Analyse af 'Sorry for the Loss' af Bridget Keehan

The world’s life circle is getting born and later die. Babies are born and elders are dying. That’s how it works for every soul in the earth. We stand for us selves and our future, but in the end we are going to die anyways, everybody knows it, we just don’t want to talk about it.Image if you had to tell someone you didn’t know that one of his family members or close friends was dead. In my essay I will look at how the person would react, how does this person look like, and is it possible that a person would get so angry that he can hurt somebody else.

“Sorry for the Loss” is written by Bridget Keehan.

In this short story, “Sorry for the Loss” we are introduced to the main character, Evie, who is a prison guard. The job as a prison guard is new for her, and therefore she has to deal with a lot of new challenges and unknown situations. She is described as a brave woman, but at the same time she is also a caring and compassionate person. Evie is told that she has to pass on a sad piece of news to one of the prisoners, Victor. She is afraid and nervous but she still manages to tell him the sad piece of information. It is described how nervous she is because Victor may be the unpredictable prisoner. You can see it line 65-66 where the it says “how nervous she is and that her question is really about whether Victor is the dangerous, unpredictable type who might want to throw a punch at news of his loss”. This quote indicates that Evie is frightened about the situation but the fact that she makes it anyway tells that she is bold and fearless. During the short story it is obvious that Evie experiences a development and gains insight into another way of living. She realizes that it is not everybody that cares as much, as she may do, about their families. She is quite surprised about Victor’s reaction about his Nan’s death and that particular thing makes her think. Victor is described as a good-looking young man with bright teeth, and Evie has trouble understanding smart young man is end up in prison. Victor attended a school where he got bullied and one day he used a butterfly knife to stab the bully, and the kid later died. The fact that Victor carried a butterfly knife shows that he was on the edge to do something stupid, and that his family probably has not been taken care of him and given him the attention he needed. It is also interesting why he is unable to show emotions when it comes to family, but when he talks about the pigeons it are easy for him to show emotions. Victor sees himself through the pigeon’s eyes and therefore it gets easier for him to describe the pigeon’s situation than his own situation, which is almost similar to the pigeons. The short story takes place in a prison where the action goes on and that creates a tense atmosphere.