New Year's Day
When reading "New Year's Day", I think most people can relate to the main character in the story. When something is going good in your life, it can seem to be too good, in this case however, I think Clare is making a big deal out of many small things. Clare thinks that her boyfriends previous girlfriend, called Amy, is making her feel crazy, an example could be in Alan's apartment, when Clare apparently forgot to shut off the oven: "This is so spooky. I swear I turned the oven off last night." And she therefore stated, that Amy has been inside the house, without them knowing it. Alan call her paranoid, because she continues to find reasons and posibilities, how Amy got into the house, example "Amy could have got in … She could have turned the oven on. I expect she still has a key." Again Alan must demystify the things that Clare torment herself with.
The relation between Clare and Alan is split up, Alan is truly in love with Clare, but Clare is perhaps afraid of finding a man, because she never had a standing relationship. We see where this is mentioned in this quote "Clare had had lovers but never lived with a man before." That’s why she in the end decides to go away from Alan, who stands powerless back watching his love going away without a word. But the whole problematic starts, when Clare feels that people are strange at the new year's party with Alan's friends. The day after, Clare only focuses on the strange things that happens, and forgot to look at what really matters in her life right now; She was about to begin a long-term relationship with a man. Something she never had tried before, and of cause she was a little nervous, and feared that Amy would do things to hang her out, but the question is, hanging out for what? Clare was a, what I suppose, a normal thirty years old woman, average looking. But the only person described in the story, is Amy. She was a stone overweight, and that’s everything we actually hear from the looks of the characters.
The themes in the story is love, binding to other people. It 's also about trust, trust to other people, and to tell what you think. It's also connected to the everyday problems, just exaggerated to an extreme level. The relation between Alan and Clare is somewhat difficult to interpret. At some point, it looks like they have a fine relationship "They made an obviously quiet and peaceable pair." This is what the policemen sees, and then they knows that it is the wrong place. But for some reason it is also one of Clare's fears. When she hear the telephone ringing, she thinks Amy is calling, I better hide. But every single time, the fear is rejected. But under her mask, she hides that she is afraid of losing Alan, and in the same time, she walks away from him in the end. She is so afraid of losing him, that she at last, goes away from him. It's the fear of she doesn't want to live alone, but she never tried the other thing either, but the strange events in the story is a symbol on the hard times in a relationship, and you have to hold on, or the relationship is doomed. In the very end of the story, they went for a walk on a cold winter day, and Alan tells how lucky they are to be together, Clare doesn't say a word. Clare suppresses her feelings, she doesn't tell Alan about her true feelings and Alan pretends that Amy didn't mean a thing for him. But we are inside of Clare's head, when she is talking the wrap around her, she knows that Amy wear that exact same thing, and the fine bed linen on the bed, she relates it all with Amy, and that's a feeling she cannot suppress for long. When she leaves Alan, it is not Alan she want to leave, it is Amy, because she thinks that she is still a part of Alan's life.