Abduction

“Abduction” is a story published by Comma press in 2002, written by Shelagh Delaney. The story deals with topics like family, standards, love and expectations. The short story is about a woman named Ann, who takes her 16-year old brother with her to London, where she has bought a house in Kensington. She spoils him rotten, by giving him allowances, clothing and a lot more. Ann takes on the roll as being a mother for her younger brother, and it all leads to a fatal ending, where he winds up dying of alcoholism.
The title “Abduction” adds up with how Ann abducted her brother from their parents in Manchester. The story is told in past tense, by a narrator who is unknown. Although we never get to know who the narrator is, it seems to be one of Ann’s other siblings since there in the text I written:”He’d been born late in our parents’ marriage and was much younger than she was”. But later in the story there is written: “He had learned it from his father” which shows us that the story has switched narrators, and no longer called it “our parents” but “his father”. The first narrator of the story is thinking about killing Ann because he/she is so furious at her, and probably blames her for what has happened to the brother. Here you can see that the narrators’ personal opinion is shown in the text.
The story doesn’t have a rich vocabulary, its “everyday” language. It’s light and easy to read. While reading the story, the reader always stays at a distance. Although in the very end of the story there’s written “He’d smiled at the memory until his heart had stopped”. Here we come inside the brothers head, and hear his thoughts.
Ann is a wealthy and successful woman, who left Manchester, the city in which she was raised, to go and live in London at the first chance she got: “When the best job opportunity, working in a London children’s hospital, came along, she couldn’t get out of Manchester quick enough.” There she bought a house in Kensington. When Ann was young, she had gotten herself sterilised. This doesn’t make any sense since she loves children, and is probably the answer to why she is so motherly to her younger brother. He is probably like the son she never had.
The brother is lured away from the so very boring Manchester, to exiting London. Ann has high expectations for her brother, which he has a hard time dealing with. He picked media studies because “he knew his sister expected something of him and it seemed the lesser of all the evils that college offered”. Ann hoped that he would become an accountant or solicitor. She completely ignored the fact that her brother wasn’t interested in being either of those things. He liked music and sports. When he threw the brand need briefcase away, which he had gotten from his sister, it emphasizes that he wants entirely different things than Ann.
Ann never gives her brother the opportunity to stand on his own feet, since she gives him money, clothes, a job and a roof over his head “He realised it was time to go solo, and started looking for a place of his own”. He wants to get out, and live his own life. But it’s hard when he has a big sister barking down his neck, and telling him what to do. But finally he has plans on moving in with Marianne, since she had gotten pregnant. Ann wants her to get an abortion, and promises her brother an apartment if it is done. This shows that she can’t let go of him even though he now is and adult. Marianne doesn’t understand: “Marianne was amazed, furious and puzzled all at the same time. How could anyone behave with such brutal insolence.” When Marianne has given birth, Ann becomes obsessed with her little new niece. She overwhelms her with presents, and thinks that she knows more about the baby’s needs than the parents do. The fact that Ann always thinks that she knows what’s best for others is why people find her selfish. Even when her brother becomes an alcoholic, she can’t admit it to herself that it’s true. She is a doctor, she should have noticed. Another example is when she tells her brother’s girlfriend Marianne, that she isn’t fit for being a mother.
When Ann’s brother gets a drinking problem his life slowly began to fall apart. This is the result of Anns attempt to raise her brother the way she wants him to turn out, without even thinking about what he wants and his needs. He also regrets the decision that he has gone to live with his sister in London, and not stay with his parents, where he felt safe. This he realizes at the end of the story. He wishes he could start over again, but he still loves his daughter and wife and doesn’t regret any of those things. We can see that he has changed throughout there story, as he at first lived with his sister and got spoiled and didn’t notice the world outside, to when he got older and more mature, and knew he had responsibilities and what a big mistake he had made.
The story’s moral is that you have to learn to take care of yourself. You can’t go through like having no responsibilities and getting everything served on a silver platter.
In relation to the text “Adler’s psycoanalytic ideas on development” by Marcia Wehr, you could say the Ann is trying to take the roll as the older child with all the responsibilities. It is possible that she doesn’t quite understand this roll, since she has been the youngest sibling before her little brother was born. She exaggerates the role as the now bigger sister, and ends up being a mother rather then a role model to her brother. As Adler says, the youngest of siblings are: “allowed to be immature and irresponsible.” This he has been since: “he’d had plenty of experience in the field of sex, drugs, smoking and drinking.”
The picture “A Man’s Head in a Woman’s Hair” by Edvard Munch, is of a woman who has wrapped her hair around a man’s head, symbolising her as a mother and shows love. The woman is his guardian, and judging from the expression on the mans face, it seems like he’s unhappy. This draws a parallel to the story, and emphasizes the question as to where the line is drawn between being a loving mother or a negative influence.

Fiction versus Non-fiction

The difference between writing fiction and non-fiction is big. When you write non-fiction its more a story with facts. The reader finds the information the story gives trustworthy and true. This type of writing is often used in biographies. An example on a non-fiction story is “Adler’s psychoanalytic ideas on development”. It is used to describe the work of the psychologist Alfred Adler.
In fiction there aren’t any boundaries that you need to over hold. There are no rules that need to be followed, or a timeline. You create your own story and decide what morals, symbolisms and themes you want it to expresses. When you write fiction, the whole story doesn’t need to be something you made up. It can include real people, at real places. For example “Abduction”. The places are real, but the story isn’t.
Fiction can turn into non-fiction, but not the other way around. If a fiction story has some non-fiction characteristics in it, the story will still be a fiction story. Just like “abduction”. But on the other hand, if a non-fictional story has some fiction elements in it, it would be considered as a fictional story.
Most people prefer writing stories in non-fiction. Since there aren’t so many boundaries, and a non-fiction story also can contain fictional elements. For example when there is made a movie. It’s much easier for the scriptwriters to make something non-fictional. When there before a movie reads in big letters over the screen “based on a true story” it means that it is partly fiction, but since they have made the story a little more interesting for people to see, its now a non-fiction, since its not entirely true.
Non-fiction is a way of telling people facts. Fiction is more a way of keeping people entertained.