Self-Interest And Greed In Cruddy By Linda Barry

“Once upon a cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill in the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town in a cruddy state, country, world, solar system, universe”(9) there existed a young girl named Roberta Robheson. Roberta Robheson’s world is so incredibly cruddy because all the people that exist around her are selfish individuals whose main motivation in life is to better themselves and gain money or prestige. Linda Barry, the author of Cruddy, explores this concept through dark imagery and a disturbing plot that exhibits many characters whose actions are motivated by self-interest and greed which demonstrate Barry’s view that today’s society is rampant with narcissistic individuals. The theme of characters pursuing actions for selfish reasons is exhibited in Roberta’s relationship with her mother. For “[o]nce in the olden days of Roberta’s life there was a dog named Cookie”(9), and Roberta held this dog close to her heart, it was the one figure in her life that she could rely on and have faith in. However Roberta’s mother was “…always screaming at Cookie for everything…screaming
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