I keep thinking love should be like a tree.

I have a moon mask. There are pictures, but... no.

1. What is the significance of Zoë's many eccentricities--for instance, her keeping all her pocketbook items in Baggies, and her unusual way of interacting with her students. Does her eccentricity make her more or less sympathetic as a character.

I personally got the vibe that those are defense mechanisms, but that's the second time I've used Psychology in AP Lit analysis this semester, and it makes me uncomfortable. (<--four syllables.)

But especially on page. 357, something struck me as sort of self-defense against her own... distress. "Usually the wives would consent to flirt with him. Under the table sometimes there was footsie, and once there was even kneesie." If we consider that the point of view is third-person limited, we know that "kneesie" is Zoë's terminology. It's followed closely after she admits that the third of the three men she's seen since coming to Hilldale-Versailles used to flirt with other women right in front of her. She's trying to lighten the mood. She doesn't want the audience zeroing in on her weaker Heidi points. Thus, she acts like a weirdo. Except I don't know what the Baggies thing is all about. I think she just likes Baggies, and she feels self conscious about it, but not enough so to stop using them.

Therefore, I think her eccentricity makes her more sympathetic as a character. But I still don't like her.