The extract given to us was taken from “As I walked Out One Midsummer Morning” written by Laurie Lee in 1969. From the passage we are not able to tell whether we are dealing with a fictional or non-fictional text, hence it could be an autobiography, however this does not affect my interpretation of it. For this purpose I will assume that it is a non-fictional text, because of the memoir like aspect to it. The setting is a coastal region in Spain, where the protagonist arrives from England. He arrives in the early morning as we can tell from the text and the extract shows his first day in a totally new environment.
The dominating theme throughout this passage is the theme of beginning a new life, leaving the past behind. The narrator expresses this idea in line ten. “But it was Spain, and the new life beginning”. The fact that he intents to stay in Spain and wants to start a new life is also shown by his decision to buy a ticket without return (line 11). The “No return ticket” could also be a metaphor for his life journey, that England is not an option for him anymore, and that he cannot possibly ever return.
In contrast to his idea to start a new life in Spain we have the fact that he only brought a knapsack, a blanket, spare shirt and a fiddle, which doesn’t seem very much considering the fact that he wants to start a new life in Spain. Maybe this is because he had very little in England and from the fact that he has to sleep in the open, we can tell, that he is probably short of money. The fact that he brought nothing with him can also be seen in connection with his young age. His actions make him appear naive and innocent.
Also the fact that the only Spanish he knows is how to ask for a glass of water (line 12-13) lets him appear even more naive and we get the impression that he is rather lonely, due to the fact that he can’t speak to anyone. We can assume that the protagonist left home in order to discover the world and to experience an adventure, however in order to do that he had to leave his sheltered home and is now confronted with obscure situations, which leads us on to the next point, the protagonists unease in throughout the passage.
Another important aspect in this passage is the narrators uneasy which comes across in the first lines when he describes the town. This uneasy might be an expression of his unfamiliarity with the country and the culture. The unfamiliarity is expressed in line 23, “Nothing I knew was here”. Furthermore this unfamiliarity colours his perception and his narration of the events. His unease is also mirrored in the setting. England’s coastline for example is described as something “smooth” (line 1), whereas Spain’s coastline is cracked (line 3-4), hence it does not look as welcoming or comforting as the English coastline.
Laurie Lee enhances this theme with the “strange vivid girls” – which could be a reference to prostitute and which deepens the unfamiliarity. Especially in his situation, someone who just left the sheltered, comfortable home this must appear as an extreme contrast. We are very aware of this discomfort and it dominates the text, as his feelings and the ambient seem to be more important than his actions, of which we know very little of. His sceptical attitude towards Spain is mirrored in the many negative quotations the protagonist uses to describe his surroundings, as for example, “broken glass” or “waste of the sea”.
However there isn’t only unease, the protagonist experiences a mixture of feelings, varying from excitement to homesickness (line 39). Furthermore we get the impression that the narrator might exaggerate the events, as he was first attacked by dogs but later on he says, that it could have been possible that they were wolves. His solitude and loneliness is further developed by the fact that he sleeps on his own in the wild. Before that it is high lightened by the animalistic behaviour of the protagonist, which highlights the absence of humanity.
His animalistic behaviour can be seen in his statement “some primitive instinct had forced me to leave the road” by mentioning that he left the road we get the impression that he has left the civilization. This animalistic image develops further, as the same adjectives the protagonist uses to describe the dogs, are being used by the narrator to describe the protagonist. The last theme I would like to discuss is the present of the sea, overshadowing the whole extract. Already right at the beginning the author uses sea imagery to highlight the connection to the sea and to extend the setting and its physical closeness to the sea.
An example would be the washed up bodies (line 9) or the “wet green sunlight” (line 7). Land and sea seam to merge in the extract forming one bigger unit. The sea imagery can also be found in the description of the sunset. The town looks like it is being submerged; see line 41, “the valleys flooded with heavy shadow”. The reader is left at a point where it is not clear what was the protagonists motive to come to Spain. We also don’t know whether the protagonist will succeed or whether the situation will force him to give up his adventure to return home. We expect this to be clarified in the course of the text.
