Gap of Sky

What is the right thing to do? We must constantly ask ourselves that question, every time we have to make a decision. But what is right thing to do in life? Should we follow our dreams or try to live up to all the expectations society have for us? These questions and this human division are ex-pressed in Anna Hope's short story "Gap of Sky" from 2008.

The late teenage years are hard for almost everyone. It is the time when you are finding yourself and finding out who you really are. But it is also the time where you are suddenly getting more and more independent and you're on your own in the world. 19-year-old Ellie, the short story's protagonist, is dealing with these exact problems. She wakes up one day in her dirty and sloppy apartment after a crazy night which included consumption of a lot of alcohol and coke. Suddenly she remembers that she has to write an essay, which has to be turned in the following evening. This stresses her, and when she finds out that she doesn't have any more ink left for her printer, it also leaves a big conflict in her mind: Should she hurry up and run down to the store and get some more ink, or should she just let it go and don't think about her obligations?

Walking and running through the streets of London trying to find an open store where she can buy some ink, Ellie is surrounded by grey buildings and moving traffic. The city is moving fast, and so is she. It is very clear that she is in a hurry, and she keeps changing her mind about what is the best thing to do. The right thing to do. Suddenly she gets a very bad headache, and she gets the feeling that the drugs are eating her brain - for a second she even fears that it will kill her. But when she sees a clearing in the middle of all the stressful and moving city surroundings she gets a new hope. "As she turns there is a gap of sky to her right, an emptiness, a vacancy that she doesn't remember seeing before, something destroyed or being built" (Anna Hope, "Gap of Sky", 2008). This little gap of sky is like freedom in the middle of the prison of the big city. Ellie suddenly realizes that she will only get that freedom, if she aspires to higher things. She needs to do her best to achieve her goals, to feel that she is going somewhere with life. In other words: She needs to move forward with the city instead of standing still and postpone her life and her pursuits. "There is a clarity to the air, a quickening; it is the time of the day, the time of the year. There are people moving together, here in this part of London, moving with purpose, with meaning and Ellie is one of them". Therefore it is very obvious that the big city environment Ellie lives in reflects in her thoughts and actions, and it is very clear that she developing and improving as a person throughout the story.

Reading the short story you get very much into Ellie's head. She is the narrator, and it