Insignificant Gestures

A wrong decision at a critical point in time is sometimes all it takes to change our lives and our

personalities in an instant. Such a decision can have serious emotional consequences for the

person subjected to it. These decisions are often left to be taken by the soldiers and doctors who

2007.

Her starter vi med en tragtindledning, der går fra det generelle til det konkrete i netop denne

tekst. Derudover er temaet slået fast fra begyndelsen - fokus vil være på hvordan en forkert

beslutning kan medføre psykiske lidelser PTSD, og hvordan løsningen kan findes steder, man

ikke regnede med. Forfatter, titel og udgivelsesår nævnes, og temaet afsløres netop i starten for

at give læseren lyst til at læse videre. Læseren vil sikkert gerne vide, hvor denne fortæller finder

'løsningen' på sin sygdom.

Told through a series of flashbacks from the narrators present time, we get an insight into the mind

of a character who has suffered severe emotional trauma. This trauma is caused by two errors of

judgement which he made when he was stationed in Africa as a volunteer doctor ten years ago.

lights up my wall I jerk awake with hot rivulets of anxiety running through my limps" (ll. 74-75). But

he has not always been like this.

Dette afsnit tager hul på første punkt characterization fra opgaveformuleringen og går lige på

analysen af fortælleren. I den første sætning bliver fortælleren præsenteret både som karakter,

og som fortæller (1.person narrator). Punktet, point of view, bliver der ikke bedt om i

opgaveformuleringen, men da det har relevans for historien, idet det er hovedpersonen selv

der fortæller, er det en god idé at inddrage det. Det at fortælleren selv fortæller sin historie,

giver os et indblik i hans verden, og hvilke tanker han har haft, og har i dag, og er dermed med

til at karakterisere ham som menneske. Så point of view bliver en indgangsvinkel til at kunne

lave en bedre characterization.

var før traumet, hvad var medvirkende til hans ændrede adfærd, hvilken udvikling gik han

igennem, og hvem har det gjort ham til i dag. Punkterne fra opgaveformuleringen, ”the

relationship between the narrator and Celia”, ”the narrator's error of judgement” og ”the

significance of time and place”, er faktisk ved nærmere eftersyn alle ledetråde til at få svar på

disse spørgsmål og bliver derfor inddraget i characterization-delen. Dette første afsnit fokuserer

dog hovedsageligt på det traume, fortælleren har pådraget sig i Afrika, og hvad det har gjort

ham til i dag. På den måde er tidsaspektet også i fokus i analysen, altså at historien bliver fortalt

i nutid, men dette er en nutid, der trækker tråde 10 år tilbage i tiden.

Afsnittet bliver afsluttet med to citater, der understøtter analysen af fortællerens nuværende

tilstand, nemlig at han bitterligt fortryder sin handling, og at han er følelsesmæssigt påvirket

tragic event in Africa. He believed that through his work in a less developed country, he was able

to make a difference and save the world. Furthermore, he had a romanticized image of Africa and

of his role in that country, "And I remember evenings spent drawing by oil lamp in my little white

washed house, while an African sunset poured itself out on the sky" (ll. 16-17). This romanticized

image of Africa is quickly torn apart, as he sees more and more of what the country really is like.

The hospitals lack proper equipment, the political elite is corrupt, and the police are not really

interested in catching the real criminals, but more in getting through the day the easiest way

possible. Nevertheless, he stays calm and self-confident and does his job every day, performing

intricate operations with terrible means.

Fokus i dette afsnit ligger på at karakterisere fortælleren inden ulykken i Afrika. Indgangsvinklen

retning (development), essayet prøver at beskrive. Igen er citater med til at understøtte

analysen af fortællerens romantiske, idylliserede billede af Afrika. Der er også benyttet

parafrase i afsnittet, altså omskrivning af tekst, for at undgå for mange citater.

The short story is divided into what can be called two beginnings, the first being Celia's

insignificant gesture when she places her hand on the back of the narrator's chair in Africa while

she watches him draw, and the other being the African nurse who asks about the narrator's ability

to speak Chichewa in Britain. They are beginnings in the sense that they set the narrator on a new

course in his life.

