Enid’s Doppelganger

Throughout the story Enid is the main focus, and Rebecca is secondary to her. Enid goes around telling past stories and creating new ones, and Rebecca follows her. In this way, Rebecca is Enid’s doppelganger.

For the most part, Rebecca just listens to Enid’s stories instead of contributing her own. Right off at the beginning of the novel, Enid tells a story about John Ellis and the ex-Catholic priest. After only minor commentary from Rebecca, she jumps into another story, about the supposed Satanist couple, and then goes on to tell about her first encounter with Bob Skeets. Rebecca also has very little room for comment here, and is hesitant to agree to Enid’s idea of calling Bob Skeets. Readers can see that this sort of reaction from Rebecca is normal, and maybe even expected by Enid. She objects to Rebecca’s hesitation with, “’Okay…maybe…’ God, you’re such a drag!”(pg 14), but does not force Rebecca to change her opinion or be more decisive. This expectation is apparent at other points in the story as well. Another time Rebecca and Enid are on the phone, having an average back and forth conversation, when Enid interrupts to tell Rebecca a story she was telling another girl; one which Rebecca already knows. After the story, they change the subject again immediately, without much addition form Rebecca, and the scene ends. Enid first asks Rebecca to tell her story, but she protests slightly so Enid went along and told her own. At this point in the story, one may begin to notice that Enid just likes the sound of her own voice and Rebecca is used to that.

Another aspect that makes Rebecca like Enid’s doppelganger is the way in which she emulates Enid, to an extent. She has similar reactions to Enid in some events, and usually reacts after Enid as if to see what Enid does first. When they see the Satanist couple at the grocery store, they both react to the contents of the cart by saying a form of “Oh my god”, but Rebecca’s words seem to be a more muted version, while Enid exclaims it loudly and laughs upon seeing them. Rebecca also behaves like Enid, or like she expects Enid would, the first time they are in the Hubba Hubba Diner. When they see the personal add, she suggests that they call the man and play a trick on him, much like Enid did with Bob Skeets when she called and accused him of “not fooling anybody” etc. Rebecca has seen this behavior in Enid before, so she knows that Enid will agree with the new idea. Also, Enid kind of takes the project on as her own after Rebecca suggests it; first calling the man and later feeling bad for him when it is done. This leaves Rebecca in the background again, where she seems to belong.

After some time has passed, it is revealed that Enid may be moving far away, to go to school. When Rebecca finds out that Enid is leaving, she feels lost. She suggests that maybe she should follow Enid, and get a job in the area. Enid is taken aback by the idea, and Rebecca immediately takes this as a rejection. Enid sees herself as her own person, and may not realize that Rebecca is so connected to her and won’t know what to do without her. When Enid asks if Rebecca will drive with her to the school, Rebecca does not want to, and this may be because she feels like she will be contributing to the loss of her friend.

Towards the end of the story, the relationship between Enid and Rebecca begins to change. Rebecca voices her own opinions, and disagrees with Enid at times. She even starts an argument. She gets mad at Enid for not telling her about the college entrance exam, and all of the bad feelings she had been having about the friendship seem to come up and burst out. The root of the problem comes out when she says “Maybe I’m just sick of putting more into this friendship than I get out of it” (pg. 57). She goes on to say that she is always the one that calls Enid, and although Enid denies this, she brings up another valid point. “Practically everything you’ve ever done is because of me! I feel like I practically have to tell you what to do!” (pg. 57). This shows that she is realizing how much Rebecca is connected to her; and at the same time could be the exact point where that starts to change and their relationship as a whole begins to disintegrate.

After the fight, Rebecca begins to do things without Enid, partially to show that she is moving on. She sleeps with Josh, which Enid had done recently, and then she starts a relationship with him. She also gets her own job. When she sees Enid at the end of the book, she is not excited to see her, and her suggestions for future plans seem halfhearted. Enid is no longer planning to leave, but the relationship has already changed and it seems too late to recover. At the end, readers assume that Enid and Rebecca go their separate ways and Rebecca grows into her own person, no longer the ghost of a friend.

John has changed into a business man, aspiring to become, in his words, a “big-ass corporate f***”. He is not the type of person that either Enid or Rebecca would like to be in the future. At first, he was a “skinhead junkie”, which neither of the girls want to be; and now he is studying to work in the corporate world. This is another direction that Enid and Rebecca do not want to go in as they enter adulthood.