Analyse af Andrew Vachss' novelle 'The Hostage'

¨The Hostage¨ is a short story written by Andrew Vachss in 1989, and Andrew puts focus about the following illness among soldiers from warzones.

Walker is a retired soldier from The Vietnam War, and Walker works as a cop after he came back from the war. His job as a cop didn’t last long, because of the mental illness from the war, and Walker is involved in two accidents with his gun. That puts a stop to his career as a cop, because of his mental illnesses as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He starts a job as a hostage negotiator, but he hasn’t quit his dreams about being a cop. So, Walker makes use of his position as the negotiator, at a hostage scene in Brooklyn to ¨get his gun back.¨

The point of view in the short story ¨Hostage¨ is a 1st person narrator. We see read this story trough the main character, and we are only told what he sees and thinks. ¨Mark, I did something for you, right? Now it’s time for you to do something for me. Like good faith, okay?¨ The narrator in this text, is the hostage negotiator, Walker. We read what he says, thinks and hears from the other people in the story. In the example, the narrator or Walker mention himself as ¨I¨ and therefore can I conclude, that the point of view in the story, is the main character Walker. And Walker is the narrator in the story, and he’s a 1st person narrator.