The first new course is set by Celia when she enters the narrator's life. Celia quickly becomes his

acts more on his emotions than on his intellect. All of a sudden his mind is filled with thoughts of

revenge, of wanting to get back at the boyfriend, who he believes has performed the atrocity. Also

because of his feelings for Celia he is not only nervous during his treatment of her, "My hands

trembled..." (l. 93), "A racket started up in my head." (l. 94), but he also jumps to conclusions and

believes the nurses' gossip. This gets him to testify against Celia's boyfriend and thereby the

boyfriend gets sentenced to be locked up in an African prison. These two errors of judgements

come to haunt him for the next ten years and cause the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome from

which he suffers. Not only is he, at least in his own mind, responsible for the death of Celia but also

the death of her boyfriend. "According to Amnesty International the civilian prisons of this country

were the worst in the world [...] She[the matron] told me that convicts rarely survived a year

before malnutrition or cholera or casual beatings overcame them" (ll. 109-113).

Dette afsnit fortsætter med characterization af fortælleren, men bringer nu også punktet ”the

relationship between Celia and the narrator”i spil. Der er fokus på at beskrive forholdet

fortælleren og til at klarlægge hans udvikling(development) imod Post Traumatisk Stress

Syndrom.

Afsnittet er styret af en topic sentence, som introducerer to begyndelser i novellen (den første

afledt af Celias hånd på fortællerens ryg i Afrika, og den anden af sygeplejersken i England, der

spørger til fortællerens sprog). Ved at inddrage disse kommenteres der på titlen (Insignificant

Gestures), hvilket ofte er vigtigt i analysen af noveller og ikke mindst i denne. Her inddrager

man et punkt mere i sin analyse, som man faktisk ikke er blevet bedt om, og det viser forståelse

og overskud.

Også punktet ”...time and place” trækkes ind igen i beskrivelsen af, hvordan Afrika fungerer, og

hvad det betyder for fortællerens udvikling – f.eks. bliver han mere og mere desillusioneret og

knows his problems are the same as many of his patients. In the metaphor he uses about letters

and writing, it becomes obvious that he is aware of his own problems, "[patients]They use bold

capital letters while my writing is small and secretive, but the content is the same" (l. 135-136). He

has not talked about Celia and her boyfriend to anyone, and he is therefore in a terrible state. The

insignificant gesture made by the African nurse when she asks about Africa, triggers the narrator's

desperate need to talk about his experiences in Africa, "It was like opening an overhead locker - I

didn't expect so much to fall out" (ll. 157-158).

Det sidste afsnit inden afslutningen, tager tråden op fra den topic sentence fra foregående

afsnit. Ligesom de første to afsnit beskæftigede sig med fortællerens to stadier (før ulykken ><

efter ulykken), bliver disse to afsnit også en behandling af før og efter. Her nærmer man sig

konklusionen, altså løsningen på fortællerens traume, ved at beskrive hans situation i England

10 år efter ulykken. Titlen bliver nøglen til at forstå novellen, og dette bliver trukket frem i

dette afsnit. Der bliver derved peget tilbage til indledningen, der foreslog, at man kunne finde

nøglen til frelse de underligste steder (rød tråd). At essayet langsomt nærmer sig løsningen

sidste virkelig slår fast, hvor meget han trænger til at få snakket om sine oplevelser i Afrika.

Certain traumatic and stressful situations can push us over the edge of what we are able to tackle

and comprehend, as it happens to the narrator of Insignificant Gestures. But as it can also be seen,

the most unlikely events, or insignificant gestures, can be the ones that draw us right back in. The

narrator finds a second new beginning and is now able, in time, to return to the world of the

'living'. Talking about difficult events is always part of the solution when confronted with traumatic

emotional situations and solutions often appear where they are most unlikely. "Beginnings start

like this, with insignificant gestures" (ll 158-159).

Afslutningen fungerer som en cirkelstruktur, idet den vender tilbage til mange af de ting, der

blev præsenteret i indledningen, faktisk helt ned på sætningsplan. Sammenling sætning fra

hvor han/hun befandt sig undervejs, og der bliver aktivt taget stilling til, hvad essayets intention

er. Fortolkningen træder nu helt i forgrunden, og analysen bliver brugt til at sige noget om

historiens formål/budskab.

Disposition for essay

Indledning/præsentation: → Tragtindledning: generelt = tema – how one mistake can change your