Analyse af 'Tick Tock.. She is like a Bomb'

It can be difficult to live up to the expectations of others, and some people will even go to great lengths not to see their loved ones disappointed. This situation is portrayed in the short-story "Tick Tock.. She is like a Bomb" written by Kimberly Nardone in 2017, where the main character is afraid to let her mother down in relation to her schooling. During the short-story, we are presented to the theme ‘pressure’ which also can be linked to the title of the short-story.

The main character, Hailey Phleger, is a person who is afraid of disappointing her loved ones. She is willing to go to great lengths to ensure that this does not happen, as we see in the following quote: “She actually brought a bunch of books home with her and locked herself in her room with her laptop to keep up the pretense […] Her mother kept asking if she had enough money for books, tuition, housing, and she kept saying she was okay”. The fact that she is pretending to still be in school by taking books home and "reading for homework" gives the reader a clear understanding of how important it is to Hailey that she does not disappoint her mother.