Lust Susan Minot Analysis

787 Words4 Pages

In the short story “Lust,” Susan Minot creates a sense of non-fiction literature through Minot’s narrator nonchalantly expounding upon her sexual history. While the story’s repetitiveness seems to beat a dead horse, Minot uses this style of disjointed paragraphs to show a deeper meaning on the effects of an overload of sex. These sexual experiences, all effecting this promiscuous teenager, present the idea that “lusting” and even this thirst of sexual partners illustrates the notorious and seemingly normal effects that frequent relationships have on young adolescent women. Women such as our no name main character who has “messed around” with at least fifteen different sexual partners on more than one occasion. This extremely descriptive, repetitive, …show more content…

They were having a fight about something. I’ve a feeling about me”(Minot, 297) This passage speaks volumes, starting with the fact that they have moved to a secluded truck symbolizing their success in flirting with her, and have speedily moved things on to peruse sex. She ends with, “I’ve a feeling about me,” the reader assumes she is enjoying being fought over yet there isn’t any hard evidence supporting our theories, plus she doesn’t say that she tried to stop them. This sense of belonging ties in with her search, and the idea that she thinks she finally has found something that she believes makes her fit in. She even states, “I could do some things well. Some things I was god at, like math or painting or even sports, but the second a boy put his arm around me, I forgot wanting to do anything else, which felt like a relief at first until it became like sinking into muck.”(Minot, 295) This is such a powerful, and eye opening statement due to the fact that she loves the feeling of being in the moment, and knowing that it was a relief that she was appreciated for something that she could be “good” at. On the contrary, she then takes the audience aback when she compares her passion of sex, to sinking into muck. What could she have meant by that? Could it symbolize the experience of when you step into a lake and everything is beautiful with crystal clear