A Journey by Colm Toibin

A Journey by Colm Toibin Changes is a part of e truly normal human life, but sometimes it doesnt transfigure in a direction we standardized. When it happens that life doesnt working out the focus we hope, its a natural thing that we start looking blanket on our past. In wonder of the things we did wrong, but also just to remember a time that felt brighter and happier. A Journey by Colm Tobin is a level that shell outs with a reflection slightly the past, and how it has affected the present. In A Journey the reflection happens in flashbacks, that the storys main character Mary is acquire on her journey from a hospital to her home.On this hospital she has picked her son who has suffered and still suffers from a deep depression. On the same time has her economise, named Seamus, just had another stroke, and is very ill. Now Seamus was lying upstairs in that same house. The whole right side of his body was paralyzed. That scene Mary could picture more sharply than 60 anything. Ev en when she read the newspaper to him, Seamus did not seem interested. 1 Much interests isnt she getting from her depressed son as well, he doesnt want to gravel with her in the front seat in the car and does specifically ask her to not ask any question during their journey.Mary is therefore a lonely woman, who has to deal with a troubled present alone. A naturally reaction is to seek nurture in a brighter time in her past. She think a solidifying round happy memories with Seamus, her father and her son. At the same time its clear that she is looking back to find some kind of explanation of her calamity at the same time. She cant really find these explanations though, because she is afraid of facing what have caused the transfigures that have been inn he life.That we see in this paraphrase slightly her sons doctor He did not seem ready to answer any direct questions so Mary had asked none. That is what she is trying to convince herself, but the truth is probably that she is afraid of the answers he might give her. A Journey is a story about life, and how we handle the change of directions we sometimes have to make on that journey. Therefore are changes a major theme. Mary has a hard time facing the problems that the changes means, and seek comfort in the comforting past. The changes Mary has a hard time ealing with is involving his family, and what she can do with them and how she has to be. That makes family-relation, by my opinion, to another important theme in the story. The way she is reflecting about changes, which she does implicit without she admits it, is through flashbacks. The story starts up in a flashback and they are well used all the way to the end. The using of flashbacks gives an improved knowledge about the head characters. In A Journey it is used to give us readers an insight in Mary and her familys past, and therefore gives a hint of how the perspective became how it did.They have a clear contrast to the present in where the story takes place, and it creates a situation where the reader feels a sense of understanding as though he/she knows the past tense and the change and development of the different characters represented in the story. Concretely is the flashback a tool to illustrate Marys closely desperate attempt to maintain things how it were, before it all changed. Thats why theres a lot of flashback to memories with her father before he died, her husband before he got sick and her son before his mood got dark and depressed.Its also a tool to tell us about the oscilloscope for her relationship with her son, be telling us why she has such a hard time connecting with him, and understand how he feels. It was, she knew, an ill- ness, but it did not seem like one. It seemed to her like something David would not give up, a special dark gift he had been offered. Something which comforted him and which he had accepted. The flashbacks are used to tell us about all whats behind immediate plot. The title of the short story refers to more than its literal journey from the hospital to home.It refers to the development with Marys way of dealing with things. In the very short journey from hospital to the house Ill interpret that Mary develops, because she through the flashbacks sense the changes and by that she becomes more focussed on the present and the time to come. This statement is supported by a quotation fro, the end of the story. It was time, she thought, to let the grey appear. Literally, she talks about invert coloring her hair blond. Figuratively, it means that she needs to face the problems and let nature do its work. She cant hide the reality from herself anymore. 1