Narrative Messages Part 1

Despite the fact that they have several dates, Eric remains a man of honor, treating her lovingly and kindly. Even after she springs her "surprise" on him, and he discovers that she is a shemale, he considers her to be beautiful and continues to treat her with respect and compassion. A year later, he is still treating her with the tenderness and gentleness of love.

The story's theme is expressed in the next-to-the-last paragraph of the story:

"She'd found her salvation in the arms of a strong, virile, tenderhearted man who loved her for herself, and she knew that she was luckier than millions of others who settled for less because, like her, they feared that there was no one else for them but some loser who would rather beat them than to love them. Really, truly loving a woman, whether she was a genetic girl or a shemale, took a strong man who was sure of his own manhood and who loved women, whether the woman was equipped with a cunt or a cock and pair of balls."

The story's last line (and paragraph) declares, "Diane had been at risk, but she wasn't anymore."

How was she at risk? Physically. She was often brutally beaten. She could have been killed. However, she was at risk emotionally, too. She had low-self esteem, and she hated herself, despite her self0deceptive insistence that "she was proud to be a shemale." She was suicidal, which is why she liked to "surprise" men with the true nature of her sexuality. She was also spiritually at risk. She was likely to live the lie she told herself (believing-or trying to believe-that she was "proud to be a shemale"). Living a lie is self-destructive on a spiritual as well as an emotional and physical level, this story implies, for, in living a lie, one is destroying oneself. One never allows herself to be what she is, and, therefore, in any true sense of the word, to live. One may kill one's spirit as well as one's flesh.

This story also shows that true love, not mere lust, is the key to one's salvation. As long as a person "settles" for less than true love, she need not hope of finding the one thing that really matters-love itself.