Eastmouth By Alison Moore Analysis

“Eastmouth” is a short story written by Alison Moore, where goals versus reality of life are the characteristics of the story. To accomplish dreams and goals in real life can be difficult, as your certain circumstances of life can change and become a serious challenge when it comes to pursuing life goals. It’s very common that most likely young people are dealing with these kind of issues, because of their desire of exploring, which is also in this case what the main character of the short story is going through.

Alison Moore writes in a limited third person narrator, as the narrator’s focus is mainly on the main character, Sonia. We follow the events from her perspective “She stands in the slabs on the promenade” (l.1). The narrator also

Sonia is uncomfortable with the environment and the people around in Eastmouth, even though she’s with her boyfriend and parents-in-law. For that reason, we get to see that Sonia does not associate with Eastmouth as her home, and gets very annoyed when Peter and his parents assume that Eastmouth is her home too “Let’s get you home, says Peter. For the last half hour of their journey, while the train was pulling in all the way from the station he’s been saying things like that: “We’re almost home” and, “won’t it be nice to be home?” as if this were her home too” (l.13.15). In the same way she feels pressured by Peters parents, as they have different perceptions of life than Sonia, because her plans were to get a job and go to Las Vegas and not to Eastmouth. Secondly Peter’s mother is likely to make up Sonia’s mind. She has even declined the job, Sonia had applied for, and she also changed her suitcase tag and clothes. “Blue and green should never be seen” “No” she’s saying, “I don’t want it. I’ve changed my mind. Please don’t call here again” (l.31+73-74). Furthermore, when Sonia want to go for a walk alone, the parents suddenly appear and they have already planned a dinner for her and Peter. Despite that, the climax of the story is not easy to be founded, because it’s somehow hidden. The climax takes place when Sonia finds out she is pregnant “She raises her hands now and waves, scissoring her arms above her head, like semaphore,

As we know the story takes place in a small town in England, the characteristics of the language are typical middle-class English. The choice of words also reflects on the current location, with a terminology that is related to a “seashore town”, for instance gulfs, tarry pebbles, slabs, gulls and promenade. In addition to this, similes are also in use, especially when the narrator describes the climax with a comparison “Scissoring her arms above her head, live semaphore” (l.104). Another simile, is when Sonia compare the gulls with crying babies “She thinks is the sound of babies crying, but it is only the gulls” (l. 70). Furthermore, several symbolic features are also used. For instance, the seagulls, which have two dissimilar symbolic value. According to Peter, they remind him of home, but according to Sonia, they remind her of she is pregnant, and it’s going to be difficult for her to leave Eastmouth, which is very challenging. Secondly the title Eastmouth, is a symbolic term of a mouth that keeps the protagonist in a “mouth”, which is hard to escape. In the same way Eastmouth is a small city next to the sea, which also can combine the symbolic term with a whale’s mouth, which is typical in cartoons where you see a character is stuck in its mouth and can’t escape. This is the kind of feeling of how the protagonist feels like about