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No Angel

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No Angel

Losing a family member, a friend or a loved one can be very painful and difficult experience to overcome and accept. On the one hand, we want to remember the one who passed away, but on the other we don’t want to accept the fact that they’re gone and will never be with us again. Sometimes, our loss can even be so great that our imagination creates person who passed away and makes us able to talk to them as if nothing ever happened, as if they never passed away. This is exactly the case of the main character of the short story “No Angel” from 2010 by Bernie McGill, who deals with the loneliness and grief of losing her family.

The short story is told from a first person limited point of view, and the events are seen through …show more content…

This tells us, that she has now realized and accepted that they are all dead, and this is furthermore proven when she asks her dad: “Will you leave me alone now?” (p. 5 l. 179) which can be seen as not only her asking her father to leave her alone, but also the grief and sorrow that has been with her this entire time. She asks her dad if it’s okay to let go of them (her family) and move on. She asks him this, because she probably needs her family. She admired Robbie for his confidence and his will of iron, which is something she never had, and this is why she needs the confirmation from her dad. She is insecure in herself and the choices she makes. This choice is a very mature and independent choice to make. Her father tells her “You know where we are” (p. 5 l. 186) further proves the theory of her family being a product of her imagination or subconscious, by her accepting and telling herself that they are, in fact, dead.

This also leads me to the title. The title “No Angel” tells us many things. First of all, it describes the subject and theme of the story, which is supernatural happenings (seeing how angels aren’t real beings) and perhaps also grief and sorrow from losing a loved one, or even someone “watching over” someone else, which is exactly what the father does in this story. It also describes the feelings that our protagonist has inside of

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