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Stacey Richter's 'The Beauty Treatment'

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In the story "The Beauty Treatment" by Stacey Richter, the main character and narrator suffers a traumatic attack caused by the person she'd least expect it from, her best friend Katie. As a result of Katie's betrayal, their six-year friendship takes a strain. After the attack, the narrator instantly retreats to referring to Katie as "The Bitch" rather than her actual name. Not only does the narrator do this, but she also expresses countless times how pleased she is with the consequences Katie has to face in effect of her actions. Although the narrator seems to refer to Katie with heavily negative language throughout the story, her thoughts contradict this. For example, the narrator says "I had these dreams where the Bitch and I were just hanging …show more content…

"The Bitch must have put them off with a fake story because if she ever told the truth they'd put her in the nuthouse with her schizophrenic brother where she probably belongs," here the narrator insinuates that her former friend would never confess the truth behind the attack and that if she did she would be seen as crazy. On the other hand, Katie constantly crosses the narrator's mind and not always in a negative way. "Was she annoying? God yes, but I never considered dumping her. The thing was that with me, in private, she wasn't so bad." When reminiscing on their friendship the narrator never seems to think badly of Katie, which makes it harder to believe that she truly has these strong negative feelings towards her. Another example of this would be the fact that she repetitively states she doesn't want to see Katie, but in the story she says "I thought I saw her a million times, in the mall or the Cineplex; I saw her big, smiling head gliding through the crowd," if she didn't want to see her, then why did imagine seeing Katie so many …show more content…

Not only is the real session important, but so is the narrator's imagined version of it. "This is for you," she'd say. "I've learned that it's okay for us to like different things. I celebrate your appreciation of Brandy." A few minutes later I leave. The Bitch is weeping softly. I feel a light, crisp sense of forgiveness." Despite the narrator's expressed negative feelings towards Katie, she still subconsciously hoped that they'd reconcile and have honest closure. This is the complete opposite of what does end up occurring during their session. "The Bitch does not say anything. The Bitch is not looking at me. The Bitch is sitting with her head down and her mouth closed like the first day she came to school with her braces." Instead of having a heartfelt talk about forgiveness they both end up not talking or looking at each other for a long period of

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