Drinking Coffee Elsewhere Character Analysis

In the novel, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer, multiple lead characters go through an event or change in their life which leads to a loss of innocence. Through physical & mental beatings, sex, rape and teen pregnancy characters develop a hardened and altered character to the one previously know. Characters grow up before our eyes as they move from a sheltered and known life to situations that are both foreign and dangerous. Characters discover the side of the world that is cold, unforgiving and after deeper investigation, a side that has now become their reality. Although stories like Drinking Coffee Elsewhere (which describes the character's transition and experiences at Yale), Brownies (brownie troop of girls learn about ableism …show more content…
She moves in Japan in order to find work due to the lack of opportunities in the states. Although she is first offered a job to sweep floors she turns that down. She is unable to find a job and is forced to move into a tiny apartment with two other foreign roommates. they being to become desperate and hungry as they steal train tickets and food and when worst comes to worst, they kill and eat a goose from a local park. Dani realizes that a lot of Japanese businessmen look at her as an exotic women and she is propositioned for sex or hit on many times while riding the subway. in an act of desperation Dani becomes a prostitute to sustain her life and get her out of this impoverished time. Throughout the story, Dani begins thinking about the motives of WWII Japanese Kamikaze pilots and ponders the notion that “in the all-knowing arrogance of youth--she’d been certain that given the same circumstances, she would have done something different” (233). This in my opinion is the deepest and most intriguing quote in the entire novel. She ponders why the pilots would kill themselfs in the name of the country. Why they would sacrifice their own life and break lifes most resolute rule, live. Towards the beginning of the novel she is taken back by thant and claims that she would find a way around it becuase there must be …show more content…
A small town christian girl by the name of Tia is one of two people in her sunday school class who cannot speak in tongues. Although she has her doubts about religion she goes along with it so she doesn’t become an outsider or ostracized in her small christian community. She doesn’t outwardly criticize the church but instead draws cartoons making fun of the teachings. The most Tia knows of non normal behavior comes from the black girls who “sexily lay their backs against the wall,” and white girls who “traded pocket mirrors, lipsticking themselves like four-year-olds determined to crayon one spot to a waxy patch.” (182) During a speaking in tongues session she accidentally laughs while faking and is sent to a closet like detention room. She then runs away Atlanta to find her mother who lives there and struggles with addiction. In Atlanta she meets a prostitute names Marie and a pimp named Dezi, these characters will act as a catalyst of her loss of innocence. The two main events that lead to the loss of innocence is her first sexual experience with Dezi, which lead to an earth shattering experience, and when Dezi proceeds to beat the living shit out of Tia. The sex with Dezi, as is the case with most teenagers, was one of the greatest experiences of her young life. After years of attending church and trying to obtain spiritual wholeness, she feels more enlightened and energized than any tongue