First-Person Fiction

Of the many things different in this story from the others—the present tense, a child narrator—one of them is the fairytale elements. There are several moments throughout the story that invokes the fairytale. On page 274, Urszula tells Waldemar “You look like a witch” when he places a blanket over his head. Urszula and Waldemar—a boy and a girl near in age—live in a house in the forest with their mother, an old woman. As Urszula says, “The room where Waldemar and I sleep looks out into the forest.” These two children are akin to the story of Hansel and Gretel, also a boy and a girl who, though they don’t live in the forest, do get lost in it and are taken captive by an old woman/a witch. Furthermore, the mother of Urszula and Waldemar bakes several sweet goods: “For breakfast the woman gives us bowls of warm fresh yogurt and warm fresh bread and tea with sugar and lemon, and…a slice of onion cooked in honey.” Therefore, she can be seen as the witch figure. Keeping with the Hansel and Gretel story, the poisoned berries the children eat are parallel with the bread crumbs. The narrator Urszula mentions when she eats the berries that “they are soft and cold. If I snag one on my fang, goop spills out and tastes bitter, like the poison that it is.” If we look at the word “fang” this brings to mind a wolf, specifically the one from Little Red Riding Hood. In addition, seemingly healthy food is always fatal in the fairytales, such as with the red apple in Snow White; the berries can also be seen in this context. They are, after all, what Urszula intends to use to weaken Jarek Jaskolka enough so she can kill him.

A collection of fairytales

When Urszula goes to Jarek Jaskolka’s house, she describes him this way: “When he moves away from the window, his fingernails tap against the glass. They are long and yellow like an ogre’s.” Again, the word “ogre” invokes the fairytale. We once again touch on the witch figure when Urszula pulls “a big black pot from the cupboard.” Later on, she says that “I light a fire on the stove and set the pot on the flame…I stir the berries…the only light comes from a few lone stars through the darkened windows and the blue fire from the burner.” In this case, the narrator becomes the witch character laboring over her black pot mixing up a magic brew. Furthermore, the premise of the story wherein a child takes it upon themselves to kill the villain can be seen in Hansel and Gretel, but more importantly in Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack outwits the giant and is the cause of his death when he hacks down the beanstalk. In some adaptations, the giant is also described as an ogre. Urszula described Jarek Jaskolka in this way and in the end of the story, she plans to outwit him and kill him with a knife. In addition, in the fairytales the children are often warned against doing something by an adult, and when they succumb to their curiosity, they find themselves in danger. There is a hint to this when Jarek’s sister tells Urszula that “curious girls get what they deserve.” Lastly, as in all fairytales there is magic, and a magician makes an appearance in this story but Urszula understands how he does his tricks.

Despite the fairytale elements, this story is still uniquely Ottessa Moshfegh. Though but a child, the narrator is like her other narrators—there is something about her life she hates. In this case, Urszula sees no potential for betterment in the world, and she firmly believes she will be happy somewhere other than earth. Everything about her present condition she dislikes, and she finds numerous faults with the people around her—she never calls her mother “Mother” or “Mom”, but simply “the woman.”  Though she clearly loves her brother, he is not enough for her to stay. For her own peace of mind, she must leave. Ottessa writes this story from the perspective of a child, I think, because she knows bad things and emotions are not limited to adults. Children, in fact, are even more susceptible to them. And where is this more apparent than in fairytales? Bad things always happen to the children. There is no clear ending to “A Better Place,” not one we would read in a fairytale. The story ends before the action, as they often do with Ottessa’s work. And since “A Better Place” is written in the present, we don’t know if Urszula lives or dies. This is just another interesting aspect both of this story and Ottessa’s writing.