Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of R-rated sexual content, substance use, sexual harassment, bullying, and antigay bias.

The novel presents several means for the pursuit of pleasure, including sexual and sensual pleasure, entertainment and fun, ambition and personal dreams, and love. The narrative argues that this pursuit should not be seen as a vice or flaw and that pleasure can and should be enjoyed purely for its own sake. It signals that no one should be barred from such pursuits by other people’s judgments or preferences.

Pleasure is promoted in the novel by the character of Nolan, both as a cause of pleasure for Bee and as a model for enjoying life. His personality—and the relative freedoms he enjoys as a man—provide an example for Bee in relinquishing shame or guilt. For example, Nolan’s pursuit of wild entertainment in his “bad boy” days is both a running joke throughout the novel and further celebration of pleasure for its own sake, as he constructs various experiences to provide amusement; as he tells Bee, his entertainment used to involve ideas like “hir[ing] a petting zoo to come to [his] suite on the thirtieth floor, do[ing] a little ecstasy, and hav[ing] a minirave” (269).