50 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie DanlerSweetbitter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Self-Discovery
Content Warning: This guide contains discussion of drug abuse, sex, violence, and mental-health stigmatizations.
Sweetbitter is a coming-of-age story. It is a classic tale of young woman moving to the big city in search of love and adventure. The novel traces Tess’s first four seasons in New York City as she forms an identity that brings her closer to adulthood.
When Tess moves to New York City at age 22, she doesn’t have specific goals or ambitions. She is therefore full of endless potential because she is free to do anything she wants. Her lack of responsibility makes her life all about her pleasures and passions, but she is malleable because she doesn’t know who she is yet. Tess is easily influenced by Simone because in Simone, she sees a glamorous role model. Tess discovers certain layers of herself thanks to Simone. Simone teaches Tess about the palate, fine dining, delicacies, and wine. Tess takes these little lessons with Simone very seriously not only because she craves Simone’s approval but also because learning how to truly experience taste opens up Tess’s world. She discovers that there can be great pleasure in small things. Tess also craves Simone’s approval because she believes that earning Simone’s approval will mean that Tess is special in some way. She reads what Simone reads and takes all her suggestions for experiencing culture in the city. In this way, Tess learns the transformative nature of art. She starts identifying herself with paintings, books, and fine wine. This is a form of identity, but it’s not the entirety of Tess’s personhood.
Tess appreciates her job at the restaurant because she feels that she’s part of something larger than herself. Imperfect and chaotic though it may be, there is a community at the restaurant. The staff members call one another family, and it’s a family that Tess very much wants to be a part of because she is lonely and doesn’t know where she belongs. But this “family” is also destructive. They introduce Tess to drugs, sexualize her, and insult her with a nickname inspired by pornography. In trying to be a part of the family, Tess loses a sense of herself because she believes what the others say about her more than she believes in what she thinks of herself. Jake is one these negative influences. He confuses Tess with his aloofness and his attention. When Jake pays attention to Tess, she feels love and joy. She identifies herself romantically and sexually through her infatuation with Jake. But he is often also mean to her and makes her doubt her intelligence and her opinions. Tess is so easily influenced that anything Jake says becomes an internalized truth.
Ultimately, Tess’s coming-of-age story occurs when she figures out that the external influences on her identity are destructive. She develops her own autonomy by leaving Jake, Simone, and the restaurant. Tess identifies herself instead in tandem with the endless possibility and anonymity of New York City. Tess learns to let go of the way others project their own identities and resentments onto her. Tess discovers herself through her own instincts and interpretations of the world rather than prioritize the interpretations of others. Although Tess still hasn’t yet figured out what she wants out of her life, she knows what she doesn’t want to become.
Disillusionment and Experience
Sweetbitter refers both to Tess’s developing palate—her ability to taste the sweet and taste the bitter—as well as the sweet and bitter experiences of life. Disillusionment is itself a bittersweet experience because disillusionment informs the human experience for the better by revealing the truth, even though it is disappointing and hurtful.
Tess’s first experience with disillusionment is when she revisits her idolization of Simone. In contrast to Simone’s former friend Samantha, Simone is beaten by life. Tess long admired Simone for her wealth of knowledge, her charming New York City apartment, and her power in the restaurant. But Samantha presents a foil to Simone’s life and reveals that Simone hasn’t chosen a life of working in the same restaurant and living in the same apartment for decades—that life chose her because all her other dreams fell apart. Simone did not accomplish her goals or her dreams, which is why she is so invested in the restaurant. It’s the only setting in which she truly thrives. But this also makes Simone stuck in a life that has no forward movement. Tess learns that Simone is not the glamorous and sophisticated woman she appears to be but rather that Simone is making the best out of a life that is otherwise devoid of potential.
Tess’s second experience with disillusionment is in coming to terms with Jake’s feelings about her. Tess projects her desires to be seen and known onto Jake. She believes she loves him and, in that love, can get him to love her back. But Jake has a host of internal conflicts that prevent him from getting close to others. Jake also projects his desire to be seen as a romantic hero onto Tess, but he doesn’t want a long-lasting or sustainable relationship with her. When Tess finally accepts that Jake doesn’t love her back, she becomes disillusioned about love and sex. As disappointing as this is to Tess, this disillusionment is a good experience because it serves to push her away from the toxicity of Jake’s mysteriousness.
