Low Visibility Margaret Murphy

946 Words4 Pages
Low Visibility By Margaret Murphy Low Visibility is a short story written by Margaret Murphy from 2008. The story is narrated by a third person, and therefore we know what Laura and her husband are thinking, while we at the same time, have a full overview of what is happening to them physically in the story. The story is about the woman Laura, and her marriage with her abusive husband John. They are watching the News where they follow the street riots all over town. Laura doesn’t speak and doesn't move, in terror of what her husband will do to her. However, even when she doesn’t draw attention to herself at all, her husband John, slowly but surely punishes her. The street riots spread to their apartment building and the store under them gets broken in to. John goes down to make them stop and ends up getting beat up. Laura goes down to the street and finds her husband lying on the ground in bad shape. When John asks for her hand as help, she neglects to do so. A rebel passes them on the street, and winks at Laura and doesn’t see John at all, who is begging for help. Laura asks the man if he isn't scared of getting caught, whereto he answers " Not me girl. I’ve been invisible all my life.” Laura walks away from John, surrounded by explosions, without helping him. The main character of the story is Laura. She is described as being a frightened person who is scared of her husband. The silence that appears is like white noise. Always present, and always loud. The four suppressing years of marriage has used her up, made her more insubstantial, and now instead of being outraged every time she gets slapped across the face or yelled at, she accepts it. She expects it. Her husband, John, married her in hope of absorbing some of the joy and humor, she once possessed. For some reason he failed of doing so, and instead he held her tight, bound as a hostage, Laura wants
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