'The Typist and the Junkie', analyse

Analysis of the story "The Typist and the Junkie"SummaryThe story is about a typist, who is in love with a junkie. The typist is jealous of the junkie, because the junkie’s days are left open and her days are going with working as a typist. She has “Junk dreams”, but these dreams died in the gutter, when the Junkie died near the Rose and Crown. Story/plotThe typist wants to live a life, like her junkie lover. He is free and can do whatever he wants to do and she has to go to work every day. Her dream is to live a free life like him, but her dream died, when the junkie died. Time aspectThe story stretches across a weekend. In the beginning of the story, the narrator describes how the Friday night and the heart of the city starts pumping, purple and vibrant. And in the end of the story it’s Monday morning, were it’s raining a lot.I think the story takes place in the 1970’s. During this decade there was a lot of drug abuse and the typewriter was in use until the late 1970’s. Setting/environmentThe streets on a Friday night are lit up by neon signs and filled with take-away hamburger stalls. It tells us that it’s in the city. But it also stands in the text that it’s at Kensal Green, which is an area of London, England. The typist’s live in a bed-sitter where the ceiling is brown-stained and the kitchen is just a small alcove where there is food left on the table. There is a Dali poster on her wall. Rose and Crown is the place where the junkie is drinking alcohol. Outside Rose and Crown it smells like beer, there is yellow vomit on the ground and empty beer bottles on the road. I would say that the junkie dies in the gutter near the Rose and Crown, because it is described how the rain is rinsing away the blood and dirt of the Rose and Crown passage. NarratorThe story is written as if the narrator is observing the characters in the story from the outside. The narrator in the story is omniscient; she knows everything. Maybe she or someone close to her has experienced something similar. Character sketches + their relationshipThe Typist: The typist is jealous at the junkie, because the junkie’s days are left open. So I think that the typist needs space in her life. She is a busy woman, who works hard. Because she works so much, she doesn’t have any time to go out and have fun for a moment. She seems to be very lonely and when she is together with the junkie, she is away from her hard life with work. The story doesn’t say anything about what she looks like. She could be a beautiful woman, who gets inspiration from the magazines she’s reading or maybe she doesn’t look that well. She might be jealous of the girls in the magazine and wants to look like them. The narrator describes these girls in the magazine as beautiful, thin and good looking models, with nice skin and lots of makeup. The junkie: At the end of the story, the junkie is thinking about his mom. At this point, he is nearly dying. I think he has disappointed his mom and that’s why she is the last thing he is thinking about. He is thinking about her in a warm way and he may regret having wasted his life on alcohol and drugs. He doesn’t seem to be poor; he has the money to buy magazines, alcohol and drugs. He is a thin man and with a hunched spine. His chin is dark an unshaven. He has pale blue eyes and you can see in his eyes that he is a junkie. He has sallow hands and they are dirty. Junkies normally don’t look very well, but I think he might look handsome. If he didn’t look just a little bit handsome, I don’t think that the typist would be attracted to him. Use of symbols/symbolismIn the typist kitchen, there is tins of tomato soup and sliced white bread. It could symbolize that she doesn’t have much time to herself. Tomato soup and bread is a quick solution if you are hungry. She doesn’t remove the tins and the rest of the bread after she has eaten it could signal that she doesn’t have enough energy left after a hard day at work.A Dali poster is a fantasy-picture from the 60’s. On the internet, they describe Dali poster like this: “A Spiritual Garden that Rock N Rolls”. That could symbolize that she a dreamer, which is also indicated in the story as “junk dreams”. Themes DrugsJealousyLoneliness SadnessUnfulfilled dreams