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  • Karakter: 10 tal
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Indledning
In the short story “Sparrow and Finch” by Alison Powell from 2015, a girl named Sparrow tells her story of always being the most unpopular when compared to her twin brother Finch.

The structure along with the character development of Sparrow into increasing jeal-ousy allows Powell to realistically portray the emotional stress she accumulates through a life of neglect especially from her family.

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Uddrag
The main theme in the text is jealousy. This is hinted at throughout the entire short story, but it is especially significant in the ending when she dares her twin brother to jump out of the treehouse, after being taunted: “Wait till they find out in school that Spaz eats spiders!’ …

The words simply fell out of my mouth: ‘I dare you to jump from here.’”. The theme is hidden well, because Sparrow suppresses it by complimenting her brother and intentionally removing bad thoughts of him, as when she supposes it was not he who spread the nick-name ‘Spaz’.

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The chronology of the structure is related to the evolution of Sparrow’s character traits. This is shown throughout the text, but the differences is visible in the beginning where Sparrow seems calm:

“I never pushed my brother … I was proud of him, in a way. I’d never be the one to hold him back.” and the ending where she repeats the statements from the begin-ning: “As I said, I never pushed my brother.

But I wouldn’t be the one to hold him back.” Despite these being the same sentences, their meaning changes dramatically with Sparrow’s personality.

The more she feels the jealousy accumulate inside the enclosed chamber that is her mind, the more bitter she becomes.

The quote shows how her character development is directly related to the increasingly unpleasant experiences she gains throughout her life.

Her character development also follows the five stages of grief: First, she is in denial as to whether she dislikes her brother.

Then she speaks of her grandmother in an angry tone. She tries to bargain with the popular Ada Stiles from her school.