Carmen Maria Machado’s Difficult at Parties is making the reading constantly having questions about what is going to happen. Machado is doing this on purpose, as she is enticing you to continue reading to see if the questions you are forming are answered later in her writing. She is wanting you to question what is happening to this person when she is going to parties and what is happening possibly after the parties she is attending.
Around his eye, a smoky-dark bruise is forming. (220)
Machado starts Difficult at Parties off with a mystery plot of why one of the main characters is in the hospital. She uses that to grab your attention and then continues to bring in more of a plot of what could have happened. She brings in the wife getting drunk at the house warming party, which hints that when she is at other parties she could be causing difficulties by getting drunk, so drunk that she doesn’t know what’s happening. Which then brings up what happened to her that would have been the reason to go to the hospital. She then brings up a point that hints at a possible rape situation that could have been a horrible situation for her health and done something bad to her.
An orgy, now. (238)
Carmen Maria Machado also uses repetition so that you don’t question things that she wants to be known from it’s first mention. She is also using repetition to foreshadow what could possibly be happening in the story. She wants certain words or phrases to stick out to you, so that you can use this to also help lead you down the right path of what is going to happen and that can help you form an opinion on what is going to happen.
Tuesday is speaking to me, in Tuesday’s voice. Open up, it says. Open Up. (219)
I agree that she uses the repetition of certain details to foreshadow events in the story.
I wrote about “Difficult at Parties” as well and I seemed to have trouble understanding what you mention as repetition, the line “Tuesday is speaking to me, in Tuesday’s voice. Open up, it says. Open Up.” (p. 219) what that does in relation to the story.