Low Visibility (Short story)
The main character in the short story is Laura, who is married to John. Laura does not have anything to say in their relationship and is mostly just controlled by John, who always gives her orders. John has suppressed Laura for a long time, which has resulted in her becoming very insecure. Because she is so insecure, she does not have the courage to stand up for herself or fight back. It is even like she has forgotten how to do so. If she resists John, he yells at her or beat her up.
Before Laura met John she was a person with great energy and spirit. She was a loving person and she had good humor “Once, she was a girl who could set a room to laughter.”
John wanted to be with her because he though that her energy, humor and positive lifestyle would spread to him, but instead he changed her. John took away both her spirit and energy, and the spark that maybe was in the beginning of their relationship, is long gone. An example of how there is no romance in their relationship is when John holds his hand on her lap and starts pressing it, that is his form of foreplay because he does not know how else to do it. “John digs his fingers into her thigh and she bites her lips, but doesn’t move”
John has changed Laura into an unhappy, sad and frightened woman. She has become afraid of John and that he might hurt her, if she does not do as he pleases. She does not even dare to speak anymore, because she does not know what she can say, that will not make him mad, and she keeps thinking of the consequences her words might have. “She doesn’t know the right thing to say, because he changes the rules each time. So she says nothing. It’s safer – less painful.”
Laura fells like people see right through her and that she is almost invisible. She is nobody and nobody cares or even notices her. Laura actually remains anonymous and is only refereed to as “she” or “her” until the very last phrase of the story when we hear her name, Laura, for the first and only time. This shows us how she before was without identity, without a name.

In the short story there is a riot going on in the streets, which Laura and John are watching on the television. The protesters have apparently set a car on fire and are walking the streets. The mob of protesters are very violent and throw stones, bottles, mono cocktails and half-bricks at the police force. At some point in the story, a driver of a delivery van sees the crowd of protesters and tries to back away from them. But he hits a pothole and the car stops. The protesters grabs the driver, pulls him out of the car, beats him up and turns his car over. This shows us the main difference between a riot and a protest. A protest is normally a organized group of people why tries to bring awareness or gain support for a cause. Where a riot is more like a disorganized mob of people causing chaos and violence wherever they go, sometimes also to innocent people. We can see that it’s a riot in the story, because someone as innocent, (we assume), as the driver gets beat up by the mob.
In the short story we have two stories or “worlds” going on synchronously. The first one is Laura and John’s world and the second one is the world with the riot in the streets.
The beginning of the story starts in Laura and John’s apartment, where we from time to time hear about the riot in the television. It is like 2 different world that does not effect each other except when John has some comment about the riot. Then in the second half of the short story, the two stories or “worlds” sort of link together. This happens when the riots reach Laura and John’s street where John hears the rebels in the shop below their apartment. Laura tries to stop him but John runs out of the apartment to beat some of the rebels up. But instead he ends up getting beat up himself. Laura later finds John out in the streets laying on his bag and bleeding from his head. He demands that Laura helps him. “”Give us your hand” He has spoken” But Laura hesitates and John gets furious asking what she is waiting for. While this is happening, a man passing by look and talks to Laura, and for the first time she feels like its John and not her who is the invisible one. It then hits her, that here out on in the streets, in the middle of chaotic riot, John no longer has any power over her. For the first time their relationship, she is free to do as she pleases. For a brief moment she considers killing John with a brick, but decides not to do so. John then yells at her, warning her not to disobey him, but Laura walks away.
In the last two phrases we hear that a window explodes behind Laura, deadly to the pavement where John still lies. But Laura is not hurt. This is a very open ending that does not tell us whether John is alive or not. We also do not hear what happens to Laura after this. It is also very symbolic that the glass does not cause her any damage, its like nothing can hurt her anymore.