Deep Cuts

Percy often wants things that she knows are simply out of reach. In most cases, she is her own biggest obstacle. For example, she wants to be with Joe, but she cannot dispel the creeping suspicion that she isn’t his type. Similarly, she wants to write great songs but doubts her musical talent, and although she wants to belong, she finds that her earnest love for music turns people off. However, rather than forcing the protagonist to change and conform to mainstream standards, Brickley suggests that Percy’s coming-of-age requires her to accept that she is the biggest hindrance to her happiness and that she can still get what she wants anyway.

In her undergraduate days, Percy sees her relationship with Joe in simple terms: either he likes her or he doesn’t, and whatever he feels will always be how he feels, no matter how much the two change over time. She faces this same problem in her quest for belonging, albeit on an interpersonal scale. At the first sign of her peers’ rejection, she decides that they will never accept her essential character. Likewise, when Joe suggests that Percy isn’t his type, she immediately registers her insecurity over her physical appearance.