Number 40 is a short story written by Sarah Butler, who lives in Manchester. Her literature and art projects explore and questions our relationship to place. The short story is about a girl named Melissa, who has a weak identity, which makes her feel invisible. One of the central question in the text, deals with how much a home means to person in general. The short story is from the anthology “The Picador of 40”.
The story is told by a third person narrator as there is referred to Melissa as “she” etc., and it is seen from Melissa’s point of view. Especially Melissa’s point of view is very important for the text, as she has some identity problems, which make a different and a specific effect on how the reader sees her side of the story than if it was written from her boyfriend Simon’s point of view. It is written in the past tense, but it contains passages with dialogue between Melisa and the man who lives in number 38.
The actual time of the short story is a couple of hours, which takes place when Melissa is going to a meeting and ends when she is standing in front of what she thought was Simon. The text starts in medias res with the sentence “Melissa hated forgetting things. Wallet umbrella, diary, keys – their absence always left her feeling anxious and unbalanced.” (Page 1, line 1-2). The text finishes in an open ending, which makes the reader use their imagination and draw their own conclusion about what happens to Melissa.
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