Homesick for Another World

Ms. Mooney, the protagonist of “Bettering Myself,” is a young teacher struggling with addictions to alcohol and cocaine. Although she seems to function well, maintaining a job and a relationship, Ms. Mooney is characterized by Social Isolation. She struggles to connect with her students, her colleagues, her boyfriend, and her ex-husband. Her isolation from other people is the result of her addiction to alcohol and cocaine, which represent a consistent, albeit destabilizing, presence in her life. Although, as the title suggests, the narrator is desperate to improve herself, she is ultimately a flat character, and her circumstances do not substantially change in the course of the novel. The narrator attempts to quit her job and admit her previous wrongdoings but is discouraged by the first obstacle she encounters. Her willingness to rip up her resignation letter after finding the school locked suggests that she is not ultimately dedicated to “bettering” herself. Instead, the story ends with her slipping back into her addiction by drinking at a bar. As the title character of the first story in the collection, Ms. Mooney sets the tone, establishing Moshfegh’s refusal to provide the kinds of neat moral arcs, the narratives of personal progress and redemption, that readers often expect of the short story form.