Abduction Case
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Abduction is a short story written by Shelagh Delaney in 2002. The story takes place in Manchester and London, England. The story is told by a sibling (L. 35 – “Hed been born late in our parents marriage”) of the two central characters, the youngest brother and their sister Ann. The narrator is sitting on Manchester Piccadilly Station waiting for the train to London. Hes thinking about humiliating and killing his sister because she indirectly killed their youngest brother. (LL. 1-8)
Ann was always very proud of herself (L. 13) and she wanted to be a paediatrician, so when she got offered a job in London she couldnt get out of Manchester fast enough (LL. 23-25). She lived for her work (L. 20) and was very wealthy; she lived the life shed always wanted (L. 31). Her much younger brother had just left school, had no qualifications or job, and didnt have much confidence in his parents. His sister though had all the answers and it wasnt hard to get him to go away with her (LL. 36-41). Ann spend a lot of her time taking care of her younger brother trying to make him happy. She just didnt realize that her own values were different than her brothers. To her, happiness was career and money; while her brothers most important value was to have a happy family. When the brothers drinking problem was becoming official she didnt try to help him but instead bought the alcohol for him so he wouldnt have to steal it (LL. 105-106). The narrator thinks that Ann killed their brother by taking everything he loved away from him and thereby driving him insane. This lead to the large amount of alcohol he had to drink to get away from reality and which ended up killing him in the end.
This short story is comparable to the song “Mother” by Siouxsie and the Banshees because both stories contains a motherly figure which thinks shes giving the child love when she is actually suffocating the child by enslaving and shaping it after how she thinks it should be and act like. According to Siouxsie and the Banshees mothers think they are protective when they actually are stunting the childs mind (stanza 2). Youre expected to love your mother and if you dont, you feel so bad for hating her, that you want to please her in every possible way (stanza 1 and 6). Shell try to turn you in to a copy of herself and if youre about to escape her claws, shell twist the words you speak – or in “Abduction” try to buy your love (stanza 2 and 4).
“Downstairs I dont know
Why I feel safe in my bed
When I know Im alone
She must be watching overhead
Mother” (Stanza 8)
This shows us that the mother figure sees and knows