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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
False Appearances
In The Paris Apartment, things are rarely as they first appear. When Jess first sees the building where Ben lives, she marvels at its luxurious features and upscale appearance. She soon finds, however, that the building’s glamorous exterior conceals a dark secret. The same can be said for many of the people who live there. Many of Jess’ initial assumptions prove false throughout the course of the novel, occasionally with serious consequences. While Sophie, for example, seems to be a wealthy Parisian snob living a perfect, polished life, she has in fact been the recipient of several blackmail letters from someone who knows details about her past that belie her assumed persona. Jess believes Nick to be a friendly, helpful, and successful young Englishman who works in the tech sector, even developing an attraction to him. Later events in the novel, however, reveal Nick’s complicity in the mystery surrounding Ben’s disappearance. Further, Nick, , who is in fact French, has been a total failure in his business dealings and is currently unemployed, relying financially on his father and living in his family home. Throughout the novel, Jess learns that appearances can often be deceiving.
Class As Performance
The Paris Apartment features characters who stem from a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, from the wealthy Meuniers to the illegal immigrants working at La Petite Mort. The novel implies that class differences are not innate and natural, but rather, that class relies on a series of behaviors that can be learned or performed. Sophie, for example, works tirelessly to conceal her true background as a Russian immigrant and former sex worker, carefully cultivating the persona of a wealthy French housewife from an elite family. Only Ben, who is carefully attuned to accents, notes that she speaks in a manner that suggests that she is not native to France.
Ben’s attentiveness stems from his own ability to “code switch,” or in other words, to alternate between different accents depending upon his audience. Because he was raised in poverty before being adopted by a rich family, Ben is adept at “performing” the markers of class. When he wants to impress the wealthy, he uses the accent that he learned in expensive boarding schools, but Nick notes that he speaks in a different manner in working class environments, adapting his performance to better ingratiate himself with his audience. Jess, who has little experience in upper class spaces, feels that she lacks Ben’s chameleon-like ability to modify her persona to suit others. However, when she decides to infiltrate an elite, invite-only club during her investigations, she finds that by simply wearing some borrowed expensive clothing and putting on lipstick, she is able to fit right in. Class, as understood in the novel, is closely tied to performance.
The Precarious Lives of Immigrants
Many of the other characters whom Jess encounters in Paris are not French natives, but rather, immigrants who have come to France for a new life but find their options limited. The Concierge, for example, lives in a small room in an otherwise luxurious building. While the other apartments are spacious, upscale, and comfortable, her small apartment is cold and damp, with signs of water damage that no amount of cleaning can get rid of. Despite this, she carries out her job uncomplainingly. Many of the girls who work at La Petite Mort are similarly limited by their immigration status. Despite the exploitation they face at the club, they have few other options and no legal resources to draw from. The illegal activities at the club highlight the extent to which others are willing to take advantage of the precarious conditions experienced by immigrants, who cannot report what happens there without facing deportation. Even Sophie, who appears to live a life of luxury and privilege, is vulnerable. Jacques married her precisely because her status as a former sex worker and Russian immigrant allows him to maintain absolute power over her. Despite her unhappiness, she is unable to step away from her marriage without losing the lifestyle that she has fought so hard for.
