English Essay on the Short Story The Island
English essay on the short story” The Island”.
We all know the word Freedom, but do we truly know what it means? It’s a good word which explains: No commitments, no chains, no concerns, and no insecurity. The Scottish short story ‘The Island’ is an expression for this freedom and to indulge you in something bigger than yourself. It could be God or in this case, it is the beautiful nature. This short story is published in 1992 and the author is unknown. The main character is Doris (last name unknown), she has a son, named John who is married to Annette, and is Doris’ daughter-in-law. We can estimate Doris to be 50-60 years old if we figure her son, John’s age, and his status as a married man. Doris’ relationship with the young couple is difficult because she is an outsider, she is old, and they are young, both John and his wife Annette. “When Doris visited, Annette never found her jobs or asked favors. If there were children, it might be different, but in her heart Doris doubted it. ”.
According to this line, we easily get to know what Doris’s experience is with Annette. And we get to know that Doris wants to involve herself more in the young couple’s life. She had half hoped that John, at least, would say he really wanted her to come. But no. Certainly, her daughter-in-law did not need her. And it comes to express, that Doris also not want to be alone, not needed. John and Annette, mostly Annette, tread Doris like a child. “They saw several more beaches that Doris wanted to explore on foot, but she was imprisoned in the back seat. ”. And they, John and Annette keep saying that Doris needs to relax and take it easy. The Island we are on is called Tiree. Tiree is an island off the west coast of Scotland. As long as Doris stays on the island, she becomes freer. First of all, she meets an elderly man, carrying fish in a basket on the beach. They small-talk, and she looks at the nature around her and the man. ” Standing here she felt that her house in the busy Anchusa Road belonged in another world. I can imagine this feeling Doris feels because I had stood in a direct situation like her. The busy world is far from you, and you are flying. You have no concerns about anything, you’re not bound to anything and you’re feeling like you’re flying.
It is an inexpressible moment. And it gives you the taste of freedom. That’s why we, at the end of this short story, hear that Doris wants to live on the island. And after this boost of freedom, she sees an otter. ”She breathes a sigh of pleasure”. After this experience, John and Annette observe, that Doris becomes very obstinate. In the short story, it sounds like, John and Annette are forced to live with Doris because elsewhere they can’t get her house after she dies of course. Nature has a big role in this short story. Because it helps Doris to see the freedom and to be free. We can see in different sections that nature has an effect at Doris: The next morning it was raining but Doris went out all the same. A mist had come in from the sea and every blade of grass was hung with silver droplets. It was, to Doris, even more, beautiful than the day before. She found a patch with creamy mushrooms. She picked one, peeled off the delicate skin, and ate it”. According to these lines, we can tell, that nature has a big influence on Doris. I think she never tried to eat a mushroom, uncooked.
And we can tell because she lives in the city, she had too much influence from it, and that shows us, people like Annette and John. And that’s why they flip out at the end of the short story, because they hear Doris wild idea to sell the house in Anchusa Road, and move to the island:” ”You’ll do no such thing. ” Annette was startled into open bad manners”. This clearly shows us, what kind of people they are too, compared to Doris, especially Annette. We can conclude the short story. ‘The Island’ as a released giving story to people without freedom and to those people who are still in chains and can’t get out. The short story shows a lot of things, we can categorize as the themes of this short story. Freedom, relationships in the family, and identity, but the most important of these themes is freedom. Over and over again, we can read through the lines, that Doris doesn’t have it and wants it, and the only thing, in her case, who can give it to her, is nature. Therefore nature plays a big role in this short story, and we know it from our own lives. Nature gives and shows us, the humans, freedom.
