Calling for Newcastle is a short story written by Julia Darling in 2004. It’s about how low self-confidence effects peoples life.

Gloria is the main character. She loves her family very much, she thinks they understand and respect one and another. She doesn’t like to go out - she’s kind a isolated from other people. Her self esteem is very low, and for this she blames her weight. She describes her self as a slow moving, heavily breathing giant. This sounds like she doesn’t think very much about her self and that she doesn’t like the way she looks.

Gloria doesn’t want to go to university, but manage to get a job at a call centre - she couldn’t get a job any were else, because she’s to fat. The job is a telephone job, were she has to sell house insurances for 6 pounds an hour. The call centre is described as “a square box between roundabouts, where most employees sit in cubicles, boxes in by thin screens”. There are very quite and the employees don’t really talk to each other, because they don’t know what to talk about. I don’t think any of the employees like working at the call centre, because when Gloria asks Deborah if she enjoys working there, she just says “it’s a job”. One day one of the sales man, Gareth hung himself. No one did not say anything to Gloria, she had to read about it in the local news paper. She felt very angry, because no one had informed her. Gareth symbolizes the non-verbal. People at the call centre don’t care about each other - they are people who come and go. After this episode with Gareth, Gloria begin to see what is happening with the call centre. It’s a place where people can isolate them self. She decides to ask Marsha and Deborah if they should go out together, to shake things up. Gloria change a lot, while working at the call centre. She goes from being the quite fat girl, to be a girl with lot’s of confidence.

In the story Gloria is very fascinated by some bullocks, which she can se from the call centre. She likes the way they changed position, arranging themselves like compositions for her benefit. She likes watching them, from her seat at the call centre. I think they are like a mirror image of Gloria. They move around inside a fence every day without moving outside. They are identical with Gloria, because they were a like Gloria moves around in their own little world without breaking free (talking to any one).

When the bullocks one day weren’t going around outside in the narrow field (they were gone), she begins to break out. I think the bullocks symbolize “breaking out”. She gets more confidence and strength when the bullocks are not around.

When Gloria in the end of the story shouts “BOMB SCARE”, i think it’s because she has come to a changing point. She deals with her overweight, that she’s from Newcastle and the fact that she’s never going to be popular - and i think she’s fine with that. She realise that she doesn't need to lie to be happy, but just have fun with friends that she love and her family.