Response to Bender's "Off"

In Aimee Bender’s “Off,” we start out with a stereotypical rich girl at her friend’s informal party and her main mission of the night is to kiss a blond, brunette, and red-headed guy. The conflict stems from the interactions between each of her targets, namely her blond ex-boyfriend, Adam.

            With every encounter we gain a little more insight about the narrator’s background and personality, although pretty much from the start we know she is a bitch; she dresses up knowing full well that the party is informal and proceeds to judge every other girl in the room for being so plain. It shows just how low her self-esteem really is and how she feels the need to outdo everyone else. With constant remarks about her superiority to the other women at the party and wealth status, we infer that she is shallow and an elitist of sorts and doesn’t much care for anyone whom she believes is below her; this is obvious from her reaction to the vet, who was talking to the black haired man the narrator picked out. In addition to the tension between her ex, we also gets hints that the narrator some buried homosexual feelings for the host of the party, a friend of hers from high school.  

The stream of thought narrative style is extremely well done and makes for a better balance between the small amount of dialogue and the narrator’s description of events. And even though the voice is distinct and well established throughout the story, I would have liked to see a little more dialogue. Maybe a scene with the high school friend could spruce up a part of the characterization that would be interesting to see developed, because I wasn’t very pleased with the ending. Even though she couldn’t meet her quota for the night, it can be interpreted that she is willing to give things another shot with her ex, thus maturing slightly from who she was when she first arrived at the party.