The author uses dialogue to show us that Dina’s identity struggles go beyond race and into her social class. Here the author clearly shows that Dina find in Heidi a person to trust in. At some point, her friend Heidi manages to convince her to leave her room to at least eat at commons.
#DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE SPARKNOTES HOW TO#
She is a reticent person, individualistic and doesn’t know how to act in front of others. It is evident Dina is determinate to spend all her years of college locked up in her dorm. ZZ Packer shows us Dina intentionally used the word “revolver” to intimidate the students and to keep them away from her, but also that it was an unconscious way to segregate herself by associating an object -with such as negative connotation like a weapon - with her. When it is Dina’s turn she says “if I had to be any object, I guess I’ve be a revolver” (Packer 106). In one of the games the students are playing they are asked to point out inanimate objects that they would want to be. From the first paragraphs of the story, it seems that the protagonist’s main purpose is to become an outcast. However, the main conflict develops when Dina starts segregating herself from others. As a person of color, you shouldn’t have to fit into any white, patriarchal system” (Packer 106). Once Dina arrives at Yale, ZZ Packer shows there is some sort of racial insensitivity on campus when the white counselor says to Dina during the orientation games “you don’t have to play this game. Packer uses comparison to contrast the characters of Dina and Heidi and tells us they have similarities: they both passed through similar situations and felt rejected. Heidi was also rejected and an object of ridicule, because people thought she was promiscuous. ZZ Packer uses dialogue to show us Diana’s identity crisis when she tells Heidi she’s a misanthrope she doesn’t like girls or boys (Packer 110). When Dina meets Heidi, a white student that later on becomes her friend, the author reveals the identity crisis the main character has. The main themes of the story are identity crisis and self segregation. In the story “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere”, ZZ Packer show us the main character Dina, a black student at Yale, who wants to be excluded from society and tries to isolate herself from everyone and everything to contain her miserable state of mind, and not try to engage with the outside world or find a way to fit in the student community.
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