Throughout her time in Saint-Tropez, Anna uses her immersion in the Wilders’ world as an escape from her reality back in England and her childhood back in Massachusetts, pointing to the novel’s thematic engagement with The Seductive Power of Wealth. The more engrossed that Anna becomes in the elite London sphere, the more she comes to depend on the escape it provides. Geographically distant from Anna’s usual sphere, the setting of Saint-Tropez physically estranges her from her usual life, allowing her to disassociate from the identity she’s always known. Wealth, the novel suggests, offers the illusory promise of freedom and happiness, which especially appeals to Anna because her life has been defined by hardship. Having grown attached to the allure of the Wilders’ lifestyle in Saint-Tropez, Anna immediately accepts their offer to housesit their Highgate home when she returns to London. At Highgate, she can preserve the illusion of grandeur and luxury she experienced in the isolated context of Saint-Tropez.

Over time, Anna’s participation in the Wilders’ social realm complicates her understanding of Self-Reinvention Versus Authenticity. At 22 years old, Anna is still discovering who she wants to be as an adult. Having only recently freed herself from the fraught context of her childhood, she’s still pursuing forms of self-discovery outside the context of her familial past. Her new living situation at Highgate and her new relationship with Theo offer her accessible opportunities for reinvention in entirely new social contexts, but it’s a reinvention that’s illusory, conditional, and fragile rather than authentic. Anna actively hides her past from Theo as they continue to spend time together and doesn’t push back when he makes derogatory remarks about the lower class because his “continued attention [feels] marvelous. Intoxicating, life-giving. Like waking up” (117). Being with Theo allows Anna to pretend she’s waking up into a new life, wardrobe, and identity. Attaching herself to him is a way to attach herself to his way of life. Anna’s performance of wealth and status leads Theo to introduce her to his friends as one of Faye’s friends, signaling the success of her ruse. 

Anna’s need for acceptance and validation in the Wilders’ elite circle leads her to reinforce the illusion that she belongs by hiding her true self, raising the narrative stakes by placing her in constant fear of being found out. Anna understands that her new life in Highgate requires a new costume, so she borrows Faye’s clothes without permission to look the part that she’s trying to play, authenticating the facade. Faye’s clothes act as a kind of armor, allowing her to buy into the illusion she’s created for herself. Sifting through Faye’s expensive clothes, Anna observes that she is “still [herself] in all the ways [she] had always disliked, and all the ways London had brought to [her] notice. […] But the storm cloud sweater made [her] feel like [she] could manage a Sunday roast with Theo’s friends” (161). Anna wrestles with competing desires to reinvent herself and embrace her authentic self, causing her to blur the lines between the two. She assures herself that the clothes aren’t changing her character; they’re simply disguising her unlikable traits and making her more palatable to her new companions. 

Everett uses sensory language and onomatopoeia to underscore the allure this world of luxury holds for Anna. In Faye’s closet, Anna lets her “fingers slip through the clothes, the hangers tinkling musically as [she goes]: silk shirts, cashmere sweaters, knit cardigans with the tags still dangling from one sleeve” (160). The references to the tinkling hangers and the dangling tags evoke images of chandeliers and crystals—emblems of wealth and excess. As she “slips [Faye’s] sweater off the hanger and look[s] at it for signs of—of what? Of belonging to somebody,” she brings “it to [her] face, and it smell[s] of nothing, of no person, of mattering to no one but [her] (161). The sweater empowers her, and because it has no odor, she can convince herself that it is hers. Anna’s fascination with the clothing threatens to estrange her from vital facets of her identity. She uses the clothes to disassociate from her familial origins and economic circumstances— evidence that she is losing touch with her authentic self.

As her relationship with Theo progresses, she starts overtly lying about her background and circumstances and pulling away from her real friends, highlighting the novel’s thematic exploration of Power Dynamics in Interpersonal Relationships. With both Theo and Tess, Anna tries to play the part of the high-class old money elite. She does so with Theo to secure his affection. She does so with Tess to secure her approval and acceptance. Anna repeatedly considers revealing the truth to them, but always decides against it. In hiding the truth, she disempowers herself, submits to Theo and Tess’s class biases and lets their judgment dictate her behavior and self-regard.