The Second Life of Mirielle West

In the novel, Hollywood tabloids symbolize the society and superficial values that Mirielle left behind. The first Hollywood gossip magazine Mirielle comes across is in her first days at house 18. She is annoyed that it is out of date (a reminder how separate and cut off Carville is from the outside world) but decides reading it will at least fill the empty hours. Mirielle’s association with many of the people who are the subject of the articles’ gossip reinforces the prominent position Mirielle held before her arrival at Carville. Her status, however, is not one that she can reveal to her fellow residents, for fear that Charlie’s career will suffer due to the stigma of her condition. At this point in the novel, she still longs for her social life, and the magazine inspires envy and indignation.

The magazines will come to serve as a painful reminder of Mirielle’s condition because they reveal society’s callous attitude toward people with Hansen’s disease. When she discovers the article that states she is being housed in a mental health facility, Mirielle is not only personally hurt, but panicked by the potential damage such a rumor could cause to Charlie’s career. Similarly, that Charlie himself is responsible for inventing the lie that Mirielle has mental illness means that the stigma of mental illness is not as harmful as the stigma of leprosy.