The moral of Pearl S. Buck’s “The Frill” is that people often neglect to see other human beings as people, with their own problems and struggles, and treat them instead like objects to be used. Let’s see how this plays out in the story.

The story centers around a Native tailor who is making a dress for a white woman. The woman, Mrs. Lowe, is extremely demanding and changes her mind often, forcing the tailor to conform to her every whim at the threat of not getting paid for all of his hard work.

The tailor has many problems of his own. His nephew is dying and leaving behind a wife and three small children that the tailor will now have to support. He asks Mrs. Lowe for a little money ahead of time because of this, but she refuses, insulting him in the process. To Mrs. Lowe, the tailor is merely an object to be used rather than a person.

Yet we readers see the tailor in all his struggles, in his grief for his nephew and his pity and care for the widow and children. He vows to support them yet does not know how he will do it. He hopes that Mrs. Lowe will have another dress for him to make, especially since he has done so well on this one. Mrs. Lowe, however, thinks that the tailor is simply too much trouble. She refuses to order another dress. Again, the tailor is just someone to be used. Mrs. Lowe cares nothing about his problems or his grief.

We readers are invited to reflect on whether we are like Mrs. Lowe.