Deception and Identity in Big Swiss: The Performance of Self
The Thematic Claim: Identity as a Construct of Trauma and Desire
In Jen Beagin’s Big Swiss, deception is not merely a plot device but the mechanism through which the novel interrogates identity itself. The book argues that identity is a performative construct—shaped by trauma, longing, and the stories we tell ourselves—and that sustained deception, even when born from vulnerability, corrodes the possibility of genuine connection. Greta Wells’s false identity as Rebekah, maintained through her illicit knowledge as a therapy transcriber, becomes the crucible in which she tests whether a rebuilt self can survive exposure to the truth.
Tracing the Deception Across the Plot
1. The Birth of Rebekah: The Dog Park Encounter (Chapter 6)
Greta first meets Flavia—Big Swiss—in person at the dog park after a pit bull attacks her dog Piñon. Flavia lifts the attacking dog, and Greta, overwhelmed by recognizing the voice she has secretly transcribed for months, blurts out a false name: “Regreta… I mean Rebecca.” The lie is impulsive, born of panic and the desire to protect her job with therapist Om. Yet it also reflects a deeper wish: to escape the self that carries a history of emotional detachment, her mother’s suicide, and a failed engagement. By becoming Rebecca, Greta attempts to author a cleaner, more desirable identity—one unburdened by her past. The scene establishes that deception is not a one-time act but the foundation of their relationship.
2. The Edifice of Lies: The Affair and Its Escalation (Chapters 7–11)
Over the following weeks, Greta deepens the deception. She adopts the surname “Graves” and carefully curates her backstory during long walks with Flavia. In a session with Om, Flavia mentions meeting a transcriber named Rebekah, forcing Greta to double down. The affair becomes a space where both women perform—Greta as the mysterious younger woman, Flavia as the commanding gynecologist with a traumatic past. Yet the performance is fragile. In therapy, Flavia confesses that “her reactions often don’t match what I’m saying” and that she suspects Greta knows too much. The blurring between transcript knowledge and real intimacy leads to moments where Greta nearly gives herself away, such as when she blurts out Om’s name during sex. Here, deception serves as both a shield and a prison: it allows Greta to access desire, but it also prevents her from being truly known.
3. The Unraveling: Confrontation and Collapse (Chapters 15–16)
The climax of the deception occurs when Flavia, armed with the transcript marked “Transcribed by” (scribbled out), confronts Om and then Greta. In chapter 15, Flavia tells Om, “You better come clean with me. Otherwise, this is over.” The confrontation forces Greta to admit, “Just my name,” but the damage is done. Flavia later shows Greta that she understands the full extent of the betrayal when she says, “You had personal information about me that allowed you some control over my impression of you, which is the definition of power.” The affair fractures. Greta’s attempt to build a new identity on a foundation of eavesdropping and misrepresentation ultimately destroys the connection she craved.
Character Connections to Identity and Performance
Greta Wells / Rebekah
Greta’s central conflict is the gap between who she is and who she pretends to be. Her history of caregiving for a suicidal mother, her own emotional lockdown, and her job as a transcriber (a profession that demands invisibility) all conspire to make her feel like a ghost. The name “Rebekah” is not just a lie but a wish—a self who could be desired without the weight of Greta’s past. In a key scene, Greta observes that she sees herself as “poor, foreign, and fetishized” beneath Flavia. Deception allows her to experience desire, but only in a distorted mirror. Ultimately, Om’s ketamine-assisted therapy (chapter 20) reframes “Rebekah” as Greta’s inner child—a construct she must reparent rather than pretend to be.
Flavia (Big Swiss)
Flavia is also a performer. She cultivates an aura of command—her “lofty” voice, her glamorous appearance, her clinical profession—that conceals deep vulnerability: a childhood in a cult, a near-fatal beating, a marriage to a passive man. She admits to Greta, “I feel like a patch of moving fog most of the time.” Like Greta, Flavia uses deception to control how she is seen. She shows her husband photos of Greta to provoke jealousy, and she withholds the full story of Keith from Om. Her rage at Greta’s lie is inseparable from her own shame about the lies she tells herself about the affair.
