After Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac

Interpretation: "After Caravaggio’s Sacrifice of Isaac" is a short story written by Rachel Cusk and published in 2003 in the book "Best of Young British Novelists".

Summary of alan: The story is about the forming of identity. Alan does not really know who he is. I get the feeling that he has never really taken an active part in his own life. He has not lived out any of his dreams, and he has just been content with whatever he had. He does not really love his job nor his wife. This attitude to life changes when he has a son. Now he suddenly has to be responsible to someone else in his life. He enjoys it very much and is very proud to have a son, but I do not think he really loves Ian as much as he should and expresses. He loves to have a son, but in some ways the son is more a thing to him than an actual person: "(...) his being there was like some kind of pass-port, some bridge to another place." (p.1, l.36). Alan begins forming his identity and living his life through his son. He begins taking an active part in his own and his son’s life and feels that the son is responsible for this positive change in his life. But the son is only indirectly responsible for the change - Alan himself changes because he thinks the son changes him. When Alan meets Gerte he sees something special in her from the first moment. He is very fasci- nated by her, and he looks up to her. She is like a god to him and that is very central in this story. Gerte tests Alan. This test is similar to the test God gives Abraham: Abraham is told to sacrifice his only son in order to show his love and obedience to God in the story about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. In that story, Abraham passes the test: He shows God that he is willing to give up his son for God. On this point the text differs from the story about Abraham: Alan also shows that he is willing