eleanor oliphant is completely fine a novel

Billy’s audience laughs at this story, agreeing that Eleanor is, indeed, crazy.

“She’s mental,” he says, relating to them how freakishly Eleanor had behaved at the gig: “she just sat there frozen didn’t move, didn’t clap, anything.” After behaving so strangely, Billy continues, Eleanor had abruptly abandoned him, leaving before the intermission could begin. In the beginning of the novel, Eleanor walks in on her coworker Billy entertaining a group of others at the graphic design company where she works, telling them about how Eleanor had invited him to attend a concert, and what an uncomfortable experience the night was for him. Honeyman demonstrates this in the way Eleanor allows her coworkers to make fun of her. The persistent condescension Eleanor received in childhood from her mother causes her to expect disrespect and small acts of cruelty in her daily life from other people. Honeyman uses Eleanor’s unstable grasp on reality and contorted sense of self-worth to illustrate the lasting impact of trauma and abuse. Repeatedly, Eleanor acts on the warped belief that her trauma makes her a damaged person who is unworthy of love, respect, and happiness, and that she has no means to separate herself from her past. As the reader learns more about Eleanor, it becomes obvious how heavily the lingering psychological effects of this childhood trauma affect her grasp on reality, her sense of self-worth, and her ability to make positive, healthy decisions about how she lives her life and the type of people she allows into it. As Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine unfolds, the reader gradually learns the full extent of Eleanor’s traumatic past: that her mother, burdened by the responsibility of having children, intentionally set fire to her house when Eleanor and her younger sister, Marianne, were children, killing herself and Marianne, and forcing Eleanor-the sole survivor-to endure physical and psychological scars from her traumatic childhood.

Eleanor oliphant is completely fine a novel