The story “Lust” is told from the point of view of a high school girl as she describes her sexual encounters. The beginning of the story is told by a girl who is casual about her sexual encounters and who is emotionally detached during these encounters. Over the course of the story, the girl changes and becomes more emotional about her encounters and how they leave her feeling. Susan Minot shows the changing psychological and negative effects that sex has on a high school girl and how she feels about these sexual encounters. In the critical essay "Lust", Janet Ellerby summarizes and analyzes the short story "Lust". Janet Ellerby describes the author's theme for the story. The narrator of the story is “unprepared to deal with the pressure of male desire” and does not know the emotional connection of intimacy. In the story there is a difference between the desire of men and women and the attachment to emotions. Susan Minot also describes “what it might mean to open your heart.” The narrator feels that she cannot open her heart to the boys she has encounters with. Ellerby describes that when the narrator lists his encounters he does so without any emotional connection; it is "more like a shopping list than an emotionally charged account of an erotic past." This shows the narrator trying to give a more masculine attitude towards dating. Psychologically, the narrator has no emotional attachment to her partners at the beginning of the story and appears to withdraw from her experiences. The story begins to take a turn and the narrator is negatively affected psychologically. At the beginning of the story the girl is indifferent about sex and is emotionally detached from her actions and the boys she meets.... middle of paper ......whole story. The narrator isn't bothered at the beginning of the story, but by the end she feels almost "ruined." The girl begins casually about her sexual encounters and is emotionally detached from them. Throughout the story, the narrator finds it difficult to open her heart and does not consider any of her partners as boyfriends. She starts to feel like guys look at her differently after sex, and that's all they looked at her for. He feels he has limits: what he can ask of his partners, what he gives to his partners. After sex, she feels like a part of her is ruined and she feels alone. First there is a tenderness that is given to her by her partner. Afterward, she lies there nearly dead, feeling as if something inside her is ruined. Her partner no longer looks at her as before. He no longer sees her; she disappeared.