Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Eleanor spends the novel explaining who she is and how she sees the world, but the text’s secondary sources reveal how Eleanor might be misleading the reader (and herself). The Social Services notes show Eleanor’s disturbed behavior during her time in foster care and how, even then, she resisted socializing. The Tweets sprinkled throughout the story come from Johnnie’s account, @johnnieLrocks. She worships the musician every aspect of his online presence, but the reader sees firsthand how he is not the sensitive artist Eleanor thinks he is. He tweets, “‘Wondering if my stuff is a wee bit too challenging for some people yeah? Dont go to gigs if you can’t handle new sounds. #misunderstood #truth’” (127). The news articles at the end of the novel confirm that Eleanor and her sister suffered under years of terrible abuse and that Mummy took extraordinary measures to kill her children. One of the articles also uncovers one of the novel’s primary secrets: Eleanor’s Mummy also perished in the fire and is not, as Eleanor has reported, in prison. 

Eleanor critiques the demeanor of the redheaded doctor, nail technician, social worker, and Mr. Dewan at the convenience store, among others in the service industry. About the waxing technician, she remarks, “I’d have thought that staff in the beauty business would have better-developed people skills” (15). As pieces of dramatic irony, these scenes contradict Eleanor’s view of others and herself. Eleanor accuses these characters of rudeness when she, too, is behaving rudely. The tenor of these encounters changes once Eleanor becomes friendly with Laura, who gives Eleanor a haircut she adores. Therapist Dr. Maria Temple also challenges Eleanor’s assumptions, as she brooks Eleanor’s judgmental attitude, impatience, stonewalling, and anger with ease. Toward the end of the novel, Eleanor refuses to tell a barista her name while Raymond stands beside her, stifling laughter. This reaction helps Eleanor take a new, lighter perspective on her treatment of those in service positions.

As the title of the book suggests, Eleanor insists that she is fine. She introduces the idea in Chapter 3, stating that although she is content on her own, she must satisfy her Mummy by finding a romantic partner. She insists in Chapter 17 that she’s fine after meditating on her lack of family. She dismisses her feelings, saying, “And really, I was fine, fine, fine. Was I not here, after all, out in the world, and going to a party?” (135). Later, as Eleanor contemplates suicide, she reveals the burden of telling others she is fine when she is anything but:

If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say FINE. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. FINE is what you say (227).

Eleanor tells no one the trauma she has endured and how unhappy she feels, and she has grown tired of masking her pain to both the world and herself. In subsequent chapters, she removes the mask and expresses her true feelings. At the end of the novel, she tells Raymond she is fine, “stressing the word because, at last, it was true” (323).

Honeyman presents the particulars of Eleanor’s diet as vastly different before and after the fire. Her Mummy raised her to eat gourmet dishes like “Asparagus velouté with a poached duck egg and hazelnut oil. Bouillabaisse with homemade rouille” (58). Adult Eleanor has adapted a life full of convenient eating and declares she is “completely uninterested in food” (4), other than the bargains at Tesco Metro supermarket. Raymond brings Eleanor a chocolate cake and says, “‘‘You deserve nice things’” (274). Eleanor wonders if this is true and remarks that her epicurean upbringing had a dark side. Her Mummy would at times neglect to feed Eleanor and her sister, and she partook in culinary adventures at the risk of endangering her children. In contrast, Eleanor samples food from Mrs. Gibbons’ kitchen when Raymond brings her over for tea, and the soup, bread, and cake make Eleanor “warm and full and comfortable in a way I couldn’t remember feeling before” (92). Food is a childhood symbol of Mummy’s erratic narcissism, but Eleanor learns food can provide comfort and symbolize true love instead.