Yellow Book: Characterization of Jon

Yellow

Living your life, there are a lot of challenges and a there are a lot of ways you can deal with these challenges. It can be hard sometimes, when you have to deal with these problems all on your own and you don’t know how to find the correct solution. People who has these challenges the only solution might be suicide ant that’s the worst case scenario. In the text Yellow written by Peter Carty the main character Jon has so many problems that he can’t find a way out of them. In the following I will focus on elements such as a characterization of Jon…..

The main character in this short story is Jon and he could be an example of a man who has a lot of problems in his life. All his life he has tried to avoid the challenging things and therefore he is quite scared about his job in Egypt where he has to write about scuba diving. Jon realize that he isn’t brave enough. Throughout the story he has an inner voice speaking to him and it tells him that he is yellow. He can not handle being called it therefore he wants to show that he isn’t a coward and complete his job as a man. The day where Jon and the others from the diving school suites up and managed their first diving expedition in the ocean. Jon decided to dive away from the others to find a place to hide, then he takes his mouthpiece out and starts drinking the ocean water and thereby he commits suicide.

Jon has a lot of problems in life. He drinks a lot more alcohol than recommended. As we can see in the first lines where he “tucked into his duty-free” (l.4). Probably it means that he drinks to escape his problems. He is also described as very nervous man, who is embarrassed of himself because of his lack of courage and ability to tell about his own opinion. He also has some problems with his girlfriend. We can also see his lack of bravery in the way he solves his problems with his girlfriend. Instead of talking to her about their problems, he takes the trip to Egypt alone, where he hides alone in the room with some gin. He feels that his problems have grown bigger and bigger and he finds no solution to them, because he thinks it is better to drink the problems away.

The short story takes place in Egypt. And the novel starts in a medias res which means that the reader jump straight into the action: ”Welcome to Egypt! Welcome to Egypt!”(1). But the protagonist Jon normally lives in London, but he is visiting Egypt, where he is experiencing a new culture. But we can see, that Jon not finds it interesting. ”The next day he walked along the promenade, impervious to the blue pain of the Red Sea” (5-6). The short story action takes place in the present. The action covers less than a week, from Jon arrives in Egypt to he chose to commit suicide in the sea diving exercise. The story is chronological, and it is only through Jon´s reflections or thoughts the reader is given a glimpse into