...The short story “A simple exchange of Niceties” written by Joanne Fedler in 2007, is about a young woman who accidentally becomes pregnant, and therefore loses her boyfriend. The young woman has a special relationship to a bench, were she one day meets a woman. They starting to talk, and the young woman find out, that the woman is infertile. She decides to give the woman her baby, but when the woman never come back she keeps it, and think of it as her destiny. The story is written in spoken language and is written in present. The story is written in first-person narrator, you hear everything she thinks, sees and feels. But you never get to know the name or age of the narrator. You get the impression of her as a shy, unsecure woman who keeps things to herself. She puts up a mask of a “hard core” person she hides behind. She tries to act like she does not care, when people call her “trashy” and “a whore”, but she gets hurt, and starts to believe that she is worthless. She suffers from bad self-esteem and are not very good at socializing with other people. The narrator thinks of herself as a person who has not achieved much in life, even though she sees herself as a giving person. She does not mind sharing material things, “i’d give anyone the shirt off my back, or the food of my plate” (p.1. line. 24.), but when it comes to intimacy, like the bench, her feelings and thoughts, she is unable to share, and through the story she express her feelings through what other people has said...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties The short story “A Simple Exchange of Niceties” is a touch full story by Joanne Fedler. To get a good understanding to this short story, I will begin giving a quick recap. The short story is about a girl who gets pregnant, with a guy she rarely speaks with. The girl, who also is the narrator, does not want the baby herself, and wants to get rid of it. But the narrator decides to keep the baby for a reason. One day while she was sitting on her favorite bench in the park, a woman joins her. When the woman starts talking to the girl, the girl shows her no interest. The narrator only wished to be alone. Suddenly the woman begins to cry, and tells the narrator that she cannot have babies. The narrator tries to comfort her, and tells her that it just was not meant to be. The woman leaves and tells the narrator that she might see her again at this same bench. The narrator decides to keep this baby, not for her own purpose but for the woman. Now I would like to dig into the text, and try to analyze and interpret this short story. I will focus on the narrators view on herself and others, the importance of the bench for the narrator, the main theme/-s, and the narrator’s language. I would also focus a bit about the ending of the story. The narrator seems to be very lonely, and...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties - by Joanne Fedler ‘’Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake’’, a quote from one of Wallace Stevens’ books. Sometimes we need time and space to explore and discover the truth in our life. We will meet things in our life that change our view and way of living. The short story is written in first person narrator. The narrator writes colloquial language. She uses simple and everyday language with varied vocabulary. The style of writing is simple and straightforward – the narrator tells us whatever she has on her mind: ‘’Do you mind? I looked up. Did I look like I didn’t mind?’’ (p. 9, line 69-71). The narrator is a young teenage girl. Her view of herself and others is absolutely critically bad. In the beginning of the story she doesn’t mentioning anything positive at all. She demeans herself when she uses the words trashy whore which she was called by the father of her child. She mentions these words a couple of times through the story, and it is clear that she see herself worth nothing. Her view of other people isn’t positive either. She has a lot of prejudices and she is negative about other people. We see an example of this when the woman with the bottle sits next to her. The narrator calls the old lady’s action of joining her on the bench, without asking, for ‘’bad manners’’ (p. 8, line 31). One might suggest that she simply doesn’t like other people. The bench is very precious to the girl. It means a lot to her and she considers...
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...A simple exchange of niceties In this paper I will analyze and interpret the short story “A Simple Exchange of Niceties” by Joanne Fedler. The short story is about this girl – the narrator - who gets pregnant with a guy who doesn’t want anything to do with it. At first she wants to get an abortion but something changes her point of view. One day in the park - while she was sitting on the favorite bench - a woman joins her. They started to talk about babies even though the narrator didn’t want to. The woman tells that she isn’t able to get pregnant but the narrator doesn’t really react or show any interest. A few days later the narrator changes her mind and decides to give birth to her baby. Not so she can keep it herself, but to help the woman. She never sees the woman again and the story ends with the narrator giving birth to her child. In this paper I will focus on respectively the narrator’s view on herself and others, how the bench in the story changes her life, the main themes and the narrator’s language. Throughout the whole story – except the end – the narrator is very angry at the world. It seems as she thinks that everyone is against her and doesn’t accept her. “Benches like that don’t seem to mind that you’ve never reached your potential or managed to finished anything you’ve ever started.” (p. 8, l. 13) This quote gives us an idea of how she sees the world or more specifically how she is not seeing the world. For her, the world only contains people who are very...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties Joanne Fedler’s essay begins with the narrator making it obvious that she is pregnant, as well as that she does not care about too much. The narrator shares with the reader her intimate relationship with her favourite bench at the park, conversations she has had with strangers on the bench, as well as personal memories and opinions. The essay revolves around the narrator, her pregnancy, and her intimacy with the specific bench at the park. Fedler created the narrator as an extreme pessimist, not viewing things very positively or in a nice manner. The narrator grew up with a rough childhood – often believing her mother would exchange her for opulent desires, and not knowing whom her own father is. Another hint that the narrator grew up without luxuries, is that she was once a shoplifter. Children and adolescents that are normally caught stealing, are taking it because they can not afford to pay for it – and when the narrator’s bail turned out to be only $500, her mother would not pay for it. From this, the narrator views herself as an underachiever, taking more out of the world than what she contributes. She does not feel worthy of many things in life, bringing many issues upon herself. A fine example of this would be the areas she goes to; one place being where she met Damien (her baby’s father). Damien approached her in a pool pub, which is normally not a nicer area to be (in America), quickly flirting with her via body language; inquiring if...
