Book Review: The Necklace

Why was The Necklace written? The necklace was written to expose human emotional tendencies and lead us to self-reflection. In the story, we see common emotions, that all humans have, and what they commonly lead to. I see this story as a satire because it is comical, in a dark way, to see the mind traps that we fall into. Even though The Necklace is short in length, its depth is not. So many layers are in this story it is difficult to not let your mind meander a bit in the middle of reading it and ask yourself “Why did/do I feel like I am not good enough?”
“Nothing. Only I have no clothes, and in consequence, I cannot go to this party. Give your card to some colleague whose wife has a better outfit than I.” This is what Mme. Loisel said as soon as her husband, who she thought was not good enough, told her that she was invited to a grand ball. So, to appease his wife M. Loisel gives her money for a new dress. Mme. Loisel gets a new dress and still needs more. She borrows a fake diamond necklace that she believes to be real and then she feels like she is enough to go. She goes to the ball and has a ball, but she ends up losing the necklace that she had borrowed. The Loisel’s scramble to gather as much money from lenders to find the nicest diamond necklace to give to the necklace lender as a replacement. Once gathered they buy a replacement and return the necklace to the lender. The lender did not even realize they had switched the two. They must then work for the next ten years in back breaking labor to finally pay off whatever loans they took out for the necklace to only find out that the necklace was a fake all along.
Two core human tendencies are exposed here: greed and fear. Mme. Loisel fears that she is not good enough to go to the ball with her dress. M. Loisel fears to lose his wife so he throws money at her to try and fix her problems. Mme. Loisel is greedy when she thinks she needs more than a new dress. These common tendencies are found everywhere in the world and happen every day in our daily lives. The author recognized that a story gives us the ability to experience greed and fear from the third person and give us the opportunity to self-reflect and avoid this tendency follow these emotions.