You

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2014

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-30

Chapters 31-40

Chapters 41-53

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Obsession and Delusion

Obsession is a major theme in the novel. The protagonist and narrator is a man prone to obsessions, to the point where the narration itself addresses the object of his obsession—hence the novel’s title, You. Joe’s fixation drives him to heinous actions which he then dedicates to Beck. In his mind, he is helping her and improving her life; this shows how his obsessions lead to delusion, breaking him from reality. To Joe, stealing a woman’s phone and using her private emails to stalk her for months is an act of love. His obsession masks reality, and he stalks, hurts, and kills anyone who stands between him and his fantasy. His obsession reduces Beck to an object, turning her from a person into a possession.

However, Joe’s obsession is built on a shifting reality. The obsession develops from the first moment he sees her in his bookstore. He knows nothing about Beck beyond her surface aesthetics: he knows about her clothes, her conversation, and her literary tastes—but this is enough for Joe to become obsessed, and he fills in the gaps of his knowledge with his own desires and assumptions. Beck becomes a blank slate onto which Joe can project his idea of an ideal woman. When the real Beck diverges from his imagined Beck, Joe is angry and promises to teach her how to become more like his imaginary ideal. There are real, fatal consequences. Benji, Peach, and Beck are all casualties of his obsession. Joe, too, suffers; he is never able to obtain the phantom Beck of his fantasy.

Joe is not alone, however. Other characters share his obsessions, even if they do not mirror his actions. Peach is obsessed with Beck, and she indulges in her own manipulative behavior. Similarly, Karen is obsessed with Joe. In both cases, the characters are obsessed with something they can never have. The difference, however, is that Peach and Karen do not allow their obsessions to manifest violence. Joe is defined by his indulgence of his obsessions, violating trust and privacy in pursuit of a woman who does not really exist. Joe is not unique because he is obsessive. Rather, Joe is unique because he embraces his obsession at the expense of everything else.

The Public Versus the Private World

The tension between the public world and the private world is a key theme in the novel. Characters present a public version of themselves that differs substantially from the version of themselves they keep private. Joe’s narration exemplifies this tension. While his narration is directed at Beck, she is never able to read or hear it. The narration remains private, becoming the space in which Joe allows himself to indulge his most extreme fantasies, knowing that expressing them in public would lead to condemnation. His descriptions of public settings are interspersed with his private fantasies; as he describes a normal social situation in public, he cannot help but inject a sexual comment that is reserved only for the private narration. To the outside world, Joe is a regular person. In his internal narration, he is not bound by any social conventions. He imagines sex, violence, and all manner of transgressions but mostly allows these thoughts to remain private. The tension between Joe’s private and public selves manifests in his violence against others. Sometimes, Joe’s private reality spills over into the public world. When this happens, people get hurt.

While Joe understands enough to keep his private self hidden, he lacks any understanding of others’ privacy. He steals Beck’s phone not long after meeting her and he uses it to read all her private emails. Being able to read Beck’s private messages is like being able to see her inner-self, the version of herself that she keeps hidden from the world. Joe compares the version of Beck that she puts on public social media platforms with the private version of herself that she limits to emails, stories, and journal entries. The contrast gives him a better understanding of Beck as a person, but his violation shows his fundamental lack of empathy. Joe has no qualms about his violating behaviors. In fact, he believes that by taking away Beck’s privacy, he is helping her to fall in love with him. This is an intimate offense and a violation of consent.

Joe does not just invade people’s privacy. He also invades their homes. Joe breaks into numerous properties throughout the course of the novel and never feels any guilt for doing so. When he illegally enters people’s homes, he is occasionally able to spy on their most private moments. He steals Beck’s underwear and watches her have sex. When he breaks into Peach’s beach house, he views an intimate moment between Peach and Beck that was never intended to be made public. In this moment, Peach reveals her private romantic obsession with Beck and makes herself more vulnerable than she ever would in public. While Joe’s narration might not find any issue with blurring the lines between the private and the public, the events he witnesses show that other people maintain an idea about the privacy of their own homes. Joe becomes a voyeur, transgressing social boundaries and illicitly glimpsing hidden moments.

New Versus Old

A repeated contrast in You is the split between new and old things. Joe is an admirer of old and outdated things. His apartment is old and run down, filled with antique typewriters and recycled furniture. He likes old books and has been taught from a young age that these old books have a special value. Joe also rejects modern phenomena like social media, though he is not averse to using it to further his goals. He does not maintain a social media presence, for example, but he uses social media to stalk his victims. Likewise, he appreciates traditional gender roles. He views himself as the strong and stoic man, and he imagines Beck as the deferential and supportive housewife. Joe is an admirer of tradition but only in instances where this benefits him; like his use of social media or other technology, he is willing to embrace new things only for his own advantage, which hints at his hypocrisy.

In contrast to Joe, Beck likes new things. She purchases her furniture in cheap stores, preferring anything cheap and new to anything old and more substantial. When bored, Beck buys things she does not need and quickly becomes bored with them. This hollow consumerism is an attempt to address her loneliness and insecurity. She always hopes that the new purchase or the next new thing in her life will finally offer her happiness and a sense of completion. In addition, Beck’s love of the new is a natural counterpoint to Joe’s preference for anything old. While Joe spends the novel explaining why he and Beck are meant to be together, such a fundamental aesthetic difference suggests that they are not so well matched.

Beck’s appreciation of anything new extends to her romantic interests. Whether she is thinking about kitchen appliances or romantic partners, she only likes the beginnings of things. In terms of her romantic partners, the ability to pique someone’s romantic interest provides Beck with validation. She never thinks about her long-term prospects: Benji, Joe, and Dr. Nicky are all unsuitable partners for a variety of reasons, but she feels the need to be with them. This validation is only temporary, and Beck quickly becomes disillusioned. She clings to Benji the longest because he shows the least amount of interest in her, meaning that she is always looking for novel ways to attract him. By beginning new relationships, she can give herself a sense of worth—but this feeling is only ever temporary, and Beck is forced to search for a new source of validation.