Sex Worker with a Heart of Gold as a Holiday Trope? Meet Dinah, the Christmas Whore

Holidays On Ice by David Sedaris delivers a fish out of water trope twist

At the holidays, we are swamped by fiction, commercials and family stories. I prefer my holiday stories with absurd humor to ward off a sacchrine aftertaste. Whatever your preference though tropes are everywhere this time of year; the fish out of water trope does some serious heavy lifting.

The fish may be the protagonist or someone who enters their world. Either way, we’re talking about a disruption in the character’s environment, which means story conflict. Think of the urban dweller struggling in a small town environment before surrending to its cozy joy. Hallmark has a robust business model built on these very tropes.

A type of fish out of water trope we don’t see much of at this time of year is the sex worker with a heart of gold. In the 1990’s Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts kicked this trope into popular culture with her thigh-high boots but it’s not a common holiday trope.

Thankfully, celebrated essayist and author David Sedaris gifted us with Dinah, the Christmas Whore, in his 1997 classic short story collection, Holidays on Ice. This story features a great twist on the fish out water/sex worker with a heart of gold trope. If I could assign everyone to read this story, I would. But sadly, I don’t have that power, so I can only strongly suggest you read this short story.

Here’s the plot for Dinah: Set in the late 1970s, seventeen-year-old David and his older sister Lisa work at different local mall cafeterias in North Carolina as their afterschool jobs. On Lisa’s eighteenth birthday evening, she borrowed the family station wagon and took David on a mysterious errand. It results in one of Lisa’s unlikely co-workers, Dinah, returning with them to join the family’s impromptu party.

Tropes found in this story: Across the tracks, Antagonist, Boss, Family, Fish Out of Water, Forced Proximity, Found Family, Hidden Identity, Politics, Quest, Redemption, Reunion, Secrets, Sex Worker with a Heart of Gold, Ticking Time Bomb, and Violence.

Dinah is built on the above tropes, and the summary sounds like a standard reunion holiday story.

So what makes it so special?

Sedaris captures these relationships with his family and coworkers with specific details plus the unlikely combination of three tropes: fish out water, sex worker with a heart of gold, and redemption set in the holidays. There is nothing generic about Dinah.

David Sedaris takes situations we are all familiar with—varying levels of family and workplace conflict and then packs in even more conflict at every turn. This author is a master at what I think of as microconflict, making sure characters face resistance at every turn.

Donald Maas talks about the importance of conflict on every page and that’s exactly what Sedaris does. If like me you find yourself skipping ahead in a stories, check out the many essays and short stories by Sedaris. I never skim his stuff but instead find myself savoring it.

Here are a few examples of Sedaris using microconflicts, such as David tattling on his sister’s hyperextension of the wall phone cord (historically a common family issue when we were all tied to landlines) or other smaller conflicts like trying to annoy Lisa with the car radio station while she is driving. Everyone can relate to some familiar family member's annoying habits. He is fantastic at drilling down to these small details.

By the way, would you like another example of an author who excels at microconflicts? Check out Lucy Score.

But back to how Dinah the Christmas Whore is structured. Let’s look at Goal, Motivation, and Conflict.

David’s Goal: discover a unique life lesson. Motivation: distinguish himself from traditional Christmas celebrations. Conflict: his lack of awareness and life experience.

Lisa’s Goal: have Dinah promoted from the steam table at work. Motivation: She wants a better quality of life for her friend. Conflict: As a middle-aged ex-con, Dinah’s commitment to Lisa’s goal is questionable.

Dinah’s Goal: Get promoted to carving meats at her cafeteria job. Motivation: steady employment. Conflict: her lifestyle is chaotic.

David Sedaris uses microconflicts to create a series of goals, motivations, and conflicts. For example, when David’s allowance is removed he gets a job (goal). Another goal is how he can figure out meaning in the stories he creates while he works. He realizes he has limited life experience and studies his new, more seasoned coworkers. But he doesn’t learn any life lessons that he can apply to his own stories.

When Lisa takes him on a journey to one of her coworkers' homes, David is thrown into unfamiliar surroundings. Using internal and external dialogue, Sedaris creates his young self character as someone who thinks he’s quite mature but is in fact the opposite. This is perfect fish out of water material.

He then attempts to get Lisa in trouble for bringing Dinah home, only to find his mother and siblings warmly welcoming their new guest. Throughout this story, David is always struggling to get his bearings and we see him as a fish in his own family party.

David’s relationship with his mother is a delight because he packs in so much in a tidy space. David always trying to get attention from his mother (a common human condition) but see how Sedaris demonstrates that playing out in the following exchange between them:

Dinah’s mascara had smeared, causing her to resemble a ridiculously costumed panda, and here my mother was apologizing for the way she looked? I took her aside for a moment.

“Whore,” I whispered. “That lady is a whore.” I’m not certain what reaction I was after, but shock would have done quite nicely. Instead my mother said, “Well, then, we should probably offer her a drink.” She left me standing in the dining room listening as she presented the woman with a long list of options delivered in alphabetical order.

As the supposed fish out of water, Dinah relishes being the guest of honor. She praises David’s six year old brother as having the arms of a busboy and the eyes like an assistant manager…Let’s see if he can freshen up an old lady’s drink.”

Her exotic character becomes the redemption David has been seeking during the holiday season. He longs to be different and finds himself comforted by the fact Dinah is in his family’s kitchen circles back to himself. Anyone remember feeling disdain for their family at seventeen?

There are just so many great descriptions and lines in this story—take a break from all your reguarly overscheduled holiday life and read it! Study how Sedaris creates these experiences that when are paired with the absurd and a keen eye for detail, dialogue, and family dynamics make his story shine.

And I’m looking for unusual trope twists on holiday stories so if you have a suggestion please share!