She comments that the party must be fun, without expressing any desire or longing to join the party. To the guest, Eileen seems “baggy and ill-formed it’s the clothes they wear now, young girls, he thought foggily her hair was braided down either side of her face, and she looked young and fresh and not dressed-up” (9).Įileen offers the guest black coffee, which he uses to clear his head. Eileen, 17, is a senior in high school, having stayed back one year in school due to pneumonia. In the kitchen, the guest encounters Eileen, the daughter of the party hosts, sitting across from him at the table and having a cup of coffee. The scene of the party is quite ordinary: “the group by the piano singing ‘Stardust,’ his hostess talking earnestly to a young man … a little group of four or five people sat on the stiff chairs….” (9).Īn unnamed male guest, intoxicated, escapes to the kitchen supposedly to retrieve more ice, but in fact hoping to become sober. The first story in Jackson’s collection, “The Intoxicated,” takes place at an ordinary house party in suburban America, as do many of the stories in this collection.
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