Essay. Minging. Too Tired. Sarah btw

Practice Essay.
“The Trick Is To Keep Breathing” by Janice Galloway is a novel which has a particularly effective opening. This novel is about a women who breaks down so severely after her partner tragically drowns, by accident at the beach. Joy, the main character feels completely lost without Michael and doesn’t know how to function without him. This novel opens with a flashback starting the journey into Joy’s unstable mind. This study will examine the opening in detail, referring closely to light and water imagery and the first flashback. It will also discuss to what extent the opening provides a successful opening to the text as a whole.

The text provides clues, mainly through flashbacks, as to what happened with Joy’s life and reasons for her unstable mind. The first flashback, “You’ll never know what you might need to recollect later, when the significance of the moment might re appear.” This is the first of the clues. It is reminding the reader that they should look out for hidden messages concerning Joy’s past as this will help the reader work out what happened to her. This effective opening immediately provokes the reader to appreciate the rest of the text as it comes as they are almost demanded to pay attention to every detail in case it is needed later on. This first flashback pushes the reader on to the start of the novel introducing Joy’s unstable mind and fear of light and water.

Light and water imagery are very important to the text. They play a part in showing Joy’s state of mind. At the start of the novel Joy cannot look at the light, she sits in the dark “for a number of reasons” This lack of light reflects her state of mind, everything seems dark now Michael is gone. The light makes her feels worse. This imagery is carried on throughout the novel and is made clear to the reader at the very start. “No matter how dark the room gets I can always see.” The first reference to light is negative. It reflects Joys mind and mood. She feels dark. She doesn’t like the light. “Brightness disagrees with me.” Later on the reader still notices Joy’s problems with lights, “The kitchen is bright, even at this time in the morning.” Joy doesn’t want her life to be bright, she can’t be bright without Michael. “I make tea in the dark” Joy does not act normal. Another sign that she is in the dark constantly, not only emotionally but physically. She won’t turn on the lights, not even to make tea.
Towards the end of the novel the reader can see Joy recovering as she says “I watch the lights” Joy is looking at the light in a positive manner for the first time. This reflects her mood. She can look into the future at this point. Joy is no longer dark and depressed but is starting to move on from the loss of Michael and see’s the light in her life is back.
Joy see’s water as a threat. Right from the start of the novel Joy not only see’s light I a negative way but also water. She is discriminating against water because of the way Michael was taken from her. During the text there are many references towards water reminding the reader of Michael’s tragic ending.

“sucking at the sole”
soul
A play on the word “sole.” tells the reader that Joy is scared of the water through the word “sucking”, this sounds very unpleasant. Joy thinks water is something dangerous. She talks about it sucking at the sole of her shoe but also her soul. She thinks water will kill her like it did to Michael.

“I read somewhere the trick is too keep breathing.” A reference to the title but also a sign of recovery. Michael died because he stopped breathing and this is how Joy felt, she couldn’t breathe anymore however now she sees that to recover she must just keep going. Breathing is now something natural for her.
Her recovery is also shown through Joy wanting to learn to swim. “Maybe I could learn to swim” She wants to go into the water, something that she was terrified of at the beginning of the novel.

“The Trick Is Too Keep Breathing” opens with power and holds the reader right to the end. The opening provides a successful start to the text as a whole as it introduces many of Joy’s fears and obsessions right from the first few lines. The reader can feel Joy’s pain and understands how she feels. The light and water imagery established in the first lines help to show Joy’s unstable mind and this makes the reader understand her feelings and past. This, on its own, provides a successful opening to the text as a whole as the imagery is carried on throughout.
“…the surf beating in my lungs. Reach for the bottle. Watch the lights.” Joy is recovering. She talks about water in a calming way and she is watching the lights.


Sarah