Response to "Off"

Aimee Bender's story "Off" is a very unique story.  The unnamed main character and narrator is a narcissistic woman who seems to prey on other people, by using men for attention and competing with other women to boost her self-esteem.  It's difficult for me to say exactly what this character wants, but it is clear that it is a self-serving desire.  I would say, however, that she desires affirmation.  She thinks back to when she was in grade school and how her teacher never noticed how intricate and interesting her paintings were.  The teacher didn't say they were bad, but actually complemented them.  However, this did not please the narrator, because that was not the compliment she was looking for.  It was almost as if she wanted to be noticed as someone morbid, but beautiful. 

I think the title of this story is endlessly interesting.  "Off" was the name of pet she once owned.  Off was a purebred, which made sense since the main character was wealthy.  She would take Off to the park and yell its name and the dog would run to her.  She thought that this was equivalent to a tourist attraction to the others in the park.  I would bet that this is probably untrue, because of the unreliability of the narrator. She does not seem logical and very egocentric.  Anyway, she believed that her doing this perplexed the others.  When her purebred dog died early, she let it suffer and then fed its ashes to the cat next door, because it was tormented by Off's size.  

The way she treated this dog seemed to mirror how she acted at the party.  She severely mistreated the one who should have been closest to her, Adam, her ex-boyfriend.  She would lead him on, use him for a spectacle, and then rid herself of him as soon as possible.  

I feel like I could talk about this story for several pages.  I really liked it, despite the dismal subject matter.