Because it is running by – essay
A.
“Because It Is Running By” is a short story which was published in 2009 by Jo Lloyd. It is a short story because there are few people in it, it is short, the action is simple, realistic and it has an open ending.
This short story is about Wil who is in a place in his life where he has to choose where he wants to be and he has to let the past go.
The main character in the story is Wil who lives with his mother. (Page 1, line 8): “The B&B’s the only thing making money, his mother had said. We just need the weather, he had said, the veg’ll pick up”. Wil does not like changes and in the start he is sceptical about the new helper Edie. Wil and his mother’s lives “stopped” when Wil’s father died. (Page 1, line 14): “The guests had breakfast in the room that used to be the family sitting room. […] Wil had hardly been in that room since the B&B started.”
(Page 1, line 25): “Sometimes, on her way out, she’d see Wil working in the field, planting, digging, stacking boxes of veg into the back of the old van”. It sounds like Wil is a person who works hard and maybe he tries to take over his father’s role. It is not mentioned that Wil has other siblings and maybe that is the reason, why he wants to have the father role. Wil’s father died when he was sixteen and it is the age where you have to find yourself.
Edie from London is very different contrary to Wil. In the start she is turned inwards but he tries to make her outgoing. (Page 2, line 44): “I suppose it is”. She has a cold front. Wil tries to make her smile. (Page 2, line 74): “You should smile more, he said”. This quote tells us that Wil wants her to smile more and that he wants to represent as a smiling person but ironically he is not a happy person. (Page 5, line 166): “Never been abroad. Never been on an aeroplane. I’m just a fucking peasant”.
(Page 5, line 82-83): “I’ll have a Pernod, she said. What?” The contrast between Edie and Wil appears in this line. Edie and Wil have different tastes and the barmaid does not know the drink she ordered and that shows us that she is different.
(Page 6, line 126): “As if he had no idea how to protect himself”. Wil is very insecure and it is like he is a absolute beginner at everything when Edie arrives. (Page 5, line 104): “I’m not much of a dancer, he said.” This quote shows us that after the many drinks he is still an insecure person and he tries to protect himself by excusing. Wil wants changes in his life but as already mentioned he is very insecure. It is told that it is a very dry place where they live. (Page 5, line 113): “Wish it would rain, he would say”. Wil wants changes and it is told that he wants rain.
Furthermore it is told that they had owned a big piece of land which was the granddad’s land but Wil’s father sold it and that is maybe the reason why he wants to give it back to his mother. Maybe he thinks that he owes the mother the piece of land and he accuses his father for the loss of the land. When he realizes that Edie has to travel, he feels disappointed and lonely again just like when his father died. (Page 6, line 141): “Don’t start with me. You know it was just for the summer”.
(Page 7, line 183): “(…) he saw now, just the same, too cheerful, too open”. He thought that Edie was a different type of girl but he realizes that she is just like the other girls.
(Page 8, line 202): “(…) she smelled of soap and gorse flowers, of sunlight and bracken and earth, things living, things dying, things continuing in the same way”. She smells of “freedom” contrary to him. He is just the same person and he obtains no changes.
I can relate the story to the poem “No thread to follow” by Andrew Philip. (Line 12): “They say choice is agony” and (Line 4): “There’s no thread to follow”. This tells us that the narrator in this poem needs threads in life just like Wil in the short story needs. You do not know your destiny and before you know the place where you are meant to be, you have to take the first step from the norms. (Line 9): “They say the way up is the way down”. You have to take chances in life because everything is not always good but for every dark night, there is a brighter day after that.
The poem “Cactus tree” is also about finding the right place in life just like the short story. “No actions only talking” is a quote which describes this poem and the short story. This man in the poem does not act just like the main character in the short story. (Line 12): “While she was somewhere being free”. He knows that she cannot hear him but he tries to the limit but the contrast between them, separate them just like in the short story.
B.
The author Jo Lloyd writes in a remarkable writing style. The text is build up about a dialogue between Edie, Wil and his mother. (Page 1, line 9): “We just need the weather, he had said, the veg’ll pick up”. The author has written the text by using different times to inflect the verbs and as readers it makes us notices the way of the writing style. In that part above, the verbs are inflected in pluperfect. The writing style makes it easy for the readers to know who is saying what but it is also distracting because it splits up the sentences and maybe you have to read the part again. Furthermore the language is very descriptive and the use of the short sentences makes the language descriptive. (Page 2, line 50): “Throat cancer. He held up the cigarette. Too many of these.” This sentence gives the reader a picture of the cigarette which is held up. (Page 1, line 25): “Sometimes, on her way out, she’d see Wil working in the field, planting, digging, stacking boxes of veg into the back of the old van”. The detailed language makes the short story more interesting and you get a picture of the situation which is described in the short story.