Beauty as an Achilles heel
Trevor tells the narrator, “They give me space to be myself…Blondes are distracting. Think of your beauty as an Achilles’ heel. You’re too much on the surface. I don’t say that offensively. But it’s the truth. It’s hard to look pats what you look like.” The narrator’s beauty is a distraction that is injurious to the thriving of her affair with Trevor. Although she is an absolutely stunning blonde, her beauty is overwhelming for Trevor. People around the narrator are distracted by her beauty, shielding her and restricting her from using her personality. She comments that she feels trapped by her own beauty.
White Lily
The narrator expounds, “Reva could never soberly admit to any desire that was remotely uncouth. But she wasn’t perfect. “She’s no white lily,” as mother would have said. I’d known for years that Reva was bulimic. I knew she masturbated with an electric neck massager.” The metaphoric ‘white lily’ alludes to flawlessness. Reva has flaws that are evident; hence, it would be untrue to liken her to a white lily. On a larger scale, no one in the book is truly innocent - most of the characters have serious moral flaws.
Reva as a slave
The narrator expounds, “She (Reva) was a slave to vanity and status, which was not unusual in a place like Manhattan, but I found her desperation especially irritating. It made it hard for me to respect her intelligence.” The allegorical slave accentuates Reva’s obsession with class; she is preoccupied with being classy by all means.
Sleep as a physical space
“As summer dwindled, my sleep got thin and empty, like a room with white walls and tepid air-conditioning.”
The narrator is attracted to blank and empty physical spaces. This sentence ties this predilection to her interest in sleep.
