The short story Number 40 by Sarah Butler
Indledning
Everyday life can be dull, monotonous and stressful. It is therefore not an unusual thing to let your mind wander off and fantasize about how things could have been if fate had treated you differently.
There are people who daydream very little, staying focused and then there are people who tend to dwell more on their dreams, maybe because of a general dissatisfaction with their lives. Of the two examples, the latter is portrayed through the mind of a woman in Sarah Butler’s short story, “Number 40”.
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Uddrag
The fact that she has an office job is also evidence to her being a mature individual. This, though/however, is where the going starts to get rough. The fact is that when reading the story we begin to uncover layers of Melissa’s mental state.
When you finish reading “Number 40” you can navigate your way back to the top again and find a piece of clever foreshadowing. “Melissa hated forgetting things. Wallet, umbrella, diary, keys - their absence always left her feeling anxious and unbalanced” (page 1, line 1-2).
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This point of view makes it difficult to determine how much of the story is actually credible, because the things conceived by the mind of Melissa could be very real or it could just be the product of daydreaming. An example of this is when she lingeringly thinks back to the time when Simon and she were on holiday together.
We are told that Melissa “couldn’t remember the name” (Page 1, Line 20), when referring to the place they stayed, whereas Simon “was good at things like that.”(Page 1, Line 21).
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