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.That can t be him, that can t be my father for he hadshrunk and become grey and ordinary, and.whatWith these realizations, the pieces of Julie son earth had she been afraid of? She could just hearpuzzle her own true character fall into place.what Debbie would say about him! Why, he wasJulie s intense isolation becomes stark.At her par-nothing at all.ents home, in her family,   they simply did notNot until later that evening, when she and hertouch each other.  Debbie hugged Julie and lav-parents are watching television, do her thoughtsished affection upon her, but now Debbie has no usereturn to the newborn infant.A newscast announcesfor Julie.Although she does not admit it, Juliethat a child has been found in a phone booth.  Theknows that her perception of Debbie was only anurses have called her Rosie,  the anchor reports,fantasy.Debbie did not even bother to return tocausing in Julie   [h]ot waves of jealously.whenEngland in time to help Julie give birth, althoughshe saw how the nurse smiled down at the little  she had promised  to do so.She had assured Julieface.  Julie is even more taken aback by the conver- for months that she would be there to   see every-sation the report provokes among her and her par- thing s all right.  Instead, she left Julie completelyents.She learns that her aunt Jessie had been analone to give birth to her child in a shed, her onlyunwed, teenaged mother herself and had stayed atcompanion a stray dog eager to eat the afterbirth.home with the child until she married and movedThe tears that Julie cries at home are for herselfinto a house with her new husband.for her own loss of the artificial closeness she hadonce shared with Debbie not for anyone else.The implications of the long-held family secretDebbie would not take her in now.put Julie into a brief turmoil as she realizes that   shecould be sitting here now, with her baby Rosie,  In her childhood bed that night, clutching aand that   they [her parents] wouldn t have thrown panda bear, Julie goes over future plans, but theseher out.  However, Julie soon acknowledges the plans, steeped in a bitter acceptance of reality, willtruth, that   Rosie her daughter could not come here, only further serve to isolate her.She falsely buildsbecause she, Julie, could not stand it.  With these herself up and attempts to deceive herself in herblunt revelations, Julie s selfishness emerges.She ability to start a new life independently.The   ac-has hurt others: the baby deserted on a rainy night complishments  that she uses to praise herself areand crying out its   short angry spasms,  the dis- hardly accomplishments at all.She   lived in Debbie sheartened parents, who even upon her return   weep, flat, and didn t get hurt by them.  More signifi-V o l u m e 1 2 2 9D e b b i e a n d J u l i ecantly, she tells herself,  [I] had Rosie by myself in about a woman who must focus on her own needs inthat shed with only a dog to help me, and then I put order to survive.Lessing begins in the middle ofRosie in a safe place and now she s all right.  Julie things, with Julie alone, cut off from her family,completely overlooks any moral implications of her from her friend Debbie, from everyone, facing theactions in deserting and endangering a helpless unconscionable prospect of delivering her baby onchild.She can only think of her own wants.Her final her own.In order to survive this event, Julie mustthought before she falls asleep reveals the self- not think about what she is doing, other than toabsorbed, delusional, and yet extremely lonely child concentrate upon the purely mechanical acts shewho remains inside Julie:   I can do anything I want must complete so that she and the baby will stayto do, I ve proved that.  alive.Lessing s spare style and matter-of-fact rep-ortorial prose reflect Julie s desperate attempt toSource: Rena Korb, Critical Essay on   Debbie and Julie, control her emotions and to make it through thein Short Stories for Students, The Gale Group, 2001.experience.At this point, she gives us no detailsabout how Julie got into this situation.Her focus isWendy Perkins only on the measures Julie must take for her ownPerkins is an associate professor of English at self-preservation.Prince George s Community College in Maryland.Julie s sense of isolation is compounded by theIn the following essay she focuses on how thefact that no one in Debbie s apartment notices her.structure of Doris Lessing s   Debbie and Julie   She thought they did not see her,  but recognizesilluminates the story s themes.that since Debbie let it be known that she would beprotecting Julie, the   dangerous  people who comeIn the short sketch   Storms,  one of the collectedand go there   got nothing out of noticing her. pieces published in Doris Lessing s The Real Thing,When she comes out of her room, the people in thea passenger in a London cab expresses her feelingsapartment do not even look at her.for the city:   It was like a great theater, I said; youcould watch what went on all day, and sometimes I Her loneliness grows when she thinks ofdid.You could sit for hours in a cafe or on a bench Debbie s absence.Lessing never allows us to meetand just watch.Always something remarkable, or Debbie; we only know her through Julie s subjec-amusing.  The collection of stories in The Real tive point of view, which reinforces what the womanThing have been heralded for their realistic snap- meant to her.Debbie has provided her with muchshots of London and Londoners.In one of the darker needed comfort and has taught her how to survivestories in the collection   Debbie and Julie,  Lessing on her own.She remembers how Debbie and shepresents a harrowing portrait of a young Londoner, would joke about   how little people noticed aboutwho finds herself quite alone as she faces the other people.  As her labor begins, however, someimpending birth of her child.Lessing s clear, direct of her buried emotions surface.She longs for herprose and tight narrative structure illuminate the friend and feels   she could not bear to go withoutstory s exploration of the methods and consequences seeing her. of survival [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]