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Emma Zunz

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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Was Loewenthal actually guilty of defrauding money and framing Emanuel in the crime? The only source of this theory is Emanuel himself, who tried to convince his 12-13-year-old daughter that he was innocent. While Loewenthal is definitely an unpleasant person, nothing supports Emanuel's claims, who might have been simply reluctant to admit to his own mistakes and wanted his daughter to remember him fondly. In other words, there's a very high chance that Emma murdered an innocent man over nothing.
    • What is Emma's sexuality? She's afraid of male bodies and the first time she has sex traumatizes her severely; additionally, unlike most of her friends, she doesn't have any boyfriend and is only seen being friends with women. Is she a closeted lesbian, who doesn't realize she's attracted to women, or is she asexual and simply doesn't feel any sexual attraction?
    • What's Emma's actual motivation for killing Loewenthal? It's initially presented as her desire to avenge her father, but their relationship is never properly explored, and the narration outright states later that after having sex with the sailor she wants to kill Loewenthal because she feels dirty and blames him for it. Perhaps she never wanted to avenge her father in the first place — maybe she just hated Loewenthal.
    "At what time apart from this time, in what perplexing disorder of unconnected and atrocious sensations did Emma think but once of the death that motivated her sacrifice? I am of the belief that she thought about it one time, and at this moment endangered her desperate proposition."
  • Cry for the Devil: Emma murdered Loewenthal and got away with it, with the narration rejecting her Freudian Excuse, but it's rather sad to see what happened to her because of her desire for revenge, and how shaken she is by what she had to do.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Emma's sexual encounter with the sailor. It's not described in a graphic way, but what's actually disturbing is the effect it has on Emma. It's already stated that she Does Not Like Men and the thought of sex scares. The events lefts her severely traumatized, feeling impure and humiliated, and visibly changes her personality to more unstable one.
    "She thought (she could not but think) that her father had done the horrible thing to her mother which they were now doing to her. She thought with faint astonishment and immediately took refuge in her vertigo."

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