Indledning
Modern society is like a moving tube following a red line. It is always moving, and it is always going somewhere new.
Even though you are trying, you cannot always keep up with the red line and move on like the others.
Therefore you will find yourself in the middle of chaos, unable to do anything. However there are some people, who are afraid of the constantly changing world, and who just want everything to be as it was before.
Modern society has its advantages and its drawbacks. On one hand we have become more individualized and have become more contemporary, however on the other hand some of us cannot keep up with each other, and do not fit in with the rest of the society.
In this particular short story “The Red Line '' written by Charles Higson, we hear about a life changing story through three different people’s perspectives, and how modern society has its effect on them.
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Uddrag
Another way to explain it is to characterize him as a symbol of mainstream, and therefore he is nameless.
This mainstream man is a paradox between the traditional and the modern human being. At one hand he is very controlling at strict about his look, which is a very modern thing to be:
“Twice a day he washed his hair, so that it gleamed like precious metal.” (p. 62, l. 7-8), and on the other hand he does not want any change in the world at all:
“Why couldn’t people just leave things alone, instead of wanting to change, change, change all the time?” (p. 63, l. 20-21-22).
We know this because of the way he reacts when he is told that his karaoke has been replaced by a DJ.
The nameless man is addicted to the attention he gets by singing the karaoke, and therefore he gets upset:
“Desperate, he’d searched for another pub.” (p. 66, l. 23-24). Here we get an impression of a narcissistic man, who is both addicted to his look and the attention he gets from the karaoke bar.
He thinks that he is better than everybody else, in a very egoistic and arrogant way: “The pub just filled up with drunks, drug addicts, girls with dirty hair. He hated these people.” (p. 66, l. 22-23).
The nameless man is also racist in the way he looks at Berto. He sees him as a threat to his values, and therefore he thinks that Berto has to die:
“Who the fuck did he think he was, the greasy ape? Look at him. He was just the type who was ruining London” (p. 69, l. 28-29) Berto is the opposite of the other characters in the story.
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