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...A simple exchange of Niceties None of us knows what life brings us. Some of us don’t even know what we want to do and achieve in our lives. But we all have some sort of dreams, hopes and expectations, to not just our lives, but to who we want to be as a human being. Sometimes it doesn’t quite work out the way we want it to, and sometimes we make big mistakes. But the mistakes we are making, or the unexpected things there are happening to us, can have a certain meaning of how our lives turns out in the end. In the short story “A simple Exchange of Niceties” written by Joanne Fedler, “2007” is a young woman facing all the things that turns up, when she didn’t expected it. By an accidental mistake and a simple exchange of niceties, her life turned out for the better. The short story “A simple Exchange of Niceties ” is told by a first-person narrator. Seen in a bigger picture, the short story is about a young woman whose 8 weeks pregnant and she’s going to have an abortion. She works as a waitress and doesn’t have a lot of money. She has a favourite bench in the park, that she’s sits on, but it’s only if anyone else aren’t sitting there. She likes the idea, that the bench is put there especially for her, and she’s actually calling the bench for “hers”. She hates when people comes over and sits on her bench, without a simple exchange of niceties as “do you mind” or “May I”. While she’s sitting on the bench, we hear about the boy, Damian who got her pregnant, her best friend Barbie...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties - By Joanne Fedler (En detaljeret/nøje udvekslning) ! Notes: The story is about a pregnant women. She has no interest in being pregnant and therefore she decides to take a smoke. Even though it could damage the child. She’s has a fascination about benches “they make you feel if people matters”. She has a favorite bench, which she’s referring to as her own bench. She’s not happy to share the bench with others. If there is someone else already there, she just continue walking. When she’s sitting on her bench, is she usually not in the mood for small-talking or chid-chad. Her nan has been dead for 10 years. She got pregnant after a one night stand with a guy called Damien. However Damien where not interested to have a child “with a whore like her - his words”. She has been in prison for three months. In the park she meets a person who shares the same interest in the bench. However the difference between the both of them, are that the protagonist isn’t interested in a child and the other woman is eager for a child. The child is a girl. She’s a waitress at a restaurant. When the protagonist tells her mother that she’s with child. The mother becomes very emotional which is surprising after the description by the protagonist. The mother even starts to send money every month. The protagonist choose to have the baby, where she names the baby Summer. For a number of times she looked for the lady at the bench, but no lady where to be found. If she had been...
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...------------------------------------------------- A Simple Exchange of Niceties “A Simple Exchange of Niceties” is about a girl getting unexpectedly pregnant. She often goes to a park and sits on her favourite bench. Here she sits and reflects about her life and her surroundings. One day a young lady approaches her, and her life changes forever. The novel “A Simple Exchange of Niceties” is written in 2007, by Joanne Fedler. The main character does not see herself as someone who is important. She feels as if, she is worthless and a failure. Her self-esteem is very low, and she explains how she is different from other girls. “It’s not like I’m going to find a decent bloke and get married.” She has a good heart and would give up anything to anybody. Some people see that as a weakness. She puts other peoples happiness before her own. On the other side, she also describes herself as “bad news”. She was caught shoplifting and she tells, that it sort of just happened. Her relationship with her mother is really bad. She explains to the lady, that her mother does not love her. She even refused to pay the bail of her own daughter. The first time the main character sees Damian she is very attracted to him. But when they are in the middle of sexual intercourse, she sees him in a different light. “When just two nights before, he held his strong hands behind your hair and licked you from your throat to your bellybutton in a way that made you think, you know, that maybe he loved you...
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...It is only polite to greet the stranger next to you on a bench. This is a social rule. It is nice to help others where you can. If someone wants something so badly, and you want to get rid of, should you give it to them, even though it is your own baby? A Simple exchange of niceties is written by Joanne Fedler in 2007. The main character has gotten pregnant by mistake. In her spare-time she likes to sit on a special bench in the park. This bench might her source of safety, in her messy life. She thinks she is the only one, that she owns it, until she meets someone who feels the same way about the special bench. The short story is written from a first person narrator point of view. The narrator of the story likes to sit on a special bench in the park. She sees the bench as her property, and she does not like when anyone else is sitting on it. The bench get the role of a friend to the girl. This is her place of safety, and she does not want to share it with anyone. She does not mind giving anything else away, of any material value to make others happy; “It’s not like I doesn’t like sharing. I’d give anyone the shirt off my back or the food off my plate.” (ll.23-24, p.1). She would even give her child away, but the only thing she doesn’t want to share with others is the thing she cannot have for herself; the bench. The narrator’s view of herself is pretty trashy. We are told that she does not have a very well relationship to her mother; “She would have exchanged me for a...
