The Guest

The Guest is a novel about being an outsider and a survivor. Alex, the protagonist, has lost control of her life. She has alienated her friends and clients, been kicked out of her apartment, and done something to anger a dangerous man called Dom. Alex’s job is purposely left unclear, but Cline suggests that Alex moved to New York to model and ended up in sex work. Alex sees Simon as her last chance to fix the financial mess she’s gotten herself into, but she knows that Simon wouldn’t be interested in her if he knew her real identity, so she pretends to be someone she’s not, introducing the theme of Illusion and Deception Masquerading as Truth. In this world, no one is particularly interested in the truth so long as the illusion is pleasing.

Another secret Cline keeps is what Alex has done to anger Dom. Dom is the invisible antagonist in the novel. His constant texts unnerve Alex, who believes him to be extremely dangerous, and his threats to come after her heighten the dramatic stakes. Later it will be suggested that Alex stole money and drugs from him, but for now Cline only alludes to her conflict with Dom, just as she alludes to Alex’s sex work. Alex is shrouded in secrecy, in terms of both the plot and her characterization.

Alex is an outsider in Simon’s exclusive world. He is wealthy and powerful, as are his friends. Simon doesn’t know that Alex is a sex worker, and it’s not the type of relationship that he would want. For Simon, Alex is a young and beautiful woman , valuable insofar as she makes him look and feel good. Alex’s tenuous status in Simon’s life reveals the complicated relationship between Gender and Power Dynamics: Alex’s gender and femininity give her access to a world that would otherwise remain closed to her, but they also confine her, dictating how she behaves, how she relates to others, and how she expresses herself.

Simon takes her out to what is clearly the Hamptons, an exclusive getaway for wealthy New Yorkers. Alex craves luxury but is also intimidated by it and unaccustomed to it. The novel begins with tension because Alex is so at odds with her surroundings, and it quickly becomes clear that she will not be able to keep up her facade. In literature, the figure of the outsider is used as a lens through which the author can interrogate social norms or myths that otherwise go unquestioned. Alex may be hard to pin down as a character, but her experiences in the Hamptons open the door for literary analysis on Social Class and Power, including the people who make the world turn for the wealthy. For example, only Alex notices the servers and staff members who cater to the wealthy. As Lori herself says, Simon couldn’t function without her. Alex, like Lori, also provides a service for Simon. People like Lori and Alex are underappreciated by wealthy people like Simon, whose wealth makes them feel entitled to service.

Bodies of water are an important symbol in these chapters. Alex swims whenever she can, even when it is inappropriate to do so. The water is a calming environment for her. While swimming in the ocean, Alex reflects that she feels like a better person. The ocean and the physicality of swimming make Alex feel like part of something bigger than herself, and provide a temporary escape from the extremely stressful problems she must deal with on land. The water is also a rare space in which Alex can feel equal to others. Her hyperawareness that she doesn’t fit in with her larger society makes her self-isolate and lean in to her false appearances. But in the water, no one notices her as different. The water is a safe and cleansing space in which Alex is fully present and acceptable to herself. When Alex swims against the riptide and saves herself, Cline reveals through metaphor that Alex is a fighter and can fend for herself. Her early brush with death may also help explain her reckless flirting with Victor at the party—right before they enter the pool, she tells him, “I almost drowned today” (53).

At the end of Chapter 3, Alex is presented with a major conflict. She can’t return to New York because she owes money on her apartment and is therefore not welcome, and she is desperate to avoid Dom. Now that Simon has kicked her out, Alex has nowhere to go. Notably, this conflict comes about because Alex flirts with Victor, despite knowing it’s “dangerous.” She reflects, “A bad idea had its own relentless logic, a momentum that was queasy but also correct” (54). She feels driven to do the worst thing she could possibly do in this situation, ruining everything she has worked for with Simon. In so doing, she sets her journey in motion. Her goal is survival, but it is evident she will also have to contend with an impulse for self-sabotage.