Maeve Fly

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, graphic violence, death, illness, substance use, and cursing.

The narrator, Maeve Fly, explains what she believes is the desire of all men: to marry, have children, and be happy, then to have their happiness taken from them so they can recover their “freedom.” In this way, they can feel as though they did the right thing initially, then are justified when they turn to “violence” and “nihilism” (1). She argues that men go to the movie theater daily to see this exact scenario play out.

However, she asserts that the virtuous path is pointless in these scenarios. Instead, because life is “fleeting and meaningless” (2), people should follow their true, violent nature without justification or excuse.

Maeve works at a princess-themed park in Los Angeles and loves it. She dresses as the ice princess and entertains the visiting children. Her best friend is Kate, whom she describes as “unwaveringly virtuous” and as the “protagonist” of their story (4). They go into the breakroom, where they are glared at by the other princesses, and do a line of coke.

Their supervisor, Liz, comes in and threatens to have them fired for using drugs on the job.