Analyse af Katherine Magyarodys novelle 'Goldhawk'

Write a short summary of Katherine Magyarody’s short story “Goldhawk” in about 125 words.

Dinara Akhmatova works in a computer programming company. Unfortunately, Dinara is the only female employee left, because her female co-workers got fired due to all the budget cuts, the company had. But she managed to avoid being fired because of her hard work, every day she came in early and stayed later even though her colleagues went home. Her co-workers assume that the company kept her, just because she’s a woman, and her employment is meant to make the company, look diverse. One day Dinara’s colleagues interrupt their work, when suddenly a hawk appears outside their window. But it wasn't just an ordinary hawk, it was a golden hawk and Dinara felt a special bond between them. Later, down in the parking lot, Dinara discovered the hawk secret place but that was something she would, never reveal for anyone.

Write an analytical essay (600-900 words) in which you analyses and interpret the short story. Your essay must focus on the main character.

In my analytical essay, I will be focusing on the narrator/point of view, setting, characterization, main theme and I will finish off with a conclusion of the story. The author off the short story “Gold Hawk”, is the American writer Katerine Magyarody. Katerine writes about an introvert woman, who has to deal with her colleagues’ sexist attitudes towards her. The narrator of the story is written in a 3rd person, and it takes place in the near future. I base that on the information we are given, about their sex position in the company. It is not very often that you see a workplace, where only 1 woman is hired. You can argue, that computer programing is a very male-dominated industry, but it is still very rare to see that only 1 female appears. The narrator is omniscient because the point of view, is not limited to one character. The narrator possesses knowledge, of all characters and sees everything, that happens in the story.The event takes place in North America; “was some sort of North American engineering term?” The action takes place during a normal working day. From before 4 o’ clock in the afternoon until 6 o’ clock in the evening: “The hands on the wall clock ticked past five o’ clock then six o’ clock in the evening”. As we read in the text “Dinara thought she could just see the clustered branches of a nest.” and “swooped down at the winter-pale faces”. That might indicate that the short story, takes place during spring. The main character Dinara is a hard-working, and nonsocial woman. She keeps everything to herself and chooses not to share information, about herself to her colleague’s. She is an individualist and is very dedicated to her job as: “came in early and stayed later than anyone”. Her colleagues didn’t know anything about her, and she didn’t really interest them; “Dinara had…. Well, beyond the silver Toyota Camry she drove to work, he was not sure what she had” and “he was not sure how old Dinara was”. Dinara grew up in a small village: “Where she had grown up, there was only village and wilderness, city and wilderness, crop field and wilderness”. Her childhood played also an important role, in her further employment and education. Based on the wilderness she grew up in, she studied the stars at a national institute. Compared to her colleagues who wore “scrubby polo shirts and khakis to work”, she wore “long gauzy skirts and soft, pastel cardigans that emphasized her birdlike figure”. I would guess that Dinara is somewhere in the ‘50s. We don’t specifically get started, how old she is but her 3 children are old enough, to attend university.