Tess also experiences disillusionment about her job. She has been so seduced by the restaurant’s special qualities, feeling of community, and narrative about staff members being hired because they too are special. Tess wanted to believe in this narrative because she wanted to be part of something interesting. But Tess becomes disillusioned by her failed attempt at claiming her role as a server in the restaurant. She becomes tired by the ceaseless partying and petty dramas that engaged the staff after hours. She comes to terms with the fact that her job at the restaurant was just a job at a restaurant. Her belief that it was something that identified her as special was a fallacy.
All of these experiences with disillusionment are difficult for Tess. Disillusionment causes her pain, but it’s a productive kind of pain because Tess learns from her disillusionment. She becomes a more aware and conscientious person.
The Restaurant Industry and Broader Societal Issues
Sweetbitter is set in a restaurant that is high-class, expensive, and exclusive. This setting is a metaphor for broader societal issues.
Howard represents one of these issues. He is the manager of the restaurant and is therefore everyone’s boss. He answers only to the owner, but Howard abuses his position of power. He has inappropriate affairs with young female staff members. These young women become damaged by the affairs. Howard causes drama in these women’s lives and takes advantage of his power over them. And yet, Howard is not held accountable for his violation of workplace professionalism. Instead, the other staff members always side with Howard. They enable his predatory behavior. This is all representative of the broader societal issue of abuse of power dynamics, particularly in situations in which men are in positions of power over women. The women who are ruined by Howard have no one to turn to for help. They are ostracized and judged by the other staff members while Howard never loses anyone’s respect. These echo issues in society such as the Me Too Movement. In many industries and settings, men seduce, coerce, or harass women who must go along with their desires in order to keep their jobs, often with impunity.
The guests of the restaurant also represent various broader societal issues. For example, one of the regular customers of the restaurant is known to have anorexia. She hosts business meetings in the restaurant and pretends to eat. The servers cover up for her by disposing of her napkin full of food. This customer’s eating disorder is a mirror of the mental-health issues that people deal with and the often-secretive nature of mental-health conflicts. Another regular, Mrs. Neely, has become muddled in her elderly years. Simone covers for Mrs. Neely when she forgets her wallet. Tess entertain Mrs. Neely with conversation. Mrs. Neely drinks too much, which only confuses her more. Tess is concerned that Mrs. Neely won’t get home safely. And yet, they continue to serve her alcohol and cover for her. In the dynamics between server and customer, there is no power or influence that the server has. The guest is their business in the restaurant, but only for which to serve and to create ambience. Thus, the servers note how Mrs. Neely is suffering, but they are helpless to do anything about it. This echoes issues in society in which people like Mrs. Neely who need help or companionship are left alone to fend for themselves, highlighting the importance of kindness to people who are struggling with their changing ages and shifting abilities.
Another societal issue is drug abuse. This is reflected in Sweetbitter through Tess’s hard partying with the other backwaiters. They smoke weed, snort cocaine, and mix drugs with copious amounts of alcohol. This is to relieve the stress of their chaotic jobs. It also serves to bond them in destructive yet meaningful ways. Then, when they’re hungover and ill the next day, they turn to abusing prescription drugs to stay alert through their shift. This cycle repeats itself over and over again. It is an abuse of drugs that become a crutch for managing their time and energy. This highlights how unforgiving the schedule of restaurant work can be. People who work behind-the-scenes to make a restaurant an experience for guests are run down by their efforts and constantly on the move. Tess’s experience with drugs is indicative of how easy it is for an individual to get too wrapped up in drug abuse. When she first starts hanging out with the backwaiters, she is not a drug user at all, but she quickly gets on board and moves swiftly from borrowing other people’s drugs to buying her own, highlighting the dangers of drug abuse in the workplace and beyond.
