Tove Jansson: novellen 'Albert' og magtfordeling

For all of us, who have siblings, do we all have relationship to your brother/sister. Some relationships are closer than others. In these kinds of sibling relationships, there is usually a form of distribution of power, where it is typically the oldest sibling, who has most to say. In the short story “Albert” written by Tove Jansson, this distribution of power between two siblings are dealt with. In the short story we are dealing with only two charters, who are brothers. The smallest brother is main the character in the novelle and our narrator. The oldest brother Albert is a secondary character to our main character. In the short story, the two brothers decide to set sail on a raft. On the trip, they are exposed to some challenges, where it then becomes apparent who controls the distribution of power in the relationship between the two brothers

As mentioned before, are the youngest brother the narrator of the short story and therefore are our short story written with an inner 1. Person narrator. We then mostly hear about his feelings and not the oldest brother, Alberts feelings, but we can tell albert’s feelings by analyzing his actions.

The main Character are haughty and quite childish in his state of mind. We see that on the following line: (page two, line 18 - 27) “You're cruel!" I shouted. "You do awful things. I don't want to talk to you anymore!" He looked up at me a little sadly under his peaked cap and said: "There, there!" Then he went on putting the bleak on the line. I walked away. At the boathouse I turned round and shouted: "I'm just as old as you are! I'M JUST AS OLD AS YOU ARE!" "Yes, I suppose you are," Albert replied.” With this quote we can see how the main character is handling this situation in a childish way and not acting quite responsible by shouting “You're cruel” and “I'M JUST AS OLD AS YOU ARE". Opposite to the youngest brother, the biggest brother, Albert is much more responsible and older in his state of mind. He is much more sensible and can think a lot clearer contra the youngest brother. We see that at the end of the story, where little brother panics a bit over the situation. He gets worried about the situation, because they are trapped in a fog and a halfdead screaming herring gull scares him. The oldest brother Albert then just remains calm in this situation and cooling it down by killing the screaming herring gull and frees it from its sufferings.