Analyse af Polly Clarks novelle 'Reconciliation'

To reconcile is a re-establishment of a community between two hostile people. One needs to take the first step achieve reconciliation. “Reconciliation” is a short story written by Polly Clark in 2006. It is a story about finding hidden ways, in a quit confusing world, where you cannot always be alone with your problems. Sometimes you need help from outside.

The narrator is a middle-age woman named Laura. She lives in an apartment with a garden by herself. Laura has a psychological disease it can be seen when she is saying on page 1, line 34 “how much normality it took for me to be here”. She shows up on her first day in night clothes and talc in her hair. Her husband, Vernon, had known her at her best (p. 2, l2), and that could indicate that she had been at her best, but not anymore. That is likely the reason why Vernon and her have not been talking to each other for a long time, and why Laura lives in an apartment, maybe in an institution, which she thinks of as cold. She needs to tell lies, like “I’ve grown some onions in the garden, and I had an interview last week” (p. 9. l. 64-65) to prove, that she is on an even keel.