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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in One Day, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships and Time
Social Class
Coming of Age and the Search for Meaning
Addiction and Recovery
Summary
Analysis
Wednesday, July 15, 1998. Dexter falls in love with a woman named Sylvie Cope. She’s blonde, and unlike his other girlfriends, he finds her “dead classy.” At dinner one night with Sylvie and her family, he decides that he needs to tell Sylvie “I love you,” something he’s never said before, at least not while sober and on purpose. Sylvie’s family asks about his job, and Dexter says he’s still trying to get some new shows commissioned. Sylvie’s twin brothers Murray and Sam bring up largin’ it, and Mrs. Cope remembers that she used to hate it.
The introduction of Sylvie flips the class dynamics of the story. Suddenly, Dexter is the one who has to grapple with what it feels like to be around someone who comes from a more cultured, aristocratic background. Additionally, after years of having success come naturally to him, he now has to meet his new girlfriend’s family and explain to them that he is essentially unemployed at the moment.
Themes
Sylvie says Dexter is being modest and could have a new TV show whenever he wants—he’s just waiting for the right offer. But in fact, Dexter’s life has gotten quieter, and Mayhem TV is still little more than a logo. He gets fewer offers to do promotions and even the conga player from Jamiroquai has stopped calling him. Still, he’s happy because he found Sylvie and they’ve started a habit of going on “mini-breaks,” his name for their spontaneous weekend trips.
Dexter’s waning TV career shows the dangers of staking everything on youth-oriented programs—he will eventually age out of being able to work as a presenter. The “mini-breaks” that Dexter takes with Sylvie show that rather than trying to reckon with this new phase of his life, Dexter instead tries to avoid thinking about it, as he so often has in the past.
Themes
Dexter likes that he likes Sylvie more than she probably likes him, seeing her as self-confident and ambitious. After dinner with Sylvie’s family, Dexter helps her load dishes into the dishwasher. He tells her he doesn’t think Murray and Sam like him much, but Sylvie says they don’t much like anyone else. She says she can’t wait to go to bed with him later and doesn’t care if anyone hears them. Dexter likes sex with Sylvie but finds it intimidating and afterward, he feels like he lost a game of squash.
Dexter’s realization that he likes Sylvie more than she likes him shows that he is making tentative steps toward opening himself up to others, rather than only having the shallow relationships that he’s had in the past, where he avoided intimacy to avoid getting hurt. But Sylvie’s distant attitude, even during sex, suggests that she might not be the right fit for Dexter, even though many of her qualities seem ideal to him.
Themes
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Dexter and Sylvie go to the living room, where Sam and Murray suggest playing a game of “Are You There, Moriarty?” The game involves one person being blindfolded and trying to hit another with a rolled-up newspaper. Sam goes first against Dexter and manages to hit him three times with the newspaper, not gently. Mrs. Cope wishes Dexter better luck next time, but he thinks they’re all enjoying his humiliation. The tournament continues. Dexter notices that Sylvie is very good at dodging.
The game “Are You There, Moriarty?” is an example of how upper-class British life seems polite on the surface but has brutality lurking underneath it. The game, which involves Dexter being hit painfully, helps him realize how he might not fit in with the cutthroat social world of Sylvie and her family. The game also shows how important social status is among the upper class, where humiliating others and avoiding humiliation are important.
Themes
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Sylvie offers Dexter a chance to “bat” against her, even though he lost. Dexter is eager to prove himself, so shortly after he puts on the blindfold, he swings like a baseball player. He makes contact, then sees that he hit Sylvia across the room. Sylvie is bleeding, and Mrs. Cope yells that Dexter didn’t even say “Are you there, Moriarty?” like he’s supposed to. Sam says Dexter must be drunk. Sylvie and Mrs. Cope go to the bathroom, leaving Dexter alone with the rest of the Cope family.
Dexter’s wild swing at Sylvie shows how he doesn’t understand the purpose of the game. It’s also another sign of how he isn’t in control of his life (perhaps due to alcohol). The way that Dexter makes Sylvie bleed shows that he doesn’t know his own strength and his own power to hurt other people, something that is also relevant to his relationship with Emma.
Themes
That night, Dexter apologizes to Sylvie in bed. She tries to reassure him that her family liked him before he hit her. They don’t have sex, but Dexter feels more at peace now. All of a sudden, Dexter feels a strange desire to laugh. He’d like to tell the story to Emma, whom he hasn’t seen in two years.
Sylvie clearly lies to Dexter when she says that her family liked him at the beginning of the night. On some level perhaps Dexter realizes this but doesn’t see a problem with living a lie. His thought of Emma, however, reminds him that maybe there is more to life than the small world of trying to impress Sylvie’s family.
Themes
