YMMV / Confessions of a Shopaholic

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The story can be interpreted as either a not-so-subtle criticism of the fashion industry and the consumerism of 21st century America, or a Take That! at women who insist on having the latest fashions even when it drives them past bankruptcy.
• Designated Hero: Rebecca is, when all is said and done, an incredibly materialistic and shallow person with only her own vanity to blame for her current woes.
• Designated Villain: The debt collector is shown to be this solely because he's a jerk. Rebecca is a young woman who's shallow, self-obsessed, accidentally lies her way into a job, has a shopping addiction, and whose life is in serious trouble because of it. The fact that she paid back her debt in pennies is supposed to be revenge on him for publicly "inconveniencing" her by exposing her on national television. Never mind that she got her job under accidental false pretenses, proceeded to lie to keep it, and dodged said collector for weeks, which is pretty inconvenient too.
  • In the book, at least, this is acknowledged. The debt collector does confront Rebecca at the TV station though not on air, and calls her out on how much of his and his bank's time and resources have been wasted on trying to get in touch with her and get her to take her debt seriously, and even Rebecca has a My God, What Have I Done? moment where she apologizes, thanks him for giving her so many chances, and promises to do whatever it takes to repay her debt if he'd be willing to help her do so.

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