Owl
Jackie Kay
Fear of growing old, changes, letting go of the bad memories from the past and instead focusing on the future is something we all need to go through at some point in our lives. We are all forced to go through changes; like the transition from child to adult or the way that some relationships come and then go again. “Owl” by Jackie Kay tells a story of the fear we have of growing old, the changes we go through through life and how to handle them without letting it control your life in a negative way.
In the flashbacks we also learn that Barney was very insecure about herself as a young girl. She gets jealous of Sandra, who is Tawny’s old best friend, because when she calls Sandra boring,
Tawny defends her and says that she is alright. This makes Barney jealous and worries her, because she thinks, that this might mean, that she will go back to Sandra and be friends with her again instead.
When Barney gets older, she is still an insecure person. She is about to break things up with her current husband. She is constantly worried about going through these kinds of changes, and she needs assurance from Tawny. She is afraid to leave her past behind, just as well as she is afraid to

leave her husband, but Tawny assures her that when she does leave this “wrong life”, then she will feel freer than ever. She is scared of changes of any kind. She is even scared of calling
Tawny by her real name; Marion. She is also scared of growing older, because she thinks that she is going to change in bad ways; like losing herself completely.
Tawny is the opposite of Barney when it comes to being insecure about changes and thinking about the future. She does not think too much about it; she just goes with the flow, and let things come and go without being too sad about the loss of it, and instead of worrying about the future, she tries not to care,