Analysis of Martin Malone's short story 'Bone Deep'

In the short story we follow the 13-year-old narrator, Ian, mentioning a discovery of a woman’s skeleton, when his family is sitting down for dinner.Throughout the story, we are introduced to Ian’s siblings, Terry, Ann, and Elly. Terry who has been paralyzed by a car accident is one of two twins. Marcus, Terry’s twin, was killed in the same accident.Ann, the youngest sister, still blames their father, who was driving the car, for the accident and tries to pick a fight with him, by linking the death of the skeleton to the twin’s accident.Terry on the contrary, although unable to speak, signals by body language, that he takes his father’s side. This leads to Ann and Ian leaving the room due to anger and wanting to escape their dad.

Analytical essay:

In this story we follow the narrator’s point of view.

We encounter a dysfunctional family who had a terrible accident happen to them. Through the narrator we get brought through the different characters of his family, their relationships and how they interact. The first relationship we are introduced to are his parents, who have been in a very unhappy and distant relationship since the accident, which led them to not speaking to one another for months.” For months after the accident Mum and Dad didn’t speak to each other. The anniversary is looming now and the brooding silence between Mum and Dad has returned,”