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...How is it that a completely stranger can change your life, and make you keep your unwanted baby. In A simple exchange of Niceties the author Joanne Fedler makes a young lady with a favourite bench in a park, change her mind about getting an abortion by meeting a stranger, with the opposite problem as herself. But why does that meeting have so much effect on the narrator? And could a stranger affect us all in such an extreme way? But in some cases we have to believe a little bit in fate. In the story we meet a typical woman, who likes to keep things to herself. She is also the narrator of the text. The woman is pregnant with a man called Damian, but he doesn’t want kids “we hadn’t spoken much, so I couldn’t have known he didn’t want kids”. She feels trashy, and doesn’t think she’s worth anything at all. She didn’t achieve her teenage dream about going to Paris, after her pregnancy she have been called a lot of things like whore, and that doesn’t help at her picture of herself. Whenever she wants to be alone and clear her head she goes to her bench, it’s the one bench she always returns to and she doesn’t like sharing it with others. The bench is really personal and intimate to her and she dosen’t want to share that with strangers. One day a stranger sit down next to her, and not only just sit there but also talks to her. “You shouldn’t smoke”, the woman who sit next to her says. The narrator is just answering impolite and irritated. But something unexpected is happening...
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...A Simple Exchange of Niceties ’’A Simple Exchange of Niceties’’ is an essay written in 2007 by Joanne Fedler. In the short story we follow a young woman during her pregnancy, and the very special relationship she has to a bench. The narrator of the story is the young woman, whose name is not given in the text. We see the whole story through her point of view and hear her thoughts and opinions, and you have the feeling that she’s sitting beside you telling her story for example: ‘’I know you’re not supposed to smoke when you’re pregnant, but fuck it’’, it’s like she’s defending herself to the listener, in this case us. There’s used a modern language, the girl swears a lot and the text is very readable in general, no difficult words or anything. There are also many dialogs, because we meet a lot different people through the short story, who the girl talks with. The young woman in the short story is pregnant, but at first it’s not that big of a deal for her, because she’s going to get an abortion. She got pregnant with a guy named Damien, I guess she didn’t knew him very well, because she says: ‘’we haven’t spoken much, so I couldn’t have known he didn’t want kids. Not with a trashy whore like me’’, and it’s not even like she’s upset about the fact that he didn’t want kids with her. It’s like she understands him, like she’s used to being dumbed, or not being cared about. And that’s why she likes the bench ’just left on the duck pond with generous slats’ so much. It ‘’makes you...
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...New narcissism – assignment B Essay based on "A simple exchange of niceties" a short story by Joanne Fedler "Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake." - Wallace Stevens. This quotation is what the whole short story is about. The main character let her choices of life depends on the park and her bench. The short story "A simple exchange of niceties" of Wallace Steves is written in 2007. The short story is about a young woman who by accident gets pregnant, without any intention of keeping the baby. But this decision changes when she suddenly one day gets interrupt in her thoughts at "her bench" by a woman. They get into conversation and our narrator quickly learns that this woman is sterile. Instead of abortion, an idea starts to build inside her. Instead of removing to baby, she plans to give it to the woman who clearly is breathing for a child. After she gave birth to the baby she visits the park to look for the woman. But she is nowhere to be found. And it ends up being her destiny to be a mother. The girl who tells the story is a first-person narrator. She is suffering from low self-esteem, she even thinks of herself as the unwanted child, "the bad news". She is sure that her mother "would have exchanged me for a week's holiday at a three-star resort". She seems very shy and a bit touchy, and because of that, she ends up snarl, and outwardly seems rude and impolite to strangers. And by the same reason she does not have so many close relations. The only...
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...Joanne Fedler has written a short story called: ”A Simple Exchange of Niceties” and it has been written in 2007. The text is about a young woman who becomes pregnant. I want to give an analyze of the story and I will try to give you an characterization of this pregnant woman and then I will tell you about the special bench and try to find out why it is so special. The woman in this text is also the narrator of the story, so through the story we get to know this pregnant woman better and hear her feelings. The narrator of the story doesn’t count so much on herself, because she got pregnant with some guy called Damien. She doesn’t think that she has achieved much in her life and all her teenage dreams about art school in Paris will never happen. The woman had met Damien when she was playing pool and he asked her if she had a cigarette. They ended up having sex and the woman became pregnant with a random guy, who doesn’t want to have kids or anything to do with the child they are waiting. “We hadn’t spoken much, so I couldn’t have known he didn’t want kids”. After the episode she was called a lot of abuse, such as whore and trashy, and it doesn’t help your self-confidence, so the woman don’t think she can achieve so much in her life. “Smoking may be dangerous in pregnancy” the old woman said. The old woman was sitting on the same bench as the narrator and she answered impolite that it was a ‘fucking’ cigarette that got her into the mess with the pregnancy, because Damien asked after...
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