A Gap of Sky

In life there's many obstacles to overcome. The difficult transition from childhood to adulthood brings along some of these obstacles and it's often young people who make the wrong choices when choosing how to live their lives. Being young is more or less about providing a background for your personality and that's why the youth is such a vital part of life. But being young is not always as easy as it sounds. Even though freedom is within reach, responsibility and expectations are breathing young people in the neck reminding you of the pressure that comes with it. Instead of choosing the right path that brings them the best, more and more young people feel a massive pressure when undergoing the transition from child to adult. This pressure often result in frequent use of drugs and alcohol to escape from the harsh reality.This is the case in the short story “A Gap of Sky” by Anna Hope from 2008 that deals with the issues of drugs, freedom and pressure.

The story is set in todays London and starts in medias res when the story's main character, Ellie, wakes up. Ellie seems tired, worn out from last night and you understand that she has a hard time getting out of bed. The first sentence describe the darkness around her: “It is dark, but the wrong dark. Something is wrong with the dark” (p. 1, l. 1) Her room is probably dark because the curtains block the sunlight. The wrong dark may symbolize Ellie's state of mind. Her unconsciousness tells her that something is wrong in her life, but she has yet to discover what it is. Ellie is a 19-year old girl who attends University College London (UCL). We quickly get the impression that Ellie is a rather obscene girl because she wakes up a monday morning after a party sunday night. She barely remembers anything that had happened the night before other that she did some hard drugs such as cocaine and K. But even though she seems ruthless or rebellious she still attends UCL. That means she's definitely not stupid, she just needs some stability in her life.
Ellie checks her cell phone and realizes what day and time it is: “16:29. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. Monday. It is Monday. Essay there is and essay due, important, due for Tuesday morning. Virginia Woolf. And the... What was the title? Something Oyster of Perceptiveness. Fuck.” (p. 1. l. 14) The use of language reflects a common 19-year old's word vocabulary. By the use of words as shit and fuck the reader is dragged into Ellie's mind. The story has a third person narrator limited to the view of Ellie, but when Ellie walks in the streets of London the narrator changes to an omniscient one. The story is written as a stream of consciousness, which gives the impression that there's a possibility Ellie might be under the influence of a drug. Ellie has to write an essay on Virginia Woolf and if she doesn't turn it in by tuesday morning, she will be thrown off the course on UCL, since she's already had her extension from the university. This indicates that Ellie needs stability in her life. Ellie doesn't have any ink for her printer, so she takes off to the city to buy some. At Russell Square she leans against an iron railing and sees a black leather glove with its middle finger raised up to the sky. She chooses to see the glove as a sign of her own life. A sign that tries to show her the meaning of life. It occurs to her that she's absolutely free. She doesn't have to fulfill her parent's wishes for a bright young woman. We are told told that her parents forced her to attend the course on UCL: “To Mum? To Dad? (…) It was their fault she was doing this bloody course in the first place.” (p. 2, l. 65) She doesn't want to give up on life, but the unsteadiness in it indicates that she's not truly happy with her situation.
Ellie has a hard time keeping focus throughout the story. Even though she realizes the what serious consequences it will have if she doesn't hand in the essay she is easily distracted when walking in the streets. She follows a person inside a shop and finds a orangey-red stone that reminds her of her mother. “Whatever, it was still an expression of something, a distilled expression of something, of her mother, of her love, and Ellie had just shoved it away, taken it for granted.” (p. 3, l. 110)
She realizes that she has taken too much for granted, and is filled with such a strong love for her mother and the rest of the world that she feels obligated to show the new substance inside of her to everybody. She walks out on the streets again and discovers that every single person seems to be connected to each other by a great bond of love.
In the story Ellie suddenly sees what is described as a gap of sky, which is also the title of the short story. The title can be interpreted as a gap of emptiness. Ellie feels this emptiness and somehow tries to fill it with drugs and alcohol. She confronts this emptiness in the end and realizes the reason behind it; she has taken her mothers love for granted.

Throughout the story there are intertextual references. Ellie is supposed to write a paper on Virginia Woolf, an english author who also wrote in stream of consciousness. Woolf’s short story “Mrs. Dalloway” is also about a young woman wandering in the streets of London. There are similar metaphors in both “Mrs. Dalloway” and “A Gap of Sky”. Clarissa Dalloway describes the Big Ben as the 'heart' of London, while the traffic and roads in “A gap of sky” are described as the 'blood' and 'arteries': “She dodges her way through the traffic, clotted like blood in the arteries nearing the heart of the city.” (p. 3, l. 90) Virginia Woolf writes about this oyster of perceptiveness, which is described as an enormous eye that can see everything. During her walk in the streets of London Ellie becomes an oyster of perceptiveness herself, which helps her to see the meaning with her life. Ellie suddenly sees her life from a new point of view. “She will write her essay and that will be a good thing. A good thing and the right thing to do.” (p. 4, l. 131) She now knows that doing the right thing is not always easy, but in the end all the hard work will pay off.