Abduction Is a Short Story by Shelagh Delaney

Abduction.

Abduction is a short story by Shelagh Delaney, it is a story about misunderstanding the concept of love. However it is also a story about, misunderstanding or not looking for the needs of the ones we love.

Abduction is the title, and it refers to the way, that Ann abducts her sixteen year old younger brother from their parents, and brings him to london. Ann is a woman who always new, what she wanted: “She couldn't get out of Manchester quick enough. Although she'd been born and brought up there it had never been good enough. There was only one place worth living. London.” (p. 1, ll. 24) Ann moved and never looked back, except from the one time, where she came to take her younger brother to live with her in London. There can be many reasons why Ann felt the need to take him away from his home, but all in all she has a very strong need to look after someone, and control their life. Considering the fact, that she is working at a children's hospital, may give the impression, that she would want to have kids on her own, but that is not the case. Already when she was a young woman, she was sterilized. It is a bit of a mystery, because while she loved kids, she did not want any of her own. For her it was more easy to become a mother to her younger brother. Therefore she spoiled him with money, and never gave him have a life of his own. When he gets a girlfriend, who also become pregnant, Ann tells them to get an abortion, and they do what she says. Ann's younger brother's girlfriend points out to him, that there is something wrong between the two siblings: “She's more like a possessive mother than a sister,” She told him. “Are you sure you're not really her baby?” (pp, 4. ll, 81). This is said because Ann's behavior is more appropriate for a mother than a sister, because as his sister, she should not take the mothers part in the upbringing. As mentioned before Ann spoils her brother with money. She gives him, what she believes he wants, and he is too week to tell her, that what she is doing is wrong. When he graduates from college, (where he had studied media, which he actually despised, but did for his sister sake), Ann provide him with a job, which of course leads to Ann giving him a lot of new and expensive close, he never wanted. After that day, he immediately changed to his belongings from his birth house.

Ann's brother married Marianne, the girl who got an abortion, she gets pregnant again, and this time, they keep the child. After Marianne has given birth to their child, Ann transfers her own sense to the child, and spoils it with money, even though the parents tell her to stop. After some years Ann's brother start to drink, and become an alcoholic. Marianne tries to help him, but she decides to divorce him. He moves back to Ann, and they are back were they were before the marriage. This is very satisfying for Ann, because now she can control her brother, the way she like. Again she can spoil him with money, and give him the things, she think he wants. He says that he does not want her to spend the money, but she answer him back that it is only money, and that is what they are for. The money she gives him, is her way of expressing her love to the brother. She never think that maybe he wants something totally different, he wants feelings, wants someone to tell him that he exist for a reason. His alcoholism is according to Ann not existing, her brother can simply not have an alcohol problem. It is easy to see, that this is her brothers way of going against his sister. He has the need to do something against his sister, and make her realize, that she can not make him, something he is not. She can not make him wear clothes, he dislike, she can't change him, no matter how big an amount of money she gives him. His life is a mess, he is in a deep alcoholism, even though he loves his child and ex-wife. “He'd wanted to run away then, run back home to his mother and father. Was it possible to start all over again?” (pp, 4. ll, 119) Ann is very controlling, she wants him to stay week, so she drags him back into alcoholism, she thinks that she has all the right answers. That her mother and father was in no condition to raise a child, that she could do it better herself, but all she ever did was doing it the wrong way. Money can not replace true feelings, it can not replace the love between to humans, money can never make a person happy, and it did not make her brother happy, it killed him.

Both the picture by Edward Munch, and the text by D. H. Lawrence is about women controlling their men. In the painting, a woman encloses a man with her hair, he is in her power.
She has the power to control him. The man in the picture has a very sad look in his eyes, as if he nows that he does not have the power to get out of her grip. In the text a man is describing how his girlfriend is very possessive and wants to control him. “She had such a lust for possession, a greed of self-importance in love”(pp. 6, ll. 7). This painting and the text are both very similar to the themes in the short story. They both surrounds the topic of women being dominant, and wanting to control the men, just like Ann's needs to control her younger brother.

Fiction and non-fiction is two very different ways of writing. In fiction you can write anything that comes to you mind, there are no specific rules that inquirer you to do something certain. A fiction story can be very unrealistic, but also very realistic. When looking at the short story Abduction, it is quickly discovered that it is a fiction story. To start with it has a third person narrator. In fiction a narrator can write down the characters thoughts, and him or her, can be very subjective: “The first time he left his sister's house for the office he felt like a fool togged up in a black cashmere and silk shirts”(pp.3, ll. 68). Non-fiction on the other hand is submitted rules, in non-fiction you have to stay as objective as possible. Personal thoughts are not to prefer, the writer is telling the story as it happened, him or her is passing on valuable information, and that information has to be unbiased. “Alfred Adler observed that there was an innate “drive for power an superiority” that was evidenced in sibling rivalry”(pp.8, ll. 1) Alfred is observing something, and these observations can be used to conclude something. That would not have been the case, if the text had been fiction.