Characters

The most important character in the short story “My Girl in Skin-Tight Jeans” by William Boyd is the unnamed narrator. Since the story is entirely seen through his eyes, the other characters – Luke, Loretta, and the three men from out of town - are not given much focus, suggesting that their importance to the narrator is small. The narrator’s superficial relationship with the other people in the story and his perception of them show his intolerance and perceived moral superiority. He judges other people based on his own preconceived notions and only based on appearances.

Loretta is described as “an overweight red-rinsed whore” (p. 95, ll. 24-25), and the three young men are described using similarly unfavorable terms such as “with a pimp’s moustachio” (p. 96, l. 28), “wearing worn out sharpie clothes.” (p. 97, ll. 2-3). It takes only one vulgar gesture that the narrator witnesses to label them as “...filth. City scum degenerates, just drifting up the coast in a hot car looking for cheap kicks.” (p. 97, ll. 18-20).

In contrast, the narrator thinks that the girl in the ad has a “rare, remarkable personality” (p. 94, l. 26), based on nothing except the way she looks in one picture. This proves that the narrator is unwilling to get to know real people better, instead choosing to focus on shallow fantasies which cannot prove him wrong, such as the girl in the billboard ad. The narrator’s poor social interactions and mental instability lead to the conflict with the three men from out of town and ends in tragedy. The narrator’s relationship with the other characters in the story is symbolic of his own inner conflict.

You can find the narrator's full characterization in the next pages.