Analyse af novellen 'On the Island'

A part of life is to grow up and to experience things. The older you get the more experienced you will be. Young people have to listen to elderly people, they are mostly more knowing and have experienced much more in life and because of that they would be able to give you good advice. Young people have to respect elderly people and reverse. I think when you are getting older and start to look like a ‘real’ grown up man or woman, you can still feel young. You can still feel young at heart, and you will properly still have the same thinking as when you were younger. I think this is what Doris is struggling with in the short story “on the Island”.

Doris is an elderly retired woman but in her mind she does not feel old. Doris’ son and her daughter-in-law are talking to Doris in an educational way they treat her like a little child, a child they are raising. They do not believe that Doris is able to make her own decisions, they scold her and she is not allowed to do what she wants to do. I do not think that Doris’ son or daughter-in-law like Doris that much, they just feel obliged to be together with her, because they are family - they see Doris as an old helpless woman. The daughter-in-law and Doris’ son are “just” waiting for Doris to die, so they can get her money and afford to buy a new house, so I would call them very selfish and cunning/calculated. The scene on page 3 line 71- 76 is a good characterisation of the daughter-in-law’s and John’s behaviour. Doris knows that her son and daughter-in-low are not happy about her presence and she feels unwanted (page 1 line 5-6). Doris wants to enjoy life even though she is elderly, I don’t think she gets the respect from her son as she deserves. She loves being on the island Tiree. In peace and on her own she can explore the island, it is an adventure for her to be on her own and walk around the island. The island is peaceful and it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of human activity in nature where Doris has been exploring. I think the island is a “wake up call” for Doris. When she is walking around studying the island she has a lot of time to think about her own life and what she wants to do with it. And I think it is here she suddenly understands that she shall and will not let her son and daughter-in-law order her about and tell her what she is allowed to and what she is not allowed to do.