Composition

When we talk of composition in literary works, we talk about the features established by the author in the creation of a text (the narrative elements that are combined to create a literary text). These features usually include (but are not limited to) plot elements and narrative techniques.

Bernie McGill's short story “No Angel” is structured around the theme of reconciliation with the past and with the death of loved ones. The story does not follow a linear traditional plot but is structured on …

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Title

The title of the short story, “No Angel”, suggests the text is about someone who is very different from an angel: a person with faults and imperfections. Upon reading the short story, we realise the title refers to the narrator’s dead father who appears to …

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Beginning

The short story begins in media res (in the middle of events). The narrator announces a seemingly absurd event in a very natural tone—seeing her dead father and talking to him:

The first time I saw my father after he died, I was in the shower, hair plastered with conditioner, when the water stuttered and turned cold. He was at the sink in front of the mi…

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Middle

The middle of the short story combines a series of meetings between the narrator and her dead father, with backstories about their past.

The narrator sees her father again on a train ride and the moment makes her recall an old photo of her parents: “They looked like film stars; the ghosts of their young selves.” (l. 36).

The element of intrigue is introduced when the narrator’s father opposes her relationship with a man who has the same religion as the killers of her brother:

‘Have you forgotten what they did to your brother, Annie? The way they left him, lying on the road l…

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Ending

The ending of the short story presents the last meeting between the narrator and her father. This time, it happens in an opera house, and her brother and mother are also present: “Robbie was scanning the audience. ‘There she is,’ he said, and pointed to a small woman (…). The woman turned and looked up and waved: Mum out in her finery.” (ll. …

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