Indledning
Lisa Blower’s short story “The Cherry Tree” is set in a small town. We are introduced to a Mother Roxanne, her son Toby, and an old lady by the name Thea, who is also the main character.

One day in the summer Roxanne and her son Toby comes to Thea’s house, asking to pick the cherries from their tree, but on a branch that grows into Thea’s Garden.

Thea doesn’t like people and definitely not them. Thea says no at closes the door behind her.

Optimer dit sprog - Læs vores guide og scor topkarakter

Uddrag
Thea, the main character of the story, is an odd old lady. She is very minimalistic and shows signs of having mental conditions like OCD and autism.

This is clearly shown on the way she doesn’t like to interact with people not even her neighbours, the way she buys the same things every week, and how everything must be cleaned and perfect.

The first time we become acquainted with her minimalistic lifestyle is in the local supermarket. ” Then she’d turned to Thea, looked into her basket, and said, “Is that everything?” which is what she said every week to Thea when putting her loaf, vinegar, rice and bleach through the till.” (ll.33-35).

Thea only buys what she needs and nothing more, and between the lines we do the reader get the intuition that, this is what she buys every week.

This also indicate that Thea like predetermined limits, and a simple day that looks like the others. The way the reader sees that Thea has OCD, is in the way she cleans, and the way things has to be nice and tidy.

“The door, which Thea had recently repainted with a white emulsion, had two panels of frosted glass which she often cleaned with vinegar.” (ll.16-17).