Analyse af 'The red line'

“The red line” takes place in London. The story deals with three totally different people who all happen to meet each other while riding the tubes of London, which takes a dramatic turn.

“Cathy had been at work, so the boyfriend had shown him around London” (p.64, l. 25-26). We can tell that it takes place in London, due to the different sections in the story being named after different parts in London. “But London was vast and confusing.” (p. 64, l. 5). We get an impression of the city being disorganized and fragmented, which easily can be compared to the well-known postmodern indication of how the world is.

The story is set in modern society. We do not know when it takes place, however we can conclude that the story is set in the 20th or the 21st century, by reason of the characters way to describe their surroundings: “you couldn’t walk, always it had to be busses and what the English called the tubes” (p.64, l.29-30). Here we get an impression of the modern city, which is always busy, where walking is almost not an option, since there are so many buses and subways.

“The escalator was endless.” (p.72, l. 2). The escalator is a modern and a newly invented thing, which means that the story is taking place at our time.