An Analysis of No Angel

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Death is a droll phenomenon. When someone dies, are they really gone? Everyone deals with death extremely differently. Grief is a difficult and painful thing to deal with, so no one wants to be left alone. You want to get liberated from the pain and sorrow but it’s challenging to let go of the lost one’s memory. Some starts to see the ghosts of the lost ones instead of dealing with the sorrow. This is the case in Bernie McGill’s short story “No Angel”. Two weeks after her father’s funeral, our protagonist Annie sees his ghost in her bathroom. Knowing he is dead, they small talk about her boyfriend, their farm, their deceased family etc. until he suddenly vanishes. Her father makes occasional appearances after that. They keep talking about everyday life until one night at the Opera House, where she not only sees her father, but her brother and mother as well. Knowing where to find them, she takes her goodbye with her dead family. “No Angel” is told in first person narrative in a limited point of view. We see the action through our main characters eyes, which gives the reader an inside in the protagonist’s thoughts. The short story is written with classic narration, which means the narrator can survey the events and the time in which they take place. The narrative can jump in time, survey several years in one sentence or anticipate later events – all of which is used in “No Angel”. The composition is jumping trough time with flashbacks and flash-forwards. Some of the telling is streams of thoughts, some are memories and others are the timeline. The streams of thoughts are interrupting the timeline constantly so it becomes un-chronological. The most notable thing about the father’s ghost is that it appears to be completely normal... ... middle of paper ... ...or them. She then asks him “will you leave me alone now?” (Line 179), meaning that he now has found the other ghosts. And therefore doesn’t need the company of the living anymore. The protagonist doesn’t need to hold on to his memory, because she knows he is safe and in good hands with the rest of the family. First when she knows her father is safe, she can get closure, and not only let go of him, but the entire family. The story ends with her saying: “I’ll se you then” (line 185) and her father replying: “you know where we are” (line 186), as if he reassures her that she will rejoin them when she dies. “No Angel” is a beautiful short story about dealing with death. The simple story is dealing with a heavy subject in a common everyday way, which makes it different from other death themed stories. Bernie McGill has written a delightful and successful ghost story.

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