...- but with freedom comes responsibility. Every individual needs to take responsibility for his or her own life. You have to struggle with the choices you have taken or will take. This way of living life in a modern society is depicted in the short story A Gap of Sky. The story is about the young, nineteen year old girl Ellie, who lives in London. She deals with an environment full of temptations as drugs and alcohol - but she definetly feels the freedom of todays society, especially in the big citites. The main character in the short story is 19 year old Ellie, as mentioned in the beginning of the essay. She lives alone in appartment in London. This means has the responsebility for her own life now. She has been send here by her parents to study at UCL. Ellie has her own way of living life and that is by staying until late. When she is at a party drink a lot, but she also uses drugs. This might be some way of dealing with her loneliness, but she faces the reality when she wakes up the morning or in her case the afternoon after. It seems as Ellie might think it is difficult to find the whole meaning of life, but she is surrounding by things in the big city who leads her on to an answer on that question. A Gap of Sky is told by a third-person narrator, which means the reader has the oppotunity to know a little about what the character is thinking, and it makes it easier to indentify with Ellie in this short story. The languange, composition and sentences is very important...
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...A Gap of Sky – Anna Hope A Gap of Sky is a short story written by Anna Hope. The short story is from 2008, and it takes place in London, England. The story is about a girl who has a lot of pressure on her shoulders from both society and family. The story shoes what environments can do to a person who stands alone without the support of family and friends. The story is written in 3. Person narrative, because the author describes the main character with words like she and her. Example: “…Ellie giggles. She touches the middle finger…” The author has written the story as a Stream of Consequences, which helps to give the impression that Ellie is under the influence of drugs. The character uses a lot of short sentences with only a few words. This makes the story more confusing and it often speeds up the action of the story. The sentences work perfectly with Ellies thoughts because they are short, hectic and out of order. A girl named Ellie is a student and the main character in the story. She is a troubled nineteen-year-old girl, who probably has a drug problem, I quote: “…Coke. Does she have any left…?” One day she wakes up in her bed at half past four on a Monday and realize that she has a very important essay due to Thursday and she haven’t even started yet. Ellie has not applied herself enough at school, and risks getting kicked out of school if she doesn’t hand in her essay assignment. She is still high on drugs and alcohol from the day before when she realize...
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...------------------------------------------------- Essay: A Gap of Sky A lot of young people have tried to end up in a circle of endlessness; coping with restlessness and the feeling of a missing meaning of their life. In that case, they need a gap of sky to give them their hope and self-confidence back in their decisions of life. In the essay ‘A Gap of Sky’ by Anna Hope the reader meets a girl called Ellie, who are dealing with this issue of choosing the easiest solutions. She wakes up one morning, exhausted by a party the night before, realizing that she has to write an essay about Virginia Woolf for school. She has already got one letter saying that her place at the course will be reconsidered if she fails to hand in an assignment again. Unlucky for her, she has no ink left to print the essay, so she goes out in the city to buy some. At the trip out to get ink, she thinks about her own life and how she shall continue. The essay is focusing at the thoughts, doings and character traits of the main and only character, Ellie. It is written in a third person narrator, who tells from Ellie’s point of view. The use of a limited narrator makes the reader sympathise and identify with the character. It varies between spoken and written language. In this case the spoken language is her thoughts instead, as if she is talking to herself. Both the spoken and the written language can be seen here: “That was the way she wished it, has always wished it, to dig, to the core, to get...
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...Written assignment 5 Life as a teenager isn’t always as easy as it seems. Actually it is the most difficult part in life for many people which we get to see in Anna Hope’s short story “A gap of sky”. Some choose to focus on education whereas other choose alcohol and partying. Whatever path people would choose they all will be lead to the right path in the end no matter what has happened in the past. It just takes time. The short story shows us that even when you have had a rough time in the past you can always come out to be a beautiful and great person however you have to do the right things when the time comes. Furthermore even though you feel lonely or sad you just have to make some adjustments in your life which is manageable if you have the right attitude. The short story takes place in London where Ellie wakes up feeling sick because she had been partying last night, but she has to get up to write her assignment. In between a problem occurs due to she has to go to the store and buy some ink. If she weren’t to deliver the assignment she would get kicked out of the literature school. On her way to the store she notices a glove which has it middle finger pointed at the sky, and also she visits a museum that has an exhibition about life and death. The longer she walks the more clear she‘s starting to see how bad of a life she has been living and at the end of the story we get to see that she ends up writing her assignment because she knows it is the right thing to...
