I think Peter Carty has chosen to write about difficult problems, like alcohol problems, because he wants to warn people before they get out on the thin end of the wedge. He wants to show that there are almost no way back, when you first are out where you cannot swim. It is the story of a depressed man, who is about to lose his job and girlfriend, and he cannot find a way out of his problems, so he uses alcohol to drown his sorrows. Jon is afraid of dying, and he chooses to be yellow. The short story’s title “Yellow” illustrates for the reader what Jon has chosen to become. He has no problems of being a fake and a coward, and he chooses to take the easiest way of his problems, though he could have chosen to overcome his alcohol problems and live a normal life.
The short story is told by an omniscient 3rd person narrator. His alcohol problem is described very well with this way of writing in the text: “He poured more gin, but no matter how much he swallowed, it was never enough” (text 3, line 56). He has absolutely no troubles by drinking too much alcohol, and like a real alcoholic he cannot see the problem. He does not see a opportunity how to overcome this problem, but he only thinks of the most easy way to get away with his problems. I believe that the alcohol problem has grown more and more because of his crisis with his girlfriend and his bad relationship to his editor.
I have compared the short story with text 4: “What Is Reckless Op About?” It is about challenging life and also to conquer your worst fears. Jon has an inner voice that keeps telling him he is yellow, yellow, yellow. Jon also wants to challenge life. He desires to show his girlfriend, his editor and all other people who have been after him, that he is not yellow.
I have also compared the short story with text 2: “Prospice” by Robert Browning. Robert Browning writes in his poem that he has to fight his best but also last battle, before he can relax: “I was ever a fighter, so – one fight more, The best and the last” (text 2, lines 13-14). It is not the exact same payment they get, but it is the same result they achieve. Jon and Robert Brown achieve both to get free from their worries in life, but just in two different ways.
2. View of man vs. nature
William Wordsworth is a poet from the Romantic Movement. In the poem “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, he writes about the thrill nature gives him and how boring humans are compared to the excitement of nature. William Wordsworth is motivated by nature: “And I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts: a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused” (lines 6-9). Nature does not chasten or subdue pleasure but it makes people happy and it also fills them up with contented elevated thoughts. It is sure he does not believe that the human mind works like that; “The still sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue” (lines 4-6)
I believe that the ocean gives Jon a “pause” from reality, and it is his way to escape from everything, but also a way to challenge his fears. He knows that his life is not great, and therefore he uses scuba-diving to escape from his problems with alcohol, girlfriend and his job. He does not care about what happens to him, and therefore he has almost given up his life. He cannot see the bottom of the ocean and for him it feels like all his troubles is endless like the ocean. Jon is deeply inspired by the ocean –the nature. His problem is that the human nature is ruining his mood, and he it turns him on to challenge life.
