A Journey by Colm Toibin

A go by Colm Toibin Changes is a part of e truly normal human life, only if some durations it doesnt flip in a direction we like. When it happens that life doesnt working out the way we hope, its a natural subject that we start looking back on our prehistorical. In wonder of the things we did wrong, but also just to remember a time that felt brighter and happier. A Journey by Colm Tobin is a flooring that deals with a reflection to the highest degree(predicate) the past, and how it has affected the array. In A Journey the reflection happens in flashbacks, that the storys main character bloody shame is getting on her trip from a infirmary to her home.On this hospital she has picked her word of honor who has suffered and still suffers from a deep depression. On the same time has her maintain, named Seamus, just had a nonher stroke, and is very ill. in a flash Seamus was lying upstairs in that same house. The whole right fount of his body was paralyzed. That scene Mary co uld picture more sharply than 60 anything. Even when she read the newspaper to him, Seamus did not seem interested. 1 Much interests isnt she getting from her depressed son as well, he doesnt deficiency to sit with her in the front seat in the car and does specifically ask her to not ask any question during their journey.Mary is therefore a lonely woman, who has to deal with a troubled present alone. A of course reaction is to seek comfort in a brighter time in her past. She think a lot about happy memories with Seamus, her father and her son. At the same time its catch that she is looking back to receive some kind of explanation of her misery at the same time. She fannyt really find these explanations though, because she is afraid of facing what confuse ca employ the changes that have been inn he life.That we see in this quote about her sons doctor He did not seem ready to answer any direct questions so Mary had asked none. That is what she is trying to urge herself, but t he truth is probably that she is afraid of the answers he might make water her. A Journey is a story about life, and how we handle the change of directions we sometimes have to make on that journey. Therefore are changes a major theme. Mary has a hard time facing the problems that the changes means, and seek comfort in the comforting past. The changes Mary has a hard time ealing with is involving his family, and what she can do with them and how she has to be. That makes family-relation, by my opinion, to another important theme in the story. The way she is reflecting about changes, which she does implicit without she admits it, is through flashbacks. The story starts up in a flashback and they are well used all the way to the halt. The use of flashbacks gives an improved knowledge about the head characters. In A Journey it is used to give us lecturers an insight in Mary and her familys past, and therefore gives a hint of how the situation became how it did.They have a clear con trast to the present in where the story takes place, and it creates a situation where the reader feels a sense of understanding as though he/she knows the past tense and the change and development of the different characters represented in the story. concretely is the flashback a tool to illustrate Marys almost dire attempt to maintain things how it were, before it all changed. Thats why theres a lot of flashback to memories with her father before he died, her husband before he got sick and her son before his mood got isolated and depressed.Its also a tool to tell us about the background for her relationship with her son, be telling us why she has much(prenominal) a hard time connecting with him, and understand how he feels. It was, she knew, an ill- ness, but it did not seem like one. It seemed to her like something David would not give up, a special dark gift he had been offered. Something which comforted him and which he had accepted. The flashbacks are used to tell us about all whats behind adjacent plot. The title of the short story refers to more than its literal journey from the hospital to home.It refers to the development with Marys way of dealing with things. In the very short journey from hospital to the house Ill interpret that Mary develops, because she through the flashbacks sense the changes and by that she becomes more focused on the present and the time to come. This statement is supported by a quotation fro, the end of the story. It was time, she thought, to let the grey appear. Literally, she talks about stop coloration her hair blond. Figuratively, it means that she needs to face the problems and let nature do its work. She cant hide the reality from herself anymore. 1