Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk

Lillian determines not to go through Washington Square Park because “at night it fills like a horrible candy box with pimps and hookers, with drug dealers and their clients” (100). During the day, she still enjoys eating her lunch there and recalls that on one such day she met Wendy, an aspiring photographer. Wendy introduced herself and asked to take Lillian’s picture. After chatting about poetry and photography, Lillian took Wendy for lunch and discovered that she likes having a young friend. Lillian admires Wendy, “whose Ohio parents raised her to be too humble, in my estimation, but just the right degree of courteous” because she is in many ways a younger version of herself: an artist, living on her own in New York City (105). The fact that Lillian likes dressing up carefully when she sees Wendy prompts her to begin thinking about the way people present themselves and their relationships, an idea that is connected to the concept of advertising. Wendy does not wear a wedding ring, but ironically, Lillian herself still does, and she notes that such symbols “do not always mean what they seem to symbolize” (106).

As Lillian walks, she recalls that Wendy has invited her to a New Year’s Eve party, and she tries to imagine what such a party would look like, finding the thought of her octogenarian self in its midst ridiculous.