The beauty of literature in Rachel Joyce's stories

The book A Snow Garden and Other Stories by Rachel Joyce is a series of stories based on the miracle of a holiday which is Christmas, that reflects the lives of different people, connected through relationships, friendship, circumstances. It also shows how even with people being the center of their stories they are just supporting characters in another person’s story no matter who they are or what they are going through.

One of my personal favorites of this book is ‘Christmas Day at the Airport’. This is one of the stories that stood out to me because it really showcases the modern reality that we all live in, its structure, functioning and its problems and it has some astonishing literary devices like allegory, imagery, metaphor, retrospection.

The story talks about the different lives of people of different origins (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, type of homes) and things/events that determine their characters. It shows all of them caught up in an unfortunate turn of events and how they all came together at the end due to the positive actions of one or two persons (for instance, Hester and Mrs. Pikes) and a miracle. It centers around two immigrants, same sex couple. Here we can see a societal problem of

people judging other people especially people they don’t know and immigrants. The story begins with how these couple were instantly judged based on their appearances because they didn’t fit into the social framework the society had created and how badly they were treated because they were immigrants which is one of the major problems of today’s society. It also shows how certain events can influence people’s behaviour towards others, for instance how people in the story prioritised their comfort, which at that moment was having a seat to sit in among all the craziness in the airport over being humane, having basic decency by refusing to give a seat to pregnant lady despite her wife’s pleas but instead uttered insults to her. This was also shown when the cleaner cared more about getting her work done than helping a pregnant lady in obvious pain, even people refusing to spare a cart to Johanna to help move her pregnant wife, everyone was just so caught up in their own world (in their heads).

The story also shows the different types of homes or family structures. Here we can see a gay couple (family) with an unborn child of an unknown rapist, a nuclear family, an old couple, a family who has lost its head (the father/husband), an extended family (Mrs. Pikes) along with the different kinds of problems they face, which is a vital part of the modern society where there are different shapes and sizes of families which are not practical or acceptable to some people. It also shows the problem of animal smuggling and how badly some animals are treated by people who just see them as a means to an end, like using them to make money by illegally selling them.

The use of allegory can be seen where there are some illustrations in the story from the Bible like the birth of the child on Christmas day in a not so practical place (the toilet of the airport, as in the Bible – a manger in the stables), the use of the donkey for transportation of the pregnant lady (Magda), the three gifts given to the child and her mother by Mrs. King and her daughters that represent the three wise men’s (magi’s) gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and the presence of the workers in angel costumes during the birth that represented the presence of angels during the birth of Jesus.

Joyce’s use of imagery can be seen in the scene when the sky was streaked with bands of orange and gold and flaming red. It is also used during the description of the bright light that shone

There is just a mass of cloud between the earth and the firmament that hangs flat and still. Then an easterly wind picks up, whipping the cloud, sending it scurrying and boiling, until a hole ripped right through its Centre and, without warning sunlight pours down in a thick flowing golden shaft .

Also, the use of imagery can be seen during the description of the surrounding people (how they all surrounded them and helped) during the birth of Johanna and Magda’s baby. It is also used during the description of what was happening at the airport, the chaos and everything. There is also the use of allegory here that represents the sudden light that appeared during the birth of Jesus.

The use of retrospection can be seen when the author narrates the events that led to Magda’s pregnancy, how she found and decided to keep it and agreed to marry Johanna. The use of metaphor can be seen with the use of ‘easterly wind’ that represents where both Johanna and Magda were from, the east of Europe.

The story captures hope, at the ending where one can see all of them coming together and finally acknowledging the presence of others for the first time and being kind to one another, thanks to the miracle they had all witnessed.

Marina Stepanova

3rd year student

State University of Humanities and Social Studies, Kolomna

Black Swan Green

How hard it is sometimes to adapt to the society and its norms, to live up to somebody’s expectations, to find the best solution in life. All these challenges are faced by Jason Taylor, the main character of the novel Black Swan Green written by David Stephen Mitchell, a famous English novelist.