Abduction by Shelagh Delaney

Abduction by Shelagh Delaney
It’s normal that siblings have some sort of competition going on, where the winner gets love and respect from the parents, while the “loser” gets yelled at. This is why we sometimes hate our siblings, but at the end of the day, we know that we don’t want to live without having our siblings in our lives, and that we in the end, would do anything for them, because it’s our precious family and the best we ever had.
The story “Abduction” is a short story by Shelagh Delaney. The story starts in media res and takes place in London, where Ann lives. In the beginning the story is described and told by a 1st. person narrator, which later changes into a 3rd. person narrator, who is a limited narrator but with knowledge of the people, we meet in the story. Even though the narrator technique changes, it seems to be the same person who is telling the story. Most likely it is an older brother, because he says: “our parents´ marriage,” (L. 35). He is going to London from Manchester, it might be because he´s going to the brother’s funeral. He also knows a lot about his sister, such as she was sterilized, when she was a younger woman.
The relationship between Ann and her little brother is strange. Ann takes her brother to London, because she thinks she can give him a better life and a better future, than their parents can. Of course the brother goes with her sister. He is still young and thinks his clever and successful sister has all the answers about life. The text obviously indicates that she is rich and therefore gives him a generous allowance. Ann is overprotecting and spoils him. When Marianne says to Ann’s brother: “Are you sure you’re not really her baby?”(L. 81-82) then I think, it could be right, even though the brother says that it isn’t possible.
The younger brother is a sixteen-year old boy in the beginning, when he is “abducted” by his own sister from their family in Manchester to London. There is a large age difference between Ann and her brother, which I can conclude, as she is already a doctor and living in London by her own. He is not sure of what he wants, so he takes a media-education to please his sister. He goes against his sister’s will, when he marries and gets a baby with Marianne. In the end of the story, he isn’t able to remove himself from the sister’s control and he gets an alcohol problem that destroys his relationship to Marianne, and in the end it leads him to his death. In the story the brother is described more positively than his sister, which is probably something the narrator does purposely. The narrator mentions many things about Ann, which you could be proud of, but the narrator doesn’t seem to be very impressed by her. In the beginning of the story, he calls Ann a killer and his is clearly mad at her. He might be mad at her, because she is selfish and has ruined their brother with her expectations, possessiveness and her high self-assurance.
Ann has issues with herself and her family. She has expectations to everyone, also to herself. She thinks she is superior, especially to her parents and she lacks trust. Something must happen to her, since she acts that way and treats people like the way she does. Maybe she has ruined herself or maybe the family has? The narrator says she was sterilized, when she was a young woman. Why do such a thing to oneself? This may give a suggestion as to why she adducted her brother, although she has everything, she stills needs a person in her life. There is some people, who says a woman aren’t completed before she has given birth to a child, so she needed her little brother to complete her life, which is extremely selfish. Or maybe she really wanted the best for her brother, but she couldn’t figure out to give it to him in the right way.
I think the main themes in the story are trust, love and success. The brother dies and it shows how he regrets to go with his sister. He does not show his feelings to Ann. He thought he could take care of his own life. Before he dies, he think about his family, wife, daughter and his parents, but not at Ann, even she tries to be a big part of his life. She helps him to start his life, but she is also contributing to end his life. We don’t know the brother´s name in the story and maybe it means that the brother is inferior.
The story is also about expectations. Expectations can sometimes be difficult and hard to live up to. We usually get expectations from our family, friends and at least our self. If we are going to be successful today, it means that we have to promote ourselves and do what we can to improve our own and others’ status, and sometimes with the cost of losing our self. We can forget who we are, and what´s important in our lives. There are some people who manipulate and promote themselves and might even ruin other people´s lives in the process of reaching their goals. They might become someone, they don’t want to be. And if we reach the goals in our life, will we then be happy? Or will we try to strive for something bigger? I think the story “Abduction” is a great example of expectations. Ann shows us, that she has a perfect life with money and success, but she is still missing love. She needs real structure in her life and needs to see the picture of the real life, in the real world. She cannot continually decide everything and just do what she wants.