Self-Abuse In Karen Russell's Vampires In The Lemon Grove

Kara Wenzler
Mrs.Provost
Genres of Lit: Short Stories
17 April 2023
Vampires In The Lemon Grove
“Self-sabotage is when people take actions that block their success or stop them from accomplishing their goal,” (Cambell 6). People often self-sabotage because of issues with low self-esteem which comes from a negative point of view that they hold against themselves. The author Karen Russell illustrates this through her main characters in the short story, “Vampires in the Lemon Grove.” In the short story, a couple named Clyde and Magreb are vampires living in a lemon grove in Italy. They have been married for centuries and spend their days picking lemons and reminiscing about their past lives. As time goes on, the two begin to gain separate ideas

It is almost as if Clyde fantasies about his past life which makes him want to revert back to his old lifestyle. When Clyde was comparing how he now uses the lemons from the lemongrove to cure his hunger to how he use to drink human blood he has a flashback to that time period, “I bit anyone kind or slow enough to let me close: men, women, even some older boys or girl,” (Russell 358). When this was told to Maghreb she was shocked to hear that Clyde could do such a thing. Clyde could easily see how upset she was to hear that which contributes to the negative perception of others having an affect on his own self image emotionally and physically. When Clyde looks at himself in the mirror he doesn't see his true self, “I saw a mouth ringed in black blood. I saw the pale son of the villagers’ fears,” (Russell 358). Mageb isn't the only person or thing that influences Clyde's negative feelings about himself in this situation the way the villagers fear him add to it. This image of how he sees himself is hard for him to handle because he feels that others, even Magreb sees him this way and it eventually influences some of the decisions Clyde makes later

Clyde lets his own mind control some of his actions. Instead of stopping and thinking he tends to react off of his feelings. Clyde had previously gotten into an argument with Maghreb about not being able to sustain off of lemons anymore and to make it up to her he took her on a date. They had gone to the movies and Clyde eventually found himself off with a girl in the alley, “How ridiculous, at my age, to find myself down this alley with this young girl,” (Russell 367). Clyde has now cheated on Maghreb with a girl named Fila who is seventeen. This could be because deep down he feels that he won’t ever be good enough for Magreb. While he is in this alley alone with this girl there is too much happening and he can’t help but attack her, “I stare vacantly at a pale mole above the girl's collarbone, I think again and I smile; and the smile feels like a muzzle,” (Russell 367). Clyde has broken between the suppression of hunger and the thoughts he has about himself. He has looked at himself as the old Clyde that he went back to his original roots of feeding off of