An Essay and Interpretation of:
Blue written by Rachel Seiffert

A) A summary of the story:
The story is about the young couple Kenny and Marie. Kenny has rented a decayed flat which he has enabled. He has no job, but he is helping his brother-in-law, who gives him a sofa and some paint. His girlfriend Maria is pregnant. One day Maria comes over, Kenny shows proudly his flat to her. But Marie did not seem impressed. He cooks for her but the atmosphere seems uptight. After the dinner Maria will like to watch TV, but she changes her mind, and goes home. Kenney takes a bath and smokes a joint to forget all until next morning.

The next day he eats dinner with his parents. On the way home he drinks a beer to forget all. The next day, he spends all the day in bed. He called Marie. She sounds happier and tells that her father has got a job again. Now everything will be easier. She says she would like to come over the next evening. Kenney was forced to borrow money from his mother, that he could afford food. They make dinner together. The next morning Maria goes home, but she is coming back few days later. This time they sleep together for the first time in a while. Next morning they are going to paint the flat. Maria decides it should be blue. The smell of the paint is making Maria a bit of sick, and she goes for a walk. When Kenny had finish painting he hands the keys back to the neighbour and leaves the estate onto the main road.

B) An essay about the text:
The theme in the story is love and the young people’s problems. This story illustrates how the poverty can lead into troubles. Maria has been pregnant, presumably is it a stroke of bad luck, because they do not have money enough to take care of the baby. The worries destroys the love between Kenny and Maria, and thereby their relationship. Line 78: ”When the baby comes he’ll need ten times more.” This means that it costs ten times more to have a baby. The moneyworries is presumably also the reason to Marias behaviour in the start of the story.

The surroundings in this text are poor. Both Kenny and Marias family is poor. Marias father has not had a job for three years, but gets a job in the start of the story. In line 48 can we see that they have suffered a bit of poverty: ”[...] everything will be easier now.” Kenny is poor too; he hasn’t money enough to food and to pay the rent. Sometimes he borrows money of his parents. The money Kenny has, he uses the wrong things, like eighth. Line 77-78: ”He needs some money for food and fags and bus fares.”

Kenny is a young boy, who has a girlfriend named Maria. He is really in love with her, but she is more reserved. Maria is pregnant, which Kenny seems like a problem, because Kenny is unemployed. He does not have enough money, because a baby is very expensive. Kenny tries to get a job, but does not succeed. Kenny’s parents worries about him and try to help him. His family supports him, except his sister. His sister interfere herself in his life. Line 81-82: ”His sister tells him to look in the paper like everyone else and his dad tells her to be quiet.” Kenny’s brother provides work to him through his in-law family.

Kenny tries to get rid of the problems and the real life by smoking hash and drinking. Line 36-37: ”He drinks the rest of the wine, rolls a damp joint that is a job to smoke but is just the trick, and he can forget it all until the morning.” The end, when he goes out on the road, can interpret in different ways. I have two possibilities. Either he is tired of life and hopes of a good life, and commits suicide. Or he will try to leave the real life, and get a better life another place, maybe with his brother.

In the end Mari picks the blue colour to the flat, which also is the title of the story. The colour blue can symbolise sadness, cynical feelings and fertility that can describe the relationship between Kenny and Maria.

Translation:
An August morning in 1983 the Edinburgh International Book Festival opened for the first time. But the fewest had confidence that it would be held again. The founders were convinced that the festival was a one-time only undertaking. However 30.000 visitors turned up, and in 1997 the festival had grown big enough to become an annual festival event and lifted the author cultivation to popstar level. In 2005 the main theme was Nations Unlimited and it was about nations and their future and approximately one third of the bookfestival’s arrangements were directed to children. The festival is primarily financed by entrance fees and sale of books and in fact only 17 percent of the budget comes from public funds.