Low Visibility
In the story we have 2 main characters, the couple John and Laura. John is a harsh man, he is tall, big and has this huge hands. John is a man of control, he loves to control his wife Lara with an iron fist, often he makes it clear that his in charge. In the story there is no doubt that it is John’s house, bout him and Laura knows that. Laura does not even has anything to say, actually she does not even dare to speak to John accept for when he ask her or tell her to speak. For John this violence is his sick way of romance.
Laura is woman who married the wrong man. She ones was a woman who was happy and cheerful, but after she married John she has fallen into darkness, she is no longer this cheerful woman she used to be. She has no longer control over her own life, her life is controlled by John, and it is like John has taken her as hostage in her own home. But deep inside Laura is a very strong woman, in the end she shows that she got the guts. In the end she realize that she have been victim of John’s tyranny for too long. It is like Laura knows that she does not have anything to say in the home. She is very quiet, she is so scared of John that she doesn’t even dare to dry the blood of her lips, when John hits her.
The story takes place in the home of John and Laura. The story starts in the living room where they are watching TV. They are watching the news, where the riots on the streets are going insane, and then later in the story John goes on the street to stop this riot, and ends op bleeding on the street. Laura and the riot have a lot in common. The riot is a symbol of Laura’s inner fury and fire, and in the end Laura ends up side by side with the riots. When Laura is with the riots she is free and she can escape the iron fits of John. Ther also is some similarities about Johns relations ship to the riots and Laura, he fell almost the same about them. He hates both of them and also wants to hurt and damage both Laura and the riots.
But in the end the riots hurts John badly, actually he is near death, and Laura become a part of the riot that hurts John.
The title “Low Visibility” is a way to show how Laura’s situation is. She doesn’t know much about the real world any more. She is taken as a hostage in the house of John and he does not let her do anything. She is so suppressed by John that she no longer knows how a real marriage is like. After such a long marriage with so much violence and suppression you should think that Laura doesn’t know the difference between right or wrong. But in the end Laura is standing with a stone and the bleeding John in front of her, she could make an end to John’s violence and end her own misery.
First of all, John commands her to help him, but she doesn’t. Now when she is with the riots she can be free and do what she wants to. In the end were she considers to make an end of John, she ends with just turning around and let John to his misery on the street, she is now untouchable. But as a conclusion we can see that Laura goes from one stage to another. First she is this woman who is unhappy and in huge misery. She is a hostage and a victim of domestic violence and practically doesn’t have a life of her own, she is in control of John constantly.
But when she get of the house, out of her prison she can finally let her fury an fire out as the strong woman she used to be before John toke control of her. Now she is her own master and she shows John that.