I felt Aimee Bender’s “Motherfucker” was the least revealing out of all her stories we’ve read. I felt the moral of this story was not as clear as the others. It might have been that I found this story more difficult to relate to, or perhaps Bender wrote this story with the intention to leave out a moral/message.
However, there are two hidden underlying ideas emphasized throughout the story: the emotional ventriloquism and the house of desire. The emotional ventriloquist points out the motherfucker’s ability to interpret other’s emotions and use them to his advantage. The house of desire represents the power to act on one’s emotions. The motherfucker can be seen as hiding within his house, for he bases his behavior solely on his own selfish desires; he remains in this house out of fear and is unwilling to venture out and please someone other than himself. Contrarily, the scarlet can be seen has constantly outside of her house. She continually acts on what others expect of her, and struggles to conduct herself on her own terms.
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