The Favorite Girl

“If there is one thing in life that I know with absolute certainty, it’s that there is a vast difference between surviving and thriving.”

In the first line of the first chapter, Demi articulates the class differences that are at the thematic heart of the novel. People in poverty, like her, struggle to merely survive. The rich, who use Wealth as a Tool for Manipulation, take survival for granted and focus on thriving.

“He didn’t think a well-raised Indian girl would steal from one of her own. Sadly, I wasn’t raised right. I was barely raised at all. I just existed.”

This echoes the previous quote and gives the reader more information about Demi’s character. Her physical features can easily be identified as Indian by other Indians living in the US. However, her class identity sets her apart from other members of her racial identity; her parents sold her to a human trafficker.

“What most people don’t understand is that poverty and fear are two of the worst things a human has to live with. When combined that means they are in the lowest and darkest parts of a valley that is killing them every single day.”

Since Demi escaped from the human trafficker Trent, she has lived in a constant state of fear and lacks the documentation she needs to obtain most jobs. Financial instability combined with her life being threatened causes her mental health to fall into a metaphorical valley. This feeling leads to Demi accepting the exploitative and illegal contract to work at the Ivory Estate.

“I winced at my childish joke based on The Little Mermaid.”

Here, Demi references a Disney film when struggling to figure out which silverware to use at her first dinner with the Ivory family. This illustrates her limited access to media while growing up, as well as how her psychological development was stunted by her status as a survivor of human trafficking.

“Middle class families could barely afford their groceries, so how would a girl like me afford to survive?”

Unlike novels such as Daniel Silva’s A Death in Cornwall, where the upper-middle class fights against the 1%, The Favorite Girl explores the differences between the average middle-class experience and people living in poverty. It is far more difficult for Demi to change her circumstances than it is for people who were not sold to human traffickers.

“This isn’t some extended novel where you get to dig into the beginning, middle, and end. This isn’t a story you need to figure out. This is a simple one-line sentence you will accept as your truth.”

This is a quote from Bradley, warning Demi about accepting the narrative that the Ivory family has created about her. They framed her for Misha’s murder, and her simple sentence is that she is a murderer. This quote is also metatextual; Arya uses her novel to comment on the structures of novels here.

“The textured wall in shades of cream and white was stunning, and I’d never seen anything like it.”

This is a description of the wall made of bones in Ian’s office. Initially, Demi is impressed by its uniqueness. However, once she learns what it is made of, she is horrified by it. The bones of the prisoners that Ian killed are also part of the symbolism of whiteness; some women can only be purified by being killed, Ian believes.

“I was going to marry Conrad Ivory. And I’d do whatever he wanted me to in order to protect Bradley and Daisy. Even if it meant I was going to be a caged girl in a different way.”

Here, Demi associates her arranged marriage with being imprisoned. She will have to be subservient to Conrad and trapped by his desires. This quote is ironic because, at this point in the novel, Demi thinks that she’s protecting Bradley. At the end of the novel, it is revealed that Bradley wants her to be trapped and subservient to him.

“This wasn’t some job I could feign an illness and call in sick. No, if I didn’t obey and abide by their rules, then this was a death sentence.”

This quote highlights a contrast between enslavement and working a regular low-income job. Demi, and the other women imprisoned by Ian, don’t get (paid) time off. Their options are to obey or die.

“Planting a peony bush in our gardens is a tradition for each to-be-wed couple in the Ivory family.”

In this passage, Arya develops the symbolism of flowers. The peony bushes cover the corpses of women who broke Ian’s rules. Relationships among Ivory family members seem nice and flowery on the surface but grow out of murder.

“I can guarantee you Demi, it wasn’t Aphrodite who turned Peonia into a flower. It must have been Zeus. He wanted the woman who was meant for his son, and if he couldn’t have her, then no one should.”

Ian explains that the flowers on his estate are peonies because of the Greek myth of Peonia. He says this while sexually assaulting Demi but saving her “deflowering” for Conrad. This develops the symbolism of flowers: Powerful men control female bodies in myth and in Arya’s novel.

“I so badly wanted to bash his face in with the shovel, but this was survival.”

Demi performs identity as a survival tool. She inwardly thinks about physically attacking Conrad while externally pretending to go along with what he wants. She has to become who he desires to avoid being killed.

