Analyse af 'I Don't Dream of Genie'

Life is not as we expect it to be. Nor has it ever been as easy as closing your eyes when going to sleep. It can be described as a journey you are forced to go through. Through your journey you will find many paths leading to many situations that can either have a good or a bad influence on you. It is therefore never one simple path as we may have once thought it was. One of the scenarios we can go through that we may have never expected is the loss of love. Love can take a huge turn and instead of warming our hearts it can end up tearing them apart. From there it can be hard to stand on both feet again. Through the short story ‘’I Don’t Dream of Genie’’ we follow the main character’s journey in trying to move on with her own life and forget about her loved one from the past.

Across the short story it is clear how much the main character, Sherry, is longing for the one she loves. It is seen for example on page one line 20: ‘’I like hearing other people are longing for something too’’. It seems to comfort her in a time where she is feeling lonely and is not that much fond of herself. After her ex cheated on her she started to blame herself for being in such a situation without anyone next to her. On page one line 16-17 she narrates: ‘’ The scratchy fake beard is no picnic either. It leaves a rash, some acne. Another reason I’m all alone at thirty-three’’. Her confidence level drops and instead of focusing on healing herself she lets the pain take over her and looks at herself as the real enemy even though it was her ex who cheated on her. Her pain that has taken over her and has an impact on her ordinary days is clear in the short story due to her lack of focus. On page one from line 25 to 28 Sherry describes a guy and elaborates on her observation of him which has nothing to do with her coming for the job as Santa Claus. The fact that she throughout her narrative loses focus and starts noticing other small details that are ‘’irrelevant’’ could indicate that she somehow is eager to escape from her pain or everything that makes her think of Gene, her ex-boyfriend.