Perspectives

When reading a literary text like “People-Watching” by Julia Gray, it is advisable that you also look at it from different perspectives apart from its textual meaning. These perspectives may be related to the context, literary movement, genre or even how the text has made its way into popular culture.

Current issues

Given that the text of the short story was published very recently, in 2014, and also considering its theme and narrative, we can suppose that the text deals with current issues. We can easily imagine the events being experienced by a real-life person, perhaps someone we know. The main issue the text raises is that of how to deal with a traumatic event.

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Works in the same genre

Julia Gray’s short story belongs to the genre of modern, realistic fiction. The narrative style combines dialogue with the inner thoughts of the character, with the focus being on the last aspect. Some similar short stories in terms of narrative style are “Eastmouth” by British writer...

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Works with the same theme

A short story which partially deals with the theme of the impact of traumatic events is “A Family Supper” by Kazuo Ishiguro (Worlds of English, pp. 197) in which a young adult undergoes feelings of guilt about the death of his mother.

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