Indholdsfortegnelse
Write a summary of Cusk’s ”After Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac” (2003) in about 125 words.
Write an analytical essay (700-900) in which you analyse and interpret the short story. Your essay must focus on the character Alan and his relationship to his son, Ian.
Also, your essay must include the following analytical terms:
Main theme, narrative technique, point of view and title
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Uddrag
Later in the story Alan’s wife’s depression is introduced alongside with Alan’s trips to the art museums. He begins to distance himself from Sally, and three years later encounters a German woman named Gerte.
He immediately falls for her which leads to him questioning his whole life previously “how could you have done this and that, how could you have been so ordinary? I was ashamed, ashamed of Sally, ashamed of our house and the things in it, ashamed of our friends and the things we talked about.”
He seems to regret living a life with Sally and feeling embarrassed by everything in his past. Except for one thing, Ian “The only thing I wasn’t ashamed of was Ian. Like I say, he was my passport. He was what made me feel worth something.”
The mistress of the story, Gerte, proposes an ultimatum that will determine how much Alan really cares about Gerte “Its him or me, that’s how she put it in the end”5 which is the climax of the story.
Alan decides to go with Gerte, but when he meets her in the airport Gerte sends him home. The narrator feels a sort of ambivalence towards the outcome of the situation, being happy that he is with Ian again, but at the same time, wishing he was with Gerte.
The main themes of the story become clear when the ultimatum has been set for Alan, to choose between his love for Gerte or being a parent, therefore love and parenthood. Love is seen in different aspects in the story; romantic love, parental love and love for art.
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