In the short story ‘Sorry for the Loss’ by Bridget Keehan, we spectate the meeting between the chaplain Evie and the inmate Victor Zamora, whose grandmother recently passed away. The main character of the story is Evie, a catholic minister. She has been working in a prison for five years, even though she is not very comfortable with the environment of the prison. For the first time in her life, Evie has to announce a death notice to a prisoner called Victor. Victor’s grandmother died, so Evie comes to deliver the message. Evie is very confused when she tells Victor the sad news. She expected that he would cry, but he does not even shed a tear.
Evie was afraid that Victor was huge, savage and ferocious man, but she discovers that he is in fact a ‘slight, good-looking boy, who appears barely old enough to be in an adult jail’ (4.75). Surprisingly, he also voluntarily plays Cordelia, a woman in Shakespeare’s play King Lear. Victor is the straight opposite of what she had expected.
She feared that Victor was a huge, brutal man, but in reality he is a slight, good-looking boy (l.75) who willingly plays a …show more content…
The title Sorry for the Loss can be interpreted as Evie saying sorry for the loss to Victor, because he has lost his grand mother. But also, if Evie develops in this short story, it can be interpreted as the loss of her naive perspective on life or it can be interpreted as the readers’ new perspective on prison life: It is easier to believe that all inmates are evil, but the text leads us to believe that some inmates are actually kind.
The conflict between expectations and reality is stressed by the use of contrasts. The prison guard is a large man with a skin disease, while Victor is a beautiful boy. Evie fears that Victor is twofaced, but actually the prison guard is the one that is twofaced: He switches from officious officer to avuncular guardian.
Evie was afraid that Victor was huge, savage and ferocious man, but she discovers that he is in fact a ‘slight, good-looking boy, who appears barely old enough to be in an adult jail’ (4.75). Surprisingly, he also voluntarily plays Cordelia, a woman in Shakespeare’s play King Lear. Victor is the straight opposite of what she had expected.
She feared that Victor was a huge, brutal man, but in reality he is a slight, good-looking boy (l.75) who willingly plays a …show more content…
The title Sorry for the Loss can be interpreted as Evie saying sorry for the loss to Victor, because he has lost his grand mother. But also, if Evie develops in this short story, it can be interpreted as the loss of her naive perspective on life or it can be interpreted as the readers’ new perspective on prison life: It is easier to believe that all inmates are evil, but the text leads us to believe that some inmates are actually kind.
The conflict between expectations and reality is stressed by the use of contrasts. The prison guard is a large man with a skin disease, while Victor is a beautiful boy. Evie fears that Victor is twofaced, but actually the prison guard is the one that is twofaced: He switches from officious officer to avuncular guardian.