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...A Gap of Sky What is the meaning of life? What is the right thing to do, and what is wrong? Is this education really what I want, or what my parents want? What do I want? Many questions are asked, but no one knows the answer to them. Through the short story “A Gap of Sky” a young girl on the influence of drugs, is looking for printer ink for her essay. On one side she wants to just keep being under the influence of drugs, party all night and have fun with her friends, but on the other hand she wants something to do with her life, she wants an education. One day she sees a gap in the sky. What does it symbolise? Is this a new start? The story “A Gap of Sky”, by Anna Hope is a wake up call for young people. Waking up still influent by drugs after eight hours of sleep Ellie shoots up from under the duvet. She has an essay due for Tuesday, and the only thing she is missing is printer ink. “She remembers the letter, the stomach-lurching letter: If this lack of application continues we will have no choice but to reconsider your place on the course.” Apparently Ellie does not care about the school. She is a naive and young woman, and she wants to decide for herself. “She needs to get some printer ink, if she’s going to do the this essay. And if not? Will they really kick her off the course? … She thinks of this past year, of university, and it feels like sludge, like thick dark sludge in her brain… No way. She’s got to get this essay in.” Although she has done some stupid...
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...A Gap of sky The short story “A Gap of sky”, by Anna Hope, is about how youth often is characterized by life, desire and a feeling of freedom and invincibility. The setting is in today’s London and the author starts in medias res “It is dark, but the wrong dark. Something is wrong with the dark” (l.1). Because of this the author establishes, by his use of words such as not just dark but the wrong dark, a rather gloomy mood. The story is about how being young and, although freedom is within reach, responsibility and expectations are right behind you, reminding you of reality. The youth is a vital part of your life providing background for what the personality of the person concerned ends up to be. Every person has different ways of looking at freedom. Some people like to take a run in the nature, open their minds and others do drugs to escape from reality. In “A Gap of Sky” the girl called Ellie deals with the issues of drugs, freedom and responsibility. She does a lot of coke and seems to be addicted and needs it so she can write her essay. “and then more coke arriving”(l.20) “Coke. Does she have any left? … Yesssss! Clever Ellie. Little bump just to get things started.” (l.30-33). Ellie also likes to party and the night before seemed to be pretty rough with booze, smoking crack pipe, taking drugs and ending up with some bruises. “rests her swollen cheek against her palm” (l.3) “her chest hurts.”(l.11) In the morning of this wild night, she wakes up and realizes that she...
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...Write an essay (900-1200 words) in which you analyse and interpret Anna Hope's short story "A Gap of Sky". A part of your essay must focus on narrative technique and the importance of the city setting. A Gab of Sky - essay To be young is the greatest thing on earth, especially when you have a lot of friends, do well in school, and remember to relax and enjoy life. In this short story Anna Hope tells us about a young girl, Ellie. She takes pleasure in life by using drugs in her everyday life. Ellie is a girl who was sent to college by her parents, nothing she really wanted, but something she had to. She dosen’t like being there, and she has the thought of running away, but something inside her tells her to stay. We are told that the night before she went to a party where she got very drunk and took a lot of drugs. She thinks the night through and she kind a remembers it all, however, she was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Suddenly she recalls that she have to make an essay and have to print it out, but she dosen’t have any ink, and therefore she have to run out to get some. Ellie is a nineteen year old teenager who lives in the heart of London, where her college is. Apparently she lives at the college and not at home with her parents. Ellie blame her parents for her being there, and she even calls it “this bloody course”. She stays up late and party, smoke crack pipe and do drugs. She dosen’t take her course serious and she really just want to hang out with...
