The Necklace

In class, we read a short story called The Necklace.  I liked the message of this story.   It taught that it is necessary to be comfortable with yourself.  Don't try to be someone your not.

The main character in the story got an invitation to a formal party.  She didn't want to go to this party because it would be full of rich people and she was not rich.  She didn't feel she would fit in.  She told her husband she wasn't going to go to this party because she didn't have any clothes that would be formal enough to go to this party.  Her husband bought her nice clothes.  She then felt that it was not complete.  She needed some sort of jewel.  She didn't have the money to purchase one, so she borrowed a jewel necklace from her friend.  She loved it and felt that she would now fit in at the formal.  She went to the party and loved it.  She ended up losing the necklace, and spent 10 years working to get the money to purchase a new one just like it to give back to her friend.  After all that hard work, it turns out that the necklace was counterfeit, or had fake jewels.  It was only worth about 300 francs whereas the one she bought was 36,000 francs.

Basically, just because the main character wasn't comfortable with herself, she wasted 10 years working to repay her loss.  If she was comfortable in her own skin she would have been fine, and none of the tragedy would have occurred.