Plot: Goodwill Dinner

In the Goodwill Dinner scene, the protagonist Joy attends a dinner hosted by her work colleagues, intending to reach out and integrate herself back into society.
These efforts ultimately go awry as her anxiety and mental health struggles create a significant barrier, resulting in an embarrassing drunken outburst.
The dinner is an attempt to bring some normalcy into her life but instead further intensifies her feelings of alienation and loneliness.

Joy’s interactions with her colleagues, particularly with the invasive and condescending Sandra, highlight the discomfort she experiences in a social context.
The contrast between Joy’s social perspective and that of her colleagues is apparent, highlighting their lack of empathy and understanding.
The dinner additionally marks the first instance where Joy’s emotional struggle escalates into a very public outburst, causing alarm and discomfort in the others.

Joy’s unsuccessful attempts at social integration through the Goodwill Dinner underlines her internal struggles, and symptomatic of her deepening depressive state.
The Goodwill Dinner showcases the wider societal failure to understand and accommodate people struggling with mental health issues.
The tense dynamics at the dinner allow for a raw depiction of anxiety and depressive disorders, providing a realistic and uncensored insight into mental illness.

Isolation: The Goodwill Dinner exacerbates Joy’s feelings of being alone and misunderstood, incredibly isolated even in social settings.
Societal misunderstanding: The judgemental reactions from her colleagues highlight a lack of societal understanding for mental health struggles.
Loss of control: Joy’s explosive outburst at the dinner is a clear sign of her losing grip on her mental stability, pushing her deeper into her despair.

“Trying to fit in, trying to be ‘normal’, I think they might be letting me be ‘okay’.” - These lines serve to emphasise Joy’s desire to fit in and the initial optimism she places in the Goodwill Dinner.
“Sandra makes me feel I am less.” - Joy’s interactions with Sandra underline her feelings of inferiority and discomfort.
“I have drunk too much, given too much away. Humiliated myself again.” - This quote shows Joy’s retracting further into her shell after her failed attempt at fitting in, indicating her deepening depression.