Norma Sends Her Script to DeMille, Explained：sell on something

What's really going on

The scene works by showing how completely Norma's world is sealed. The outside tries to get in — a caller who has 'confirmed the number' and asks for Joe — and Max simply lies, turning a woman into an inquiry about a stray dog. Norma never even suspects, because she is not interested in the outside except as an audience for her return. Her chart is less a belief than a permission slip: 'This is the day,' she says, because she cannot go if the stars have not agreed. Joe's objection, that 'scripts don't sell on astrologer's charts,' is true and useless; she answers that she is selling herself, which is the whole trouble. Later, at the bridge party, her cigarette case is empty and Joe offers one of his — the small kindness is the only currency left.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• Politeness can carry a refusal better than a raised voice.
• A star chart is a wish, not a sales strategy.
• Max's stray-dog line keeps the truth from his mistress.
• Norma bets her whole self, not just a script.

発音のポイント

• bother you — Link bother and you so the t almost disappears.
• not call again — Stress not and call; glide over please.
• Pull up at — Run pull up at together, with a weak at.