Sabine and Om
Sabine functions as a truth-teller. Despite her own addictions and erratic behavior, she sees through Greta’s performance: “She acts all cold and imperious… but inside she’s a mess.” Om, meanwhile, serves as a mirror. He helps Greta recognize that her deception is a symptom of a deeper split. When he suggests naming her inner child “Rebekah,” he reframes the lie as a path toward healing—not by discarding the false self, but by integrating it with compassion.
Symbol Connections
- The Bees: The dying colony in the farmhouse mirrors Greta’s fractured sense of self. The bees are both a collective and a cipher for entropy. When they invade the kitchen in chapter 21, it signals that Greta’s internal world can no longer be contained. The beekeeper’s removal of the hive parallels Greta’s need to salvage something from the wreckage of her deception.
- Piñon the Dog: Piñon is the only being in the novel who exists without performance. He is honest in his needs—food, warmth, affection. Greta’s attachment to him grounds her when her false identity threatens to float away. When Flavia’s dog Silas humps Piñon, it becomes a comic but apt metaphor for the messy, unprompted intimacy that Greta’s lies can only approximate.
- The Vultures: The black vultures that roost in Sabine’s pine tree are harbingers of exposure. They circle over the decaying farmhouse and, symbolically, over the rotting foundation of Greta’s secret. Their presence intensifies as the affair unravels, suggesting that the truth cannot remain buried.
- The Farmhouse: Sabine’s dilapidated house is a physical manifestation of Greta’s hidden self—drafty, full of horsehair and dead bees, a refuge that is also a trap. Greta sleeps in a closet in antechamber, barricaded like she did as a child. The house, like her identity, is held together by patches and lies.
Complexity and Contradiction: The Ambiguity of Performance
Beagin complicates any simple moral judgment of Greta’s deception. The novel suggests that all identity is performed—Flavia performs command, Om performs omniscience, Sabine performs chaos. Greta’s lie, while unethical, also liberates her from a history of passivity. It allows her to feel “radicalized, ready to fight.” The affair is “healing and pleasurable” until it becomes “retraumatizing.” The novel refuses to condemn or exonerate: deception is a tool that can both wound and save. Greta’s decision at the end to bury Sabine’s cocaine—a small act of honesty with herself—hints that integration, not purity, is the goal.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Greta choose the name “Rebekah” for her false identity, and what does the name come to mean by the end of the novel?
Greta picks “Rebekah” impulsively at the dog park, likely because it resembles her own name while offering a fresh start. By the final therapy session, Om reframes Rebekah as Greta’s inner child—the wounded, self-protective part of her that needs reparenting. The name shifts from a lie to a psychological tool for healing.
2. How does Flavia’s own performance of identity complicate the theme of deception?
Flavia also withholds information (her cult upbringing, the details of Keith’s release) and uses her appearance and profession to project invulnerability. Her anger at Greta’s lie reveals her fear of being known, not just betrayed. Both women perform a self that is partly disguise.
3. What role does the setting (the farmhouse, the dog park, Farmacy bar) play in reinforcing the theme of identity as performance?
Each setting functions as a stage. The farmhouse is Greta’s backstage where she drops the performance; the dog park is where she first enacts Rebekah; Farmacy bar is a theatrical space where both women present curated selves. The constant shifting of locations underscores that identity is context-dependent.
4. How does Greta’s job as a transcriber blur the line between authentic knowledge and voyeuristic power?
Transcription gives Greta access to Flavia’s most intimate thoughts without Flavia’s consent. This knowledge makes Greta feel “omnipotent” but also guilty. She uses it to direct the affair (e.g., knowing the “alphabet” oral technique from Flavia’s session), making their intimacy a script she has read in advance.
5. Does the novel ultimately condemn deception, or does it suggest that some forms of disguise can be necessary for survival?
The novel is ambivalent. It shows the destructive consequences of sustained deception (loss of trust, retraumatization) but also acknowledges that Greta’s lie allowed her to step into desire for the first time. The final image of Greta burying the drugs and feeding the donkeys suggests that honesty with oneself—not perfect transparency with others—is the ethical horizon.