“You don’t realize that when you’re in a hole, it’s already dark. It’s already hard to breathe. No one can see you or help you. So why would you scream if you’re never going to be heard?”

Becca says this to Demi as she gets Demi ready for Daisy’s wedding to Mason. It is a description of learned helplessness—that is, losing hope that you can change the conditions around you. This quote also connects to the darkness of the opening line of the novel.

“I missed color. I never realized how much color my life had before it was stripped away, and I was living a life of blinding white and pain.”

This is a development of the symbolism of whiteness. Demi is not subjected to the Ivory family’s strictest white-therapy program, but all her clothes are white, the estate’s decor is white, and everyone has white-blonde hair. Whiteness is purity, according to Ian, but this purity comes with pain for Demi and the other prisoners.

“‘Bradley, just close your eyes and pretend we’re at the real movies. I’ve never been. What’s your favorite?’ […] ‘Titanic.’”

Demi reveals that her life didn’t include going to movie theaters; she has only seen Titanic on Trent’s television. It was her favorite while Trent kept her imprisoned, and Bradley having the same favorite causes her to feel close to him. However, later revelations about Bradley suggest that this is likely a lie that Bradley manufactures to make Demi fall for him.

“They had something on me, just like Trent did. He always used me as a chip to get whatever he wanted with Layla. That’s what happened when you loved someone or cared about them…they became your weakness. Bradley was my weakness.”

Here, Demi thinks that the Ivory family will hurt Bradley because she doesn’t know that he is Ian’s son. Bradley and Demi’s relationship is built on lies; she falls for a man who doesn’t exist. These lies are effectively another form of sexual violence—robbing Demi of agency by depriving her of the truthful information she needs in order to make decisions.

“I think I loved him. And not because I had lost my virginity to him, or because he bought me shoes I had only dreamt of, but because for my entire life, I never had a home. But if I knew what home felt like, I’d take a wild guess that it was what I felt whenever I was with Bradley. He was home to me. And now, I was losing the only home I had ever known.”

Demi compares her feelings for Bradley with feeling comfortable and safe in a house of her own. Her history of being unhoused and imprisoned causes her to see Bradley as a source of safety. When he goes to work for Mason, Demi feels as though she has lost her home.

“The problem with lives that were always trying to sink you below a treacherous, dangerous flood is that you never know if someone out there shining a light down at you is throwing you a life raft to save you or to simply tease you with a punctured one to prolong your suffering.”

In this quote, Arya uses a metaphor that compares living in poverty with sinking in a flood. Rich people sometimes help poor people, but their help can sometimes take the form of mockery. The rich pretend that they are offering poor people a chance of survival, but it is only a joke for their entertainment.

“It was strange having it cut this short. I felt like an entirely new person. I was a new person.”

Demi’s hair changes along with her character. Over the course of the novel, she has it cut and dyed blonde twice; this quote is after the second bob cut. This haircutting foreshadows how Demi’s character goes from rejecting the Ivory family business to, at the end of the novel, taking over their business in the Bahamas.

“I have to be the favorite girl, because that’s the only way I’ll never be a caged girl.”

The two options that Demi has are being imprisoned in a cell or being trapped in a marriage. She chooses marrying Conrad over allowing Ian to imprison her. At the end of the novel, she redefines what it means to be a “favorite girl”—it becomes a business position instead of a position as a fiancée.

“I wasn’t the favorite girl. I was just the next best thing to Layla. But she fell for Trent, her captor. Our captor.”

This is another example of Demi’s shifting identity; she learns that she is a replacement for Layla. In other words, Conrad accepted Demi as his bride after Trent had sex with Layla. Demi’s identity had shifted to become the favorite girl, but she learns that she never was his favorite

“I took a seat and looked down at the rice, plain yogurt, and a boiled egg, meticulously cleaned of the yolk.”

It is with this meal on his boat that Bradley reveals who he truly is and what he wants from Demi. This all-white food is the beginning of the white-therapy he wants her to endure. Whiteness again symbolizes the Ivory family’s notions of purity.

“Feathers are crucial for a bird because it helps them stay hidden and to blend in with their surroundings. That way they can protect themselves from predators. My love, blending in is a good thing. It’s the safest thing.”

Bradley gives Demi a necklace with a “diamond encrusted feather” (376). This passage develops the symbolism of birds as representing dehumanization and imprisonment. Bradley wants Demi to fit in, or conform, as his pet.