Debi Alper’s How Lucky You Are: Max and Ishraqi
How Lucky You Are
Do you know how lucky you are? Nowadays people tend to