Character Analysis
Doreen
One of the Ladies' Day girls, "Doreen came from a society girls' college down South and had bright white hair standing out in a cotton candy fluff round her head and blue eyes like transparent agate marbles, hard and polished and just about indestructible, and a mouth set in a sort of perpetual sneer." Doreen, with her white hair and silky white items of apparel, is another opposite of Esther. Her amused cynicism makes her quite indestructible — at least from Esther's point of view. Doreen does not take the magazine work seriously; she is in New York City to have fun. She takes Esther along on a date with Lenny, and she arranges the ill-fated date with the suave Marco, a date that has a devastating effect on Esther.
But Esther likes Doreen, even though she cannot be like her. What she likes most is the fact that Doreen is smart enough to see through the hypocrisies of society, and perhaps Esther is more than a little envious of Doreen's ability to make the best of a bad situation.
When Doreen gets drunk and vomits outside Esther's door, Esther just leaves her there on the rug and shuts the door. Esther is not able to take this double life of the white Southern belle. Yet when Esther leaves New York City, Doreen gives her a half suitcase of avocados to take home. We never hear of Doreen again. We do not know if wearing white and having fun worked better for her than Esther's wearing black and trying to be successful.