“Dancing in the Moonlight” features Moshfegh’s specialty: a deeply insecure narrator. This narrator is unlike her other insecure uglies in the way that he is not ugly at all. The narrator in “Dancing in the Moonlight” cares about their appearance more than anything on the planet.
Most of the shenanigans that take place in this story are a result of the narrator’s desire to protect/create his desired self image. He fills his life with expensive things, clothing in particular, in order for people to see him the say he wants to be seen. He even knows that it’s a problem- “Plus, I was always broke. I kept spending all my money on clothes.” He’s aware of his intense focus on his looks and need to tailor other people’s perception of him He says his long “Jesus hair” keeps him from looking like a tool. He describes searching hours on the internet for an ottoman that “conveyed what I want to convey: I lived in an expensive converted loft, had a very high-quality camera, and was an organized and broad minded aficionado and reader of literature.”
However, what’s most interesting about this story is that although the narrator can see his problem, only readers can understand where it came from. It’s clear that his family is also concerned about appearances. His dad has a new young wife and takes fancy vacations, he paid for his son to go to Yale. He straight up tells his son to focus on his career and that “women are attracted to money.” This in itself could explain why the narrator acts the way he does.
But it goes deeper than that. The narrator’s need to be attractive and appear to be the perfect package goes deeper than just wanting to get women. He navigates his life with such separation for love and human contact. Even during his sexual fantasies with Britt he imagines her professing her love for him. He goes to insane lengths just to keep the idea of a future with someone- in this case some random girl named Britt- alive. He puts up a facade just in hopes that someone will love him because of it
This severely affect him, he also believes that every other person is also pretending. He accuses a friend at a party of putting a glove on the “invisible hand of selflessness.” He doesn’t believe anyone could do anything good, unless they were doing it for appearance.
That’s why the ending of the story is so perfect. It finishes with the image of two lovers, the main character’s next door neighbors, hugging. Despite all of their wordly things burning up in a fire. Exactly what the narrator craves more than anything.