lead to something better.

“I swallowed a knot that felt like barbed wire. Or maybe it was a tangle of the Vincent family practicality I’d inherited from my mother, that old familiar ability to use those negative emotions as fuel to Get. Shit. Done.”

This passage characterizes Daphne as a person who, due to her difficult childhood, has learned to compartmentalize her feelings as a survival mechanism. The passage uses the phrase “swallowing a knot,” which means to choke back tears, and adds the imagery of swallowing razor wire to intensify Daphne’s emotions.

“Until that moment, I’d carried my life like a handkerchief knapsack at the end of a broom handle, something small and containable I could pick up and move at the drop of a hat. And I never knew what I was running from, or to until he said it.”

Using the metaphor of a vagabond carrying all their belongings in a sack, Daphne describes how she learned to travel light since she and her mother moved frequently. The passage also carries a more profound meaning as Daphne buries her feelings to avoid a heavy emotional burden. After moving in with Peter, the shopping spree she indulges in proves she has yet to deal with her emotional baggage.