Mary_Moon

Mary Moon and the Stars In the short story Mary Moon and The Stars by Janice Galloway there is one central character Mary Moon around whom the whole story revolves. In this essay, I will demonstrate how the writer’s use of language encourages us to feel empathy towards Mary Moon. The writer instantly demands our attention and makes us feel sympathy for the character Mary with her opening line. “Mary Moon peed the floor the first day of school”. You instantly feel embarrassed for Mary. The writer then describes her appearance. She describes her as thin as string with white yellow hair that looks like rats-tails. We imagine a girl who is not being taken care off and this is clearly shown when the narrator says, “Her skin was see-through and she smelt like a cat’s cushion”. The writer use of a simile indicates that her skin is sticking to her bones and her clothes are unwashed and smelly. It later becomes clear that the character Mary must fend for her self, as her mother does not rise from her bed. This is noted by the narrator’s grandmother who observes and states, “the lassie takes the milk in when she comes back at night”. This lets us know that the mother is not playing an active role in her daughter’s life. She does not seem to eat we know this by the way the narrator describes her physique, and the narrator mother later states that she had given her extra chips as she “needs feeding up, Always did”. The narrator is telling us that this has been a continual way of life for Mary and has been for a long time. We also feel sympathy for Mary because of the way she is treated by other characters; she always has marks on her arms because she sits beside George Dickie who is known for pinching arms. Yet no one seems to intervene or deal with this, it’s just accepted. In addition, the grandma’s attitude condemns a person because of where they live and how they look. The area that she lives in is described by the narrator as a, “Bombsite with giant dogs roaming like dinosaurs all over the place”. The vivid description helps you image a terrible dark place. The grandmother has a hostile attitude to Mary and never refers to her by name but as the lassie. She is not happy about the friendship that the narrator and Mary have as she is constantly warning her off, “You’ll get beasts off that lassie if you’re not careful”. Again you may feel sadden for Mary if only the grandmother had a different attitude, she could or should have intervened and helped Mary. Even though a number of different people treat Mary badly, from the tormented of name-calling at school and outside the gates there were people who felt sympathetic towards her. The girls spent some time in a diner where a man called Mario gives her a loan of his jacket when “her legs were scarlet red” and “her hands raw” from the coldness. Mary was in a cardigan on a cold winter night, though it is not clear, if she owed a jacket. Mario act of kindness was only temporary measure as Mary respectably returned the jacket before she left, the Narrator had said that she thought, “Mario liked us”, but in my world, I would have let her have the ill fitted jacked as the writer leaves us to wondering if she even possessed a jacket. Later in the story, the writer again pulls at our hearts strings, when we find out what an unsettled life she had through her teenage years as, “They’d lived in six houses and she’d been to five different schools”. This gives us the impression of an unsettled home life. It is later we discover that “the house was filthy, no carpets or nothing”. “There’s just a cooker and an old bed settee left.” You cannot help but sympathise with Mary and her circumstances. The girls spent a number of hours together but never once enter each other houses. “She didn’t have my address or anything” The narrator is saddened when reflecting on Mary life and feels the burdens of Mary past “Knowing things”. Toward the end of the story, the narrator mother bumps into Mary Moon at the age of nineteen. Mary Moon has put on weight; she has a good job in a bank and has a boyfriend. All seems to have turned out quite well for Mary. “Mary Moon was doing ok”. Even at the end, the writer still encourages us to be sympathetic towards Mary, as even though she has grown up and the Narrator mother has said, “She’s looking fine.” When Mary is invite to reunite with the narrator the narrator mother makes it clear she does not expect it “don’t be surprised if she doesn’t hen”. This also makes the reader feel sympathetic towards the narrator as you can tell she would like to see Mary Moon after all this time but the narrator also understands that she may want to forget her childhood. She shows this when she says, “She didn’t need reminders of before and I was a part of before”. The narrator is telling us that Mary did not have many happy times or memories to reflect upon. In conclusion, Janice Galloway creates a sympathetic character all through the story her language is descriptive and vivid when describing Mary and her living conditions. She conveys Mary so well by the way, she looks and the overall way each character treats her. I enjoyed the story and I felt I wanted more information about what happened to her mother and where her father was' In addition, what were the circumstances of her brother death' Even so, I was happy to discover all turned out well for Mary after such a bad start.