Analyse af Hilary Taylors novelle 'Sea Defences'

The short story “Sea Defences” is written by Hilary Taylor in 2018. The story begins in medias res by introducing Michael/the first-person narrator at the police station “again” (s I, line 1). It’s meant with this mention that Michael has been in the police station before and that something bad has happened.

The short story contains metaphors, that stands out in the story as a wound: It was a wound – what had happened to our house” (s I, line 8). This metaphor is Michael´s way of describing what storm Angus did to his house. Michael is devastated by the damage and the tragic events in the story. The simile “hair like a dandelion clock (s II, line 65) is used to describe Hannah Bird from Michael´s perspective. His naive personality makes him associate Hannah with a flower, which also symbolizes her innocence. The simile: “fear hit me like the wave itself” (s III, line 131) expresses Michael´s trauma witnessing Hannah Bird being taken away by the wave. By Michael calling his mother “Mumma” might indicate that he is from the south (s I, line 5). The spelling of the phrase sea defences shows that the story is told from Michael´s perspective. The choice of words is there for connected to how he relates to the world around him. The narrative also contains contractions, such as “couldn´t (s I, line 4). These sentences reflect the narrator´s confused state of mind. The choice of words helps the author create a dark and disturbing atmosphere. Words like “blood”, “mud” (s I, line 4) and wound (s I, line 8). Those words show that something bad will happen. When it comes to the narrative technique, it is interesting to focus on Michael´s unreliability as a narrator. He has a little understanding of social norms, like when he does not understand why people are suspicious of him: “Why is she talking about my job again? What´s their problem with it” (s I, line 25-26). The narrator does not seem to understand why his presence around children is inappropriate and is confused that people do not seem to appreciate what he does: “There have only been two times in twenty-nine years that anyone has said thank you” (s I, line 34). Michael tries to feel less guilty about Hannah´s death, and that is why he is trying to protect children. The narrator´s unreliability means that he provides clues about the events. For example, he does not reveal the details about Hannah´s death before the end of the story: (S III, line 135-141). For most of the story, we only know that something bad has happened to Hannah, but without any details. We can assume that Michael perhaps unknowingly did something horrible to her.