The Journey

The short story ”A Journey” was written by the Irish writer, Colm Tóibín and was published in 2006.
By analyzing examples from this text, this essay will first and include a characterization of the narrator Marry; secondly Marry’s relationship towards her son David and their relation to Mrs. Redmond. Thirdly comment on the title of the short story, and finally, a discussion of Andrew Sean Greer’s text “The story of a Marriage” and Paul Mathey’s oil painting will follow.

The narrator faces several problems of life, such as her relationship to her son David, and the guilt she feel towards him.
The narrator is a woman called Marry who is married to a man called Seamus, and they have a son called David. Marry and Seamus has been married for twenty years and after twenty years of marriage without children, they finally became blessed with a son called David. Or did they really become blessed?
The story takes place in the narrator’s car, which is on her way back home with her clinically depressed son. The plot has several flashbacks from Marry’s life, especially memories about her son David, her husband Seamus and her father. One of the first flashbacks that appear is a flashback about her son David, “They were used to being free. Yet David did not really make the great change in their lives that she expected” (page 1, lines 13-14), this indicates that Mary and Seamus was not bonded with their son from the start, they were not ready having a child, although they have been trying the past twenty years. The first years of a child’s childhood, are very important for the child later in life, because the child has to feel trust to the parents, so it can start trusting the world. It also has to feel loved and safe, but another important thing is attention. Although David, has not felt so with his parent, and it clearly has got its consequences.