Look Closer

Content Warning: This section briefly mentions racism, sexual assault, addiction, abuse, suicide, and violence.

Simon’s journal is a symbol that represents Simon and Vicky’s deception. The journal appears early in the novel as a means of conveying Simon’s thoughts. He buys it after meeting Lauren and chooses the green cover for its symbolic resonance: “Green for fresh and new, I suppose” (21). However, the journal turns out to be part of Simon and Vicky’s revenge plot. Rather than being a true confession of Simon’s ideas and love affair, it is a carefully constructed fictional narrative intended to ensnare Christian/Nick. The journal plays into all of Christian/Nick’s ideas of what a man like Simon might want or do, and since it confirms his biases, Christian/Nick does not stop to doubt it. The green cover might also represent the green of money and greed rather than new growth, since both Christian/Nick and Lauren are motivated primarily by their love for money.

Simon is proud of his narrative work in the diary, saying, “That was some of my best work. Full of highs and lows and melodrama, like most passionate romances” (397). The fakeness of the diary and the ease with which Christian/Nick is fooled also echo the reader’s experience with the novel, drawing attention to how readers can be fooled by false narratives.