Diary of an Oxygen Thief

After the narrator’s breakup with Pen, he decides he will hurt other girls, in order to make them feel the same pain he feels, which he describes as manifesting physically: “A burning sensation in my chest as if a large smoldering boulder had somehow lodged there overnight” (21). The narrator reflects on each new discomfort he feels, filing the pain away like a scientist. He calls Pen,needing to hate her, but she doesn’t answer.

He meets a twenty-five-year-old teacher from Ireland who is engaged to be married and is embarrassed that she is still a virgin. He thinks of her fiancé and decides to leave her hymen intact but ensure that she will think of him every time she has sex with her husband-to-be. He performs cunnilingus on her for hours and masturbates her, careful not to break her hymen.

He meets Lizzie, “freshly jilted from a long-term relationship and […] very delicate” (24). Lizzie later leaves a message saying the narrator raped her, which the narrator denies in the physical sense, although he believes he might have done so emotionally. He reflects on his alcoholism and karma.

His work as a freelance ad artist is unstable, and so to get more money for

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now