Analyse af Joy Boothes novelle 'Jesse'

The short story ’’Jesse’’ is written by Joy Boothe. The short story is about, how the narrator came to name her son, Jesse. The narrator despites the name, Jesse, because it reminds her of her great uncle. The “great” uncle is he called. Something the narrator finds very ironical when taken into consideration Jesse Long were a drunk who killed himself and who only thought of himself in front of her aunt Nanny: “He was sober for once. I was surprised, but I didn’t say anything one way or the other. You know he was bad to hit me if I mentioned his drinking. Anyway, he gets his gun out of the bedroom and walks out on the back porch. ‘Nanny,’ he says, real polite, ‘would you come here, please?’ Well, just as I stepped out on the porch, he pulled the trigger. His jawbone flew at me and hung in the screen by my head.” Here we get a very clear description of the great uncle seen from the narrator’s point of view.

The short story takes place over the course of twenty-two years. The story begins when the narrator is five years old and continues until the narrator is twenty-seven years old. Through the story jumps in time, but we are told the age of the narrator throughout the entire story. In the first paragraph the narrator is five years old, and here start to learn about the narrator. The story is told from the narrators point of view and takes place in the Southern states in the narrator’s families house, and at the mill where the father and Jesse works. ‘’ The mill is made of tin, roof and walls, and the tin is rusted full of holes.’’