Dannie Abse's End of Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve

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Dannie Abse's End of Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve

Dannie Abse ended this brilliant story in a simple and sombre manner.

Within this ending there are many areas of contrast to reflect upon,

each portrayed to be seemingly meaningless yet each embodied with a

deep and symbolic message.

The first area that is to be assessed is the tone that Dannie Abse

decides to use in this ending. Rather than adopting the same tone

throughout this final chapter, it changes gradually yet quite

significantly from the start to finish. To begin with, we can see that

his tone is casual and typical of an adolescent character. Dannie has

reached a crucial stage in his life where he has no choice but to

acknowledge the change that awaits him. He is no longer the child who

he used to be - no longer '10 years high' (p11) but the 'emperor of

his 18 years… king of the tall trees… and big boss of the grass'. By

the final lines of the ending, the tone has become far more solemn and

intense.

At the opening of his ending, Abse possesses a casual and almost

suppressed tone; and he acts as if the events that have passed by are

no big deal. He's reached the point where he is now independent and

can no longer be as reliant on his parents as he once was. Even in

random streams of semi-consciousness he resents what they say and

wishes to continue his life on his own. Yet somehow, despite his

resentfulness on the surface, deep down he still longs for the loving

nagging of his parents:

"I didn't go home… my parents would be saying the same things all over

again."

"I sat on a wooden bench… thought for a moment what my mother would

have said."

Th...

... middle of paper ...

... hands, cold red hands sinking

in the air… waving goodbye, to the branches that, already in our war

weather ached with their absence."

The ending has not only strongly reiterated Dannie's significant

events of the past but also emphasised just how much he has changed

since the beginning of the book. Dannie's more subtle form of speech

and enrichment of his poetic style is an epitome of his development.

This episode of his 18th birthday paints the final picture of his

childhood and concludes the book in a very successful manner.

This is a terrific ending to a very unique book that has managed to

attain the ideal portrayal of adolescence and infancy rounded off in a

very intense but open-ended manner. I really don't think even the

writer himself could have ended the story in a better manner than the

way he did.

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