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"Spilled Salt" Analysis

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Spilled salt – sprogrettelser The worst thing a parent can experience is when your own child commits a crime. Should parents forgive their own flesh and blood no matter what, and if so, what is unforgiveable? In what way can religion help the parent to forgive such a crime as rape or is it even possible? These dilemmas are mentioned in the short story “Spilled Salt”, written by Barbara Neely, published in 1990. Kenny is the son of Myrna. He is a former prisoner, because of rape of a girl named Crystal Roberts. Kenny only confessed the crime after the police found evidence for the incident, which shows his lack of honesty and therefore a problem for some to trust him. His childhood was tough, in that he grew up in a poor neighbourhood …show more content…

One way to bury her guilt is by working; “You wait in people in the restaurant all day and sit up all night making other people’s clothes” (p.5, l.140). The role of religion plays a big role in the text. Since Myrna’s sons imprisonment she has been a Christian in the hope, that religion can help her forgive Kenny. By going to church she is being confirmed that Kenny’s actions aren’t her fault but it’s God will, and therefore God must have had a reason for letting Kenny commit rape; “This was god’s plan for him” (p.6, l.168). Her religion has been her way to ignore all her guilty thoughts of Kenny’s crime; “Prayer and good works became a protective shield separating her from her past” (p.5, l.17). The name Myrna means “high spirited”, which makes sense because of her high religious way of thinking. The crucifix is a symbol of Myrna’s religion, which she leaves at home when she decides to run away from Kenny and her problems. In that moment she has therefore realized that religion could not save Kenny. The reason for her to think that Kenny hasn’t changed depends on one specific action he makes in the kitchen; “He’d spilled the salt, and there were crumbs on the floor” (p.2, l.87). There is an old saying, that to spill salt means you will have bad luck in the future. The title “Spilled Salt” is, because of this saying, very symbolic. Myrna is one of those superstitious people who believe this saying. That is why fear runs through her body, when Kenny spills salt

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