Analysis of Karen Phillips' 'The Gift'

Elly, the narrator’s daughter, are telling the narrator that her ex-husband Ron is getting married. The strong news is taken into processing by the narrator, but Elly quickly asks whether she is going to buy them a wedding gift or not. Elly begins to tell about Amelia, Ron’s soon to be wife. The narrator begins to have several flashbacks of the moments leading up to the announcement. The narrator recalls the first time she saw Amelia and Ron together at a supermarket. Then she has several other flashbacks about how Ron and her met, how she gave up the city for him and the reason behind their divorce. At last, the narrator calls Ben, her son, to confront him about Ron’s and Amelia’s marriage. He says that he already knows, which made her realize that her children are doing fine after the divorce. Then she reconsiders whether or not Ron and her could have lived a happy life if they just endured their problems and waited with the divorce. In the end she considers buying a painting, which reminds her of Amelia, as their wedding gift.

Analysis

“The Gift” written by Karen Phillips has a subjective first person-narrator who is also the main character of the story. We experience the flashbacks, thoughts and events trough her and we have access to her thoughts. The narrator herself is, as mentioned, a divorced woman who has two children named Elly and Ben. Her name and physical features are never revealed. We do know that she looks nothing like Ron’s fiancé, Amelia: “I knew from Elly that Amelia was younger than I am, but I didn’t expect the roundness, the bright scarf poured down her back or the scarlet boots. There was no resemblance to me at all” (p. 2, l. 44-46). Besides this we know that she is the typical city girl: “Even I, a city girl trough and trough (...)” (p. 2, l. 55).