Analyse af Andrew Vachss' novelle 'Hostage'

Mental illness is a difficult topic since it is not always visible. The people suffering from these conditions do often not know that they are sick. This is also illustrated in the short story, “Hostage” written by the author Andrew Vachss from 1989. The main character, Walker, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. However, he does not realize that his reality is completely twisted.

The text is presented with a 1st person limited narrator as seen in the following quotation: “I’d been a cop a long time.” (p. 157, l. 6). Furthermore, the story is written with an inner view on the main character, Walker, inherently giving the reader an insight into the thought process and reasoning behind his actions.” Turned out to be a thirteen years old. How was I supposed to know?” (p. 157, ll.18-19). Contrary to Mark, who seems to be very unstable due to him wanting to kill his mother. “I’ll kill her, I swear I will.” (p. 158, l. 21). That leads the empathy of the reader, to lay with Walker. It also causes the reader, to blindly trust the narrator because he seems more ordinary. It causes lots of confusion and leaves the reader with a shock as the narrator is unreliable. “Self-defense. Maybe now they’ll give me my gun back.” (p. 162, ll. 29-30). This prof that his actions do not match with the truth, as Mark did not even try to kill Walker at the end. Therefore, there is no need to use so call self-defense.