Susan Minot: life, works, and literary significance

Susan Minot / Lust

The main character of "Lust" is a girl who can't say "no" to boys. The story allows us to follow our protagonist as she moves from boy to boy, sleeping her way through young adulthood. The girl is searching for love, but no matter how many men she sleeps with, she never finds the love for which she yearns. She is sad and empty, hoping that the next one will fill the void inside her. She explains how with the caress or a hand or a finger moving a piece of hair behind her ear she is enraptured. That is all it takes. She doesn't seem to learn from one lover to the next that sex will not make her whole. With each lover she falls further and further away from her true self and away from the real love that she yearns -- love for herself.

Lust is something that most people have some kind of experience with, but for the character in "Lust," she falls in and out of love like people change clothes. The story takes us through a period in her life where each paragraph is another time, another man, another mistake. She explains how each has his own way of being and his own way of making her feel like she has to give him what he wants. Some scare her, some charm her, and some seem to really love her, but, for the most part, they all want what she wants and they are all a bit like her in the sense that when the deed is done, they retreat.

Each man has something different: a fast car, a gentle touch, or a certain quirk (e.g., the guy who just wants to smell her hair after it's been washed). Each is different, yet the same in some way. When she talks about what it is like seeing the man naked, she describes how each of them look different. She compares seeing them nude to seeing their faces for the first time. While they all look different, none of them ever surprise you. This statement tells us a lot not only about the young woman, but about lust, and how it operates. With lust -- unlike love, one doesn't truly see another for who or what they are. At the end of the story, the character stares at one guy and asks him who he is. He seems irritated, doesn't know what she means by this. She asks him again, "Who are you? What are you thinking?" The guy responds that he has no idea "what the hell" she is talking about. We see this as her attempt to find something deeper in the relationship with this guy, but he looks at her as if she is crazy. She drops the subject.

Our character isn't happy with the way she is moving from guy to guy. It is easier for her to simply go to bed with them. That is, after all, what she believes that they all want in the end. What is the point of getting to know someone or asking what they are thinking when it all comes down to one thing? This is her attitude about men and women. There is a certain amount of helplessness that comes from the girl. She is not helpless, of course, but it seems that she believes that she really doesn't have much of a say when it comes to sex. She doesn't have to go through with it, but it is almost like she just gives up. Afterwards she feels horrible. She describes herself as curled up like a shrimp in the bed -- an image that is both sad and makes her appear as if she is some kind of victim. Perhaps she is, but she is only a victim to herself as she puts herself in the situation in which to be victimized.

After sex with the men, the men retreat inside of themselves and so does she. They look at each other, but nobody is really there. The stares of passion and lust that were there just moments earlier are gone and nothing else has taken the place of the passion because nothing else had existed between them before that. There was no companionship, friendship or love.

The story is a good example of how teenage and young adulthood lust can go awry. Lust masks itself as love in the heat of the moment, but when the moment is gone, there is nothing but emptiness. The girl is tempted by lust all the time and she always gives into it because it tricks her into thinking she will feel good and she will feel whole; but lust does the opposite to girls, it takes away a piece of them, slice by slice, until there is only the carcass of a woman and she must work hard to fill the emptiness inside of her.

One of the most obvious aspects about the story is that the girl never talks about anything outside of her life -- just boys. She is in school and all we hear about that experience is the fact that the headmaster calls her in to be reprimanded for being very affectionate in public. He tells her that the forest is big and she can do whatever she needs to do outside of the public view. This is an interesting thing to say to a young woman and the comment actually seems to be representative of a bigger foible in society: basically, it is always the girl's fault and she needs to hide her indecencies. We don't know if the boy(s) was called in, but it seems as if Minot was making a comment about the way that women are labeled if they are with boys (i.e., slut) as opposed to how men are labeled with many women (i.e., stud). It also makes a comment about how society has not assisted in creating a world where woman feel more secure inside of themselves as opposed to only feeling secure or worthy when they are the object of a man's affections. This emptiness that the character feels has not been created by herself alone; society tells young girls that to be pretty, to be wanted is important -- perhaps the most important aspect in life. Our society puts good looks over confidence and self-sufficiency when it comes to women. It is because of this that the character does not have anything else to satiate her desires. All of her desires for anything else are deemed unimportant when stacked against how important it is for her to be wanted and admired. The character states numerous times that to be touched gently or to be looked at with lust is what puts her over the edge; from there on out she cannot say no to them. It is simply easier to give them what they want -- despite the repercussions of her actions.