28 pages • 56 minutes read
Her Body and Other Parties
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Story 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Story 2 Summary: “Inventory”
The protagonist takes stock of her sexual encounters before and after the outbreak of a deadly virus that threatens to wipe out the human race. Through a series of homosexual and heterosexual encounters, she chronicles the development of the disease. Within this running inventory of lovers, the protagonist makes other lists of more mundane things, such as every house she ever lived in. The reader learns that the disease is spread through human contact. As one of the protagonist’s lovers bemoans before rolling over and falling asleep, “If people would just stay apart” (38). Through these encounters, the reader witnesses the people around the protagonist reach a fever pitch of desperation. As the story continues, the protagonist becomes increasingly isolated, first moving to remote parts of the country and finally finding herself completely alone on an island.
Story 2 Analysis: “Inventory”
“Inventory” moves deeply into the collection’s isolation motif, using the protagonist’s timeline of lovers as a foil. The motif is at its most poignant when a pragmatic lover overlooks her own hypocrisy by commenting with irritation as she lays in bed, “If only people would just stay apart” (38). The characters’ inherent need for each other, even in the face of death, throws into relief man’s biggest dichotomy: Humans are at once linked and estranged by the shared yet highly individualized experience of being alive.
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