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You Gave Me Hycanthis Analysis

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“You Gave Me Hycanthis” is a short story by Janette Turner Hospital. This story follows a nameless woman as she narrates her life of her first year as a high school English teacher, and the struggle she has teaching a certain student poetry, but in the end they both learn things about themselves and life. Throughout this story the main theme is feeling like an outsider, which is expressed frequently through the main characters’ life in a new town. There are three main characters introduced in this story; the main character (MC), Dellis and Gian. The MC is in a small town, of which she is not only unfamiliar with the town itself, but also the people and their way of life. The MC is trying to connect with her student Dellis, and is even willing to cross her own boundaries in order to fit in and understand Dellis, such as skinny dipping with her student and also stealing cane from a parked car (pp.26, 28). Delis on the other hand, is young and trapped in an outdated town, but with no ambition or desire to get out, a mindset which the MC finds difficult to understand. Gian is the last character introduced in ‘You Gave Me Hycanthis’. Gian is a Torres Strait Islander boy who escaped an abusive home life after killing his …show more content…

Yet as the story progresses, the mood begins to change as the author introduces a more joyful tone. This takes shape through the MC and Dellis’ adventure on the beach, them running through the rain together, and the MC repeating Dellis’ catchphrase of, “you spoil things”, which was also a significant point in the development of the MC’s character and the theme of being an outsider, as the MC was finally beginning to fit in (pp.29). The description of Gian’s house creates a clear imagery of the orchids having and ethereal glow to them, in the otherwise dusty cane field

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