Low Visibility Essay

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Low Visibility An important lesson in life is learning how to be individual, how to fight for your freedom and how to claim your rights. This is not easy and it takes a lot of courage, but it is something we all at some point in our life have to do. Precisely this it the theme in the short story Low Visibility. The plot revolves around a man and a woman, who is sitting in their living room watching the news. The man, John, is eagerly commentating the evening’s news. A violent protest or some sort of rebellion action is taking place in the city they are living in. The woman, whose name we are not told yet, keeps quiet and still during this scenario, and even though she doesn’t agree with her husband, she doesn’t let him know. The woman feels great admiration for the people, who fight for their case. At this point of the story the reader is not aware of why the woman is so afraid of speaking out loud, however we are about to find out when John deliberately drills his fingers into her thigh, and by that causing her a huge amount of pain. Here from it is very clear who calls the shots in the household – under the surface John is a sick, sexist bastard. As the story continues we learn more and more about John’s violent and dictatorial behavior. As the protesting crowd is approaching their neighborhood, the woman is hiding herself from the reality, not physically but mentally. From her mental hiding place she is observing how John goes down to face the heated protesters and how he gets into a fight. After a while she decides to go down to the street. For the first time John is helpless and the woman realizes he is all mouth and trousers now laying there begging her to help him. John tries to convince her to help but the woman chooses to walk away. Not many seconds later a big explosion sends cascades of glass and rubble in her direction, however she walks away unharmed
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