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...A Gap of Sky Being young is not always that easy as it sounds. You have to think on things like expectation and responsibility. It is reality and you cannot always live life, as you want it. You cannot hide from life and you have to face it while you are young. It is different from people to people if you live by the word ‘freedom’ but we all feel free somehow. And being a teenager and being young is a time to feel free and to experience how great life is. And so do Ellie from “A Gap of Sky” by Anna Hope in 2008. The text is about a girl named Ellie who is addicted to coke. She needs to make her essay to continue her course but she needs ink for her printer. She walks around in London to find a shop with ink but she cannot focus. A lot of things disturb her. Ellie is a confused girl with a confused life with a lot of things going on. She is addicted to coke and she drinks a lot of alcohol with her friends. She is close to be kicked out from her course and her last change to stay is to write an essay. But instead of being home to make the essay, she is going to a party with her friends and the day after is the day with the deadline for sending the essay. She wakes up in the afternoon and she has not anything under control in her situation. She is now 19 years old and should be able to control her own life. But why will they kick her out from the course if she does not write that one essay? That must be because she does not take her education very seriously. She also...
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...English essay – “A Gap of Sky” Amalie Thomsen Introduction: The title of the short story is “A Gap of Sky” and is written by Anna Hope in 2008. Anna Hope is an English actress and writer. She is from Manchester and was educated at Wadham College, Oxford. The short story is fiction, but could still take place in real life. The main theme is identity formation. Analysis: The story is written with a 3rd persons view: “Ellie reaches a hand out […] She takes the glass, stumbles forward…” The narrator therefor has an omniscient point of view, and knows everything about the main character, Ellie. Characters: In the story we have the main character, Ellie, her friend Toby (who we do not meet, but hear about) and the mother (we do not meet her either). Ellie: The main character, Ellie, is 19 years old: She is only nineteen […], and lives in London: […] this part of London. She is a very unhealthy and sloppy teenager. She has smoked a lot of pot, which her health condition clearly shows: The air is cold, makes her gasp, cold and hurting on her ragged lungs. She a type of person who postpones many of her things: She’s got to get this essay in. […] They won’t close till sixish. It will all be fine. Ellie is a complex character because a part of her develops and she becomes more grown up. At first she has a very difficult relationship with her mother, but after seeing a little stone, she suddenly realizes that she has not been fair to her. The setting (FOCUS) The setting...
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...A Gap of Sky She was only nineteen, only living, and if that was sometimes a little extreme, well, how should life be lived? (L. 98-99) In the Short Story “A Gap of Sky”, by Anna Hope, we meet a nineteen-year old girl whose name is Ellie. She wakes up after a day with party and drugs. She is a regular girl who lives in London and studies at a university. We follow her through her day were she thinks back on last night and the essay she have to write for the next day. If she doesn’t handle in the essay they will reconsider her on the course she is taking. The themes in this short story are freedom, drugs and responsibility. Her life is a mess and she can’t really see it herself. She lives her life as wants too. She goes to parties and gets drunk and takes some coke and K and hangs out with her friends, were they go somewhere and get really high, so they will forget everything. And everyone laughing, everyone pissing themselves like it was the funniest thing ever. (L. 24-25) .She has ended up with some bruises from the party last night rets her swollen cheek against her palm. (l. 3). She is not feeling well after the abstinence from the drugs she has token last night. Ellie’s language is very filthy because she swear a lot Fuuuuuuck… she shoots up from the under the duvet, scrabbles for her phone, finds it beside her pillow. 16:29. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit. (l. 12-13). She is not responsible person because she has brought herself in that situation that she might be...
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...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...
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...A Gap of Sky “A Gap of Sky” by Anna Hope is about a young girl who, like a lot of other young people, is exposed to a huge amount of pressure. She is caught in a dilemma between desires and expectations, because nowadays there is so much you have to live up to. You have wear nice clothes, do well in school, have lots of friends etc. So it’s not surprising that sometimes you would want to get away and forget about all that. In this story, the young girl, whose name is Ellie, doesn’t live up to her parents and teachers expectations, which results in her taking drugs, especially coke. We don’t really follow Ellie for a long time but on her journey for printer ink, she is still able to go through a big range of emotions; fear of death, joy, rebelliousness, dejectedness, freedom and so on. After reading the first few lines, we get a pretty good idea about what Ellie is like. The description of her walking up with swollen cheeks and peeing in the sink gives us a good picture that Ellie is living on the edge where nothing matters anymore. It is clear to us that she isn’t living a very healthy life. Her wealth is terrible; her chest hurts and she has inflammation of her eyes. “She sits on the bed, brings her legs up under her chin, rummages for what she can remember from the night before”. This tells us that she had been very affected by alcohol and drugs, since she remembers nothing but glimpses. It also appears that this is something she does often, almost every night...
