An essay on Claire Anderson Wheelers “Vernissage” B
When a child is growing up, the parents’ relationship affects the child a lot. A child views the world with fresh eyes. They have not seen many things before and their lives are about learning and exploring. As children grow into adults something changes, their thinking changes and it’s different how a child becomes a grown-up. “Vernissage” is a short story about Alex and his parents, from 2008 written by Claire Anderson-Wheeler. Alex is the main character and he is in the transition from a child to a grown-up person. In the beginning of the short story, there are several things that show us that Alex is a child. He asks many questions like children often do: “What’s in the bag?”, “What did you buy a dress for?” (l. 22-29)

In the beginning, Alex shows signs of how he is about to grow out of his childhood, but first we see that his mother still picks him up after school and he asks a lot of questions. He also lets his childish imagination run wild by picturing a man by the name Vernie Sage every time he heard the word vernissage. Alex likes banana sandwiches, which he himself admits is a bit childish “There was something about banana sandwiches, sweet and soft, that made him think of babyfood.” (l. 48-49) and “Suddenly the taste in his mouth was sickly-sweet, and he gulped it down quickly” (l. 77-78). This is point of no return, the banana sandwich symbolises the childhood and the fact that Alex does not want to eat the banana sandwich, symbolises that he is about to leave his childhood behind. Alex is still a child; he still needs a babysitter to take care of him “Anne-Marie was the babysitter.” (l. 75), plays with his food and makes comments “He peeled back the top of his sandwich,[…] Alex! Stop messing with your sandwich.” (l. 53-55). Alex is obliviously debating with himself whether to grow up mentally or