Analyse af 'Better Hommes and Gardens'

The text “Better Hommes and Gardens” is a short story written by the author Catherine Moffat. As a writer, she acts as an advocate for the lower layers of society. She questions whether the system has a positive effect as it is or whether, in dealing with the lower social layers, too many fates are lost on the floor. Which leads to the summary of the text, as the author makes her mark by letting the experiences of the lower layers of society be our guide to the message of the short story. In the story you see two children who are homeless with their father, as we can see on page 2, line 38 “Dad sleeps in the front seat sitting up”. Every day they are picked up from school in a corner where none of the other students are picked up. After school, they go out for a swim and take a bath on the beach, after which they spend the evening in the car where they sleep or go to the laundry to watch TV and wash clothes. Otherwise, they spend time with "uncle" in the park, or at the library.

The protagonist in the story is the main character, namely the boy who also acts as the narrator. The boy appears as the protagonist in history because he is being considered as the hero. It is him that gets the little sister and himself to a safe place, as the father does not come after them, which we in the text can see on page 4, line 131 “I'm scared, but I have to be strong for Grace.”. The antagonist in the story is "The Welfare" or the authorities, as the reader gets pity on the children and sees the experience from their side, leaving one with the impression that it is the authorities who appear as "the bad guy" who takes their father from them. Furthermore, the physical setting is assumed to be in Australia as the father says, "If the cops ever come,' he tells us, 'we're on our way to visit your grandparents in Queensland and I pulled 45 over for a sleep when I got tired.” and since Queensland is in Australia, this is assumed. The social environment of the text is poor and is certainly in the lower social layer of society, describing on page 3, line 78, the people they associate with "He's a bit smelly too. looks slightly wrong about them. Their hair is too long, or they haven't shaved properly, their clothes aren't quite fit, or even when everything else is right, it's something about the way they walk, or the fact that they can't make eye contact." In addition, there is also great contrast between the different layers of society. The children are in the underclass while naively looking up to the upper class, which can be seen every Friday watching the program" Better Hommes and Gardens "which is all in contrast to what they own. The program shows lavish gardens and houses that the children are entertaining and hopefully looking up to.