“She digs in her bag for her lipstick, her fingers searching for the small cylinder, and pulls out a crayon, then a battery, then a tampon, then a gluestick.” These "fighter” phrases reveal Liz’s anxious mindset, as she imagines a world where her son is almost in the wilderness, every man for himself, as though it’s the survival of the fittest - and which Liz so fearfully express, “not that there’s going to be anybody with enough time to notice that Daniel needs help”, is not an environment where Daniel belongs.“Guerilla warfare”, “Jungle gym”, "seasoned commanders” Instead of seeing this as an opportunity for Daniel to befriend others and have a great time, she describes them as ‘rampaging strangers’, giving us a sense that Daniel is subject to an unfamiliar environment that is wild, frenzied, rioting. What’s really interesting here is her description of the other children.‘Abandoned him to a roomful of rampaging strangers’ Her guilt bubbles to the surface here because it’s as though she’s the villain here, and she’s to blame for leaving him alone.‘And he’s in there, alone, where she’s left him’. Fire up the car and drive away’ showcases how the smallest details of starting the car, something that should be so simple instead requires immense mental effort on her behalf. The step by step process where she needs to ‘put the key in the ignition and turn it. From the beginning of the short story we can see that Liz isn’t, or doesn’t feel in control of her situation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |