Analyse af Stefanie Seddons novelle 'Eel'

Write an analytical essay (900-1200 words) in which you analyse and interpret Stefanie Seddon’s short story “Eel“ (2016). Part of your essay must focus on the setting and on the use of symbols.

Most people is not observant of when someone is feeling alone, or miss placed in society: our species only survives when we belong to a community; surely all of us has tried to be a part of the wrong group whom contains different values in society. Are we supposed to follow the crowd and make a change to ourselves to someone we are not? This understanding of being alone and not belonging to the crowd is shown in the short story “Eel“ written by Stefanie Seddon in 2016, where Archie tries to be apart of something when he realizes this is not who he is and what he wants to be.

The central plot of this short story deals with the narrator Archie trying to be apart of his brother’s eel fishing trip, even though his is not sure this is the right call for him. The narrator is dealing with the feeling of being alone and trying to be like the others in the family. Throughout the story the narrator tags alone his brother eel fishing field trip, trying to be like them and get their acceptance, making sure he is good enough. Later on in the short story Archie realizes that maybe the acceptance of his brothers is not the thing he should be looking for, instead he should make sure he is being himself and not trying to satisfy others. The short story opens in, in medias res which catches the reader from the first line and already then makes it possible to identify with the narrator and his perspective of being alone. By the narrator being first-person narrator makes the short story more identifiable for the reader but we also get and insight to what the narrator thinks of his situation when he comments on what he is feeling about his brothers but also about his feelings about being alone: “Burning with shame, I staggered upright and shouted blue murder at the boys, who lay on their backs next to a writhing silver-belly, shaking with laughter (p. 3, l. 33-35). In this quotation it becomes clear that his brothers is not taking Archie serious and does not seem like they want him to be apart of their group. It is also here when Archie reached the point of him not fitting in with his brothers and goes of alone again.