Past Era Aunt Marys example essay topic

The circle of life is a phrase used to describe how we are born, grow up, fall in love, have children, grow old and then die, meanwhile the next generation is being born and goes on to complete the natural circle of life. Bernard Maclaverty uses the theme of the circle of life to tell his story of the relationship between an old lady and a young man, which is told by referring to the past, through memories and to present events. Aunty Mary and the boy are representative of two different eras, the story is set in two different times to show time passing. Reference is made to the past era - Aunt Marys younger days - the postcards that the boy looks at are... Brown photographs of town centres, dull black and whites of beaches backed by faded hotels... The photo of the young Aunt Mary was...

Very old fashioned but he could see that she was beautiful. The picture was a pale brown oval set on a white square of card. The edges of the oval were misty... When Aunt Mary was young she had long dark hair and beautiful eyes.

By contrast as she ages her skin is still fresh but her hair has turned white but she is still described as beautiful, this shows the boys affection for her. References to a past era are also shown by the Aunts use of a pen with a nib, blotting paper, ink well and her papers being kept in a walnut bureau. Through the secret pages of the love letters that Brother Beni gus has sent we are transported back to the First World War and relive the mud, horror and death that he must of experienced, an experience that we learn led him to become a priest. The letters tell of a past love but a love so deep that it is still remembered with hurt by Aunt Mary it is as if he had been killed in the war... Was your friend killed in the war...

At first she said no, but then she changed her mind... Perhaps he was... she said In contrast to the past and to the generation of Aunt Mary, the boy is seen as young and in his prime. He is studying for his A Levels and has a girlfriend whose home he has been at while his Aunt is dying. Guilty feelings cross his mind when he smells his girlfriends hand cream on his own hands and he thinks of her. He has his own life ahead of him, full of promise, but the circle of life for his aunt is just ending while his has just begun. In this way the boy and his Aunt represent life and death.

Maclaverty uses the personification of the vase of irises, her sitting room dying in sympathy with her... They were withering from the tips inward, scrolling themselves delicately, brown and neat. Cleaning up after themselves... The plant has reached the end of its circle of life. In the next room is the Aunt who is also dying, her face shrivelling up... Her face seemed to have shrunk by half since he had gone out earlier that night... the lower half of her faced seemed to collapse...

The boy cannot watch his Aunt die. He is still filled with guilt from opening and reading the forbidden and secret letters and he desperately wants her forgiveness... He cried silently into the crook of his arm for the woman who had been his maiden aunt, his teller of tales, that she might forgive him... Finally when his Aunt is gone her precious letters are tossed on the fire by the boys mother, she keeps the worthless but useful elastic bands that hold the envelopes together but discards the letters, while the boy watches. The letters were so precious to Aunty Mary but just rubbish to the mother, they are things from the past that are not important. But the boy knew just how special the secret memories were to his Aunt and the thought of what he had done is hard to bear, he feels he has ruined her love for him...

You are dirt she hissed, and always will be dirt. I shall remember this until the day I die... But life must carry on in the natural circle of life and the boy will have to cope, life carries on after someone you care about dies.