Characters

The most important characters in the short story “Owl” by Jackie Key are Anita (Barn) and Marion (Tawny). The story focuses on their friendship which protects them from challenges and hardships, which is like a space of refuge from disappointments, and from the passage of time.

Anita (Barn)

Anita, nicknamed Barn, is the narrator of the story and one of the main characters. Her characterisation presents her both as a child and a middle-aged adult.

Her outer characterisation depicts her as a 10-year-old child in the flashback story and a 50-year-old woman during the present narrative. As a child, we know that she is friends with Tawny and Sandra. Her parents and Tawny’s parents are probably having affairs with each other. As an adult, we know that she has been married to or had a long relationship with a man, but that they are going to separate.

Inner characterisation

Anita’s inner characterisation as a child, suggests that she liked Tawny more than Sandra, and that she was very affected to discover her parents and Tawny’s were attracted to each other (and probably had affairs).

Her attitude towards Sandra, after the holiday spent with Tawny, suggests that she was possessive about her friendship with Tawny. She did not want Sandra to come between them. This is why she makes Sandra cry, invents stories about feeding the owl and claims that the girl is “getting so boring” (l. 45). Barn also cares about Tawny’s opinion and feels “miserable and worried” (l. 46) when Tawny does not agree with her that Sandra is boring. 

Barn has a vivid imagination as a child and likes inventing things, probably as a way to protect herself from reality; from the disappointment of discovering Tawny’s father and her mother had an affair:

‘But she’s not to know that!” I said. “Anyway, we did really because we did it in our head.’ That was when we had a big talk about whether things that happened in your head were real or not: if they could be really real because they happened in your head. (ll. 52-55)

As an adult, Barn is quite different from Tawny, although the two stayed friends. Unlike Tawny, she is scared of getting old, cannot forget the past, and is worried about the future (about being alone after leaving her boyfriend/husband).

First, she feels uncomfortable talking about the failed relationship with her boyfriend/husband, and she is bothered by Tawny’s comments that she might not be heterosexual:

‘I’m with a man.’
‘Not for much longer!’
‘But that doesn’t mean I want to be with a woman,’ I said. I could feel my hackles rising, like ruffl...