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...A Gap of Sky Fuck! Fuck is a word which is used a lot among young people. Especially when talking about your life. Fuck it! School can wait, let’s party tonight! But it isn’t always that easy not to care. Life isn’t a walkover. It can be pretty tough sometimes because what is right and what is wrong? – This is the question! Sometimes you end up confused and lost, as an outcome of too many bad decisions and too little guidance and support. But what is a bad decision and how do you figure it out? Sometimes all you need is a little something that will show you the answer – Motivation leads you to the right thing to do! This is some of the Topics that we are dealing with in the short story called A Gap of Sky. A Gap of Sky is a short story written by Anna Hope and published in 2008. It is about a 19-year-old girl struggling against the inner voice of her, which is telling her to cut out her studies and have fun instead. By having fun I mean drinking and doing drugs. Because that’s what Ellie is good at. She has been sent to London by her parents to study, but she is not taking it as serious as her parents are expecting of her to do, because she has been partying all night and can’t remember much. She wakes up and starts stressing because of an essay that she has to write, about Virginia Woolf. But she needs printer ink, so she goes out into the world searching for printer ink. On her way searching for printer ink she experiences a lot. The 19-year-old Ellie is the main character...
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...Anders Kjær Gasbjerg 08-D 09-2-2011 Spadedk@gmail.com Haderslev Katedralskole Engelish A Gap of Sky Fuck! Fuck is a word which is used a lot among young people. Especially when talking about your life. Fuck it! School can wait, let’s party tonight! But it isn’t always that easy not to care. Life isn’t a walkover. It can be pretty tough sometimes because what is right and what is wrong? – This is the question! Sometimes you end up confused and lost, as an outcome of too many bad decisions and too little guidance and support. But what is a bad decision and how do you figure it out? Sometimes all you need is a little something that will show you the answer – Motivation leads you to the right thing to do! This is some of the Topics that we are dealing with in the short story called A Gap of Sky. A Gap of Sky is a short story written by Anna Hope and published in 2008. It is about a 19-year-old girl struggling against the inner voice of her, which is telling her to cut out her studies and have fun instead. By having fun I mean drinking and doing drugs. Because that’s what Ellie is good at. She has been sent to London by her parents to study, but she is not taking it as serious as her parents are expecting of her to do, because she has been partying all night and can’t remember much. She wakes up and starts stressing because of an essay that she has to write, about Virginia Woolf. But she needs printer ink, so she goes out into the world searching for printer ink. On her...
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...An Analysis and Interpretation of Anna Hope’s ”A Gap of Sky” (2008) When being a teenage student in the twenty-first century you might find yourself at a crossroad where important decisions have to be made. You have to consider your ambitions and where you will end up with the current lifestyle you are living. In Anna Hope’s A Gap of Sky (2008) teenager Ellie finds herself deeply reflecting over both partying and doing drugs, but also the severity of her college education. Ellie is a nineteen year old college student residing in the heart of London. She is living a hectic life with drinking, ketamine abuse and smoking crack pipe. The lifestyle that she is living suggests that she does not take her education seriously and she also blames her parents for taking this “bloody course in the first place” (p. 3 l. 66). The narrator is third person heterodiegetic and it is internal with limited omniscience. Throughout the story Ellie’s thoughts are described, but it is not herself telling them. This is seen as the pronoun “I” is never used, but “she” is used in the entire story. Ellie is the protagonist and all of her thoughts and actions are depicted, but it is not herself describing them, the narrator is therefore heterodiegetic since it is not an actual character itself. Ellie is the only character in the story who is mentioned by name and has great significance to the story. She is also the only person whose point of view is shown and the narrator can thereby be characterized...
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