Can it cause even more conflicting problems? Of course it can. As a result, this young girl is saddened by the choices she makes. "At boarding school, everyone gets depressed" (Minot 310). The narrator has made a conscious decision to sleep around and it haunts her as a result. It's not to say that she is becoming an inferior person for it, it just means that her moral values may be inflicted by her decision-making. It wouldn't be fair if her unhappiness were the downfall to her personal achievements. .
Analyzing a situation can make personal achievements more likely to happen, and perhaps by rationalizing a decision a person could have a positive outcome. It's like "Sammy" he has an analytical persona that drives him to make a decision about quitting his job. At first he quits in search of acceptance by the girls, especially "Queenie". When he realizes that the girls aren't waiting around for him and the fact that they may not have even heard him quit gives him a feeling of stupidity, but at least he realizes that he made his decisions for the right reasons. "[ ] and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter" (Updike 610). Sammy realized the trouble he had caused himself, and now he would have plenty of time to think about his well-chosen decision of quitting his job at A&P as well as time to dream about "Queenie". Unlike Sammy, the narrator in "Lust" doesn't make decisions based upon a reasonable or valid motive. It would be safe to call the narrator illogical with her ideals. Ok, it is understood that fear, depression and solitude can make a person act illogical, but there are alternatives rather than acting unreasonably. This girl would put herself in a predicament when a guy merely talked to her; "Or it"d be, trying to be reasonable, in a regular voice, "Listen, I just want to have a good time." So I"d go because I couldn't think of something to say back that wouldn't be obvious, and if you go out with them, you sort of have to do something" (Minot 306).
