Eksempel på essay om "A Journey"

Uddrag

A
Sometimes life deals us some terrible blows and makes us wonder whether we have made the right decisions in life. All these decisions have effects on our surroundings, our future and our past. Eventually all of us come to a halt and ask ourselves whether they were the right ones and whether we should have chosen differently. This mental journey of self assessment is what the protagonist, Mary, experiences in the short story A Journey by Colm Tóibín from 2006.

Mary has suffered some of the harsh blows life can deal you, a clinically depressed son, and a paralyzed husband, and during the drive back from the hospital with her son in the back seat, she reminisces about how her life has played out. The story is narrated by a third person limited narrator, and seen from Mary's point of view. This provides us with an insight into a mind that is concerned with the choices made through a lived life. Furthermore, Tóibín uses the limited narrator to show us how things play out, without offering any comments on why. This technique is very minimalistic and is often referred to as 'showing not telling'. Through observing Mary's line of thought it becomes clear that she speculates about the choices she has made in life. Especially the son's disease is something she is very much concerned with. Her main concern is whether she and her husband had anything to do with his current ...

B
Flashbacks become an instrument for the author to provide an insight into the past of the characters. This gives the reader a more whole image of the characters and why they act and think like they do. The first flashback which sets the frame of the short story, is a view into David's childhood from the protagonists point of view. The flashback is seen through Mary's eye and the author doesn't provide us with any commentary as to how she experiences the events. We observe her line of thought, and thereby have to make our own interpretations.

Throughout the short story flashbacks are used to give us these glances into Mary's past and how she has experienced it. The flashbacks also emphasize the journey metaphor, in the sense that Mary is travelling not only in the car from the hospital, but also in her own mind, back in time. The flashbacks revolve around the most important elements of her life, an image of her dead mother in her father's old shop, the rather pleasant experience of taking care of her father on his deathbed, and joyous occasions with her son and husband. Most of the flashbacks become contrasts to her current life, but instead of being sucked into this melancholy, something like this could cause, she escapes and refuses to become one of the degenerate sons and daughters mentioned by Edgar Lee Masters in the poem Lucinda Matlock. The short story ends with a move away from the past and the flashbacks and a look into the future, “Seamus was staring at her from the bed and when their eyes caught she was struck for a moment by a glimpse of a future in which she would need to muster every ounce of selfishness she had” (p.5, ll.157-159).

Noter til A Journey
Hvilke noter og hvordan skal man anvende dem?
Dette noteark er ment som inspiration til, hvilke noter man kunne sidde med efter sine to-tre gennemlæsninger af short story'en. Disse noter kunne være: egne noter/tanker/brainstorm om spørgsmålene, brugbare citater, parafrase af vigtige passager og en disposition.

Disse skal så sorteres/systematiseres, og du skal vælge, hvilke der skal med, og hvordan de skal præsenteres bedst muligt og i hvilken rækkefølge.
Dette er ikke nødvendigvis de noter du sidder med, når du har læst short storyen, idet dit fokus på, hvad der er vigtigst, kan være helt anderledes. Dette er det fantastiske ved litteratur, ikke to læsninger behøver være ens, men derfor kan de være mindst lige gode. Det handler om at kunne understøtte sine påstande med eksempler fra teksten, og her er noterne essentielle.
Theme(s): (temaer markeret med fed, er de jeg har udvalgt at fokusere på i dette essay)

- Mental journey of self assessment -Living your own life has consequences. The choices you make, decide how your future is going to be. Mary has chosen to live life to the fullest, and has perhaps neglected her son in the process, causing him to have a depression. Not having been a part of David's life from the beginning now has consequences on their relationship. The drive back from the hospital is Mary reminiscing about how life has been. Her conclusion is that now she has be selfish, but a matter a fact she has been exactly that all along. She has chosen herself and her own happiness throughout life, and now she has to answer the consequences.
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