A Birthday Remembered
Love is very complicated, not just butterflies in one's stomach, but it also involves a lot of pain. The pain is not easy to force out. We have to confront ourselves with the pain and get over it, but this is not easy. We restrain our feelings and try to forget them. This only causes an even bigger pain. That is the situation for Ellen, the main character in this short story. Ellen's love life has been complicated, she is a lesbian and obliged to listen to people's prejudices. Her one and only love, Jackie, dies and she is not allowed to bury her "She has not been allowed to do this one last thing for Jackie. To be with her during the last rituals." (ll.24-25). Because of Jackie's former husband, Roger, whom she has left to live with Ellen, but he could not accept her wife being a lesbian and tried to declare her temporarily insane (l.15). Jackie's daughter on the other hand thinks that what Ellen and Jackie had was wonderful and beautiful (l.102). When tobie mentions this Ellen's thought is "God, for the first time, it was out in the open" The short story takes place in the 1980-90s
Another point is that, Ellen reminds Tobie a lot of her mother, she wants her opinion about her new friend, because she knows that she would say the same as his mother. I think this is one of the reasons why we can feel that tobie rather would live with Ellen than her dad. I do not think it is a coincidence that the author has chosen this day to be Ellen's birthday - a day full of love is kind of symbol for Ellen, a warm and giving person who thinks about others particularly Tobie. Simultaneously the tendency is that young people returning to their grandparents' values, for example the belief in marriage and lifelong love. That is among other things, why the contact to the grandparent generation is valuable to them . A burden had been removed from her shoulders. That's why we always end up getting hurt, some more than others. Roger is the opposite of Ellen instead of being interested in the inner values of other people. The title "A Birthday Remembered" is very important because it is a kind of point of no return for Ellen, now she got the chance to finally move on, with a good memory. It takes place on Valentines' Day, a day when in particular Britain and the USA you show your love to people you care about. He is more interested in making and keeping money and material comforts. Demands on young people are far bigger now than earlier, but they also have more options than ever before. because being a homosexual are not something people talk about in this story it is a taboo. This short story shows us that the sorrow can be beaten if you realize what love is.
Common topics in this essay:
Tobie Tobie,
,
Birthday Remembered,
Britain USA,
Ellen's God,
Ellen Jackie,
short story,
Valentines' Day,
live ellen,
pain easy,
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Acceptance Essays
