You're Ugly, Too

     In Lorrie Moore's short story You're Ugly, Too, we follow the life of the central character, Zoe Hendricks. Her life involves sarcasm, loneliness, and many relationships to people in many different walks of life. Her character is easy to relate to because of her use of sarcasm to hide her true problems.
     I, personally, am extremely interested in the reasoning of why people behave the way they do. I love the subject of Psychology and I often find myself analyzing why people are just the way they are. This story was easy to analyze because of Zoe's distinct personality. We see her fail at relationships, teaching, and lack in confidence. We also see her try to cover up this sadness and alienation through humor. The only thing that leaves me wondering is what brought her to this point in her life.
     Throughout the story, we read often poor student reviews of Zoe's teaching abilities. Students say all sorts of things, even meaningless comments such as she "is often late for class and usually arrives with a cup of hot chocolate" (Moore). This random review stood out to me because I absolutely adore hot chocolate, but also because while it is seemingly meaningless, it does add to the reader's knowledge of Zoe's character.
     Moore successfully allowed the reader to dive into Zoe's life and see her true personality.