The narrators recent loss of her husband dominates the story, it begins on a journey to meet old friends on the Isle of Wight. The journey reminds the narrator of the ‘gold peace’ of her holiday that she had spent there previously with her husband, and compares it by saying, ‘it was September like now’.
Throughout the first few paragraphs, the narrators mind jumps from flashback to flashback this shows us her agitated state. However, the stream of consciousness works well within the piece, and is portraying the narrators thoughts. We are travelling through the narrators thought process as she prepares to meets the old friends Tom and Anna, and look back at the life they have shared.
The reader jumps with the narrator to scenes from the past, such as university, the beach and at her husbands funeral.
It is only later when the narrators thoughts become calmer that the sentence structure becomes easier to read and in goes into longer prose. With the repeated use of "So now that he is dead", Gardam gives us the feeling of almost being carried along on the train journey, which is where the story begins.
Gardam’s use of characterisation allows us to see the two women on the train, as important characters. Although seemingly innocent, these characters represent the narrators realisation about her own life, ‘you have to stand up for yourself and get free of men’. She realises that in her relationship with her husband he had never been or intended to be faithful to her. Also how she has been controlled by her husband; she has lived her life through him. She was prepared to accept that she would have never been the only woman in her husbands life, ‘I knew…. I’d never have you to myself’.
With Gardams use of language, the reader can visualise the settings and the people she describes. She uses onomatopoeia ‘splashy sea’, and alliteration with ‘black-edged tickets on blazing bouquets’ and ‘Criss cross deck, criss cross water’. This demonstrates the repetitive, innocents and naive thoughts of the narrators. The narrator uses "you" and "I" when sharing her viewpoint in relation to her husband, and Tom, Anna and their relationship. Gardam is then is almost resentful when describing Tom and Anna as being ‘too large’, ‘too good’, this hints at a tension between them
Symbolism when describing the stone trees, ‘ dead stone’ could symbolise the death of her husband, because the trees are no longer alive and the wish that things will stay the same. The narrator wants to freeze her love for her husband and does not feel that she can share her love with another person. She wants to immobilise her love for her husband, like the stone trees ‘ their stone bark…ancient among the young stones’. However, her husband has touched other peoples lives, which is evident from his child she meets who is like him.
Gardam allows us the reader to pick up the clues hidden in the story. She tells us how Anna ‘she cried a lot’, which we can see is the reader has being given the clues by Gardam that that the boy, Peter might be the narrator husbands. This is compounded by the fact that she believes her husband has had a son, with Anna. However, it is an important moment when she realises this, "The boy laughs and looks at me with your known eyes’. Towards the end of the story the husbands betrayal becomes easier to cope with, when she realises that a part of him will always live on, ‘takes life again’. The change of the mood implies the narrator is now able to move on with her life, but will always be reminded of her husband, through Peter. The narrator's response to the child is important because it shows the first time she feels close to a person other than her husband: ‘So Now that you are’
