Unit 8. Post 4.

You're Ugly, Too by Lorrie Moore.

Man did this story take some time to get through. The third literary analysis question asks what the importance of jokes are to Zoë and to the story as a whole.

Jokes are important to Zoë because they are something she hides her insecurity behind. She uses jokes as a device to defer peoples attention away from her actual personality and towards their interpretation of a joke. Her sick sense of humor distracts people from actually getting to know her. To the story, jokes play an important role in establishing the theme. That being that people hide behind aspects of their own personality to keep people from getting to know the person's whole personality. Jokes being just one of the defense mechanisms. In short, people get in their own way of finding love. This is one of those mind over matter kind of philosophies where our own mental attitude is what gets in the way of our success.

Going along with the importance of humor in this story, Zoë uses humor to hide her true feelings behind a sarcastic curtain. Often times, especially when she was talking to Earl near the end of the story, I sensed that her feelings were not being accurately expressed through her speech. Instead, it felt as if she was really hurt of angry at Earl for his actions toward her. The ending especially where "She smiled at him, and wondered how she looked" (Moore, 370) suggests that Zoë had something to lose with Earl, which contrasts with her actions toward him earlier in the story.