'Tea with the birds', novelleanalyse

“The funny thing about Mortimer Street is that no-one really seems to know anybody else. It’s one of those places: busy without being comfortable; crowded without being friendly.” ll. 1-3 P. 1.

This quote goes to the gist of the short story “Tea with the birds” by Johanne Harris published in Sainsbury’s magazine in April 2001. The short story deals with the themes of loneliness, prejudice, isolation and xenophobia.

The story is told in a 1st person narrator and therefore the reader has a subjective view on Mortimer Street and the neighbors on the street. The story is set in Mortimer Street in the city of Westminster, London. The plot takes places around a young woman who is the main character of the story. The main character says that no-one really seems to know anybody else on Mortimer Street. The people in the neighborhood are like birds pecking at each other behind their curtains. They spread gossip and consider the main character to be an outsider, which is not acceptable from their point of view. The main character considers herself to be an outsider too. She hasn’t talked to anyone since she moved in, and she likes it that way, probably because she has spent two years in psychiatric hospital where she was used to silence. She doesn’t want to interact with her neighbors. Therefore her neighbors think she is snobby and they conclude that she must be a student. The residents of the neighborhood live like birds in a cage – they peck, make noises and gossip all the time as in this example; l. 14 P. 1. “People assume, with an instinctive contempt that hides fear, that I’m a student.” It’s a typical reaction for human beings to judge people without knowing them – it might be caused by fear of something different, which also is the reason why being an outsider is considered unacceptable in this society. People who keep to themselves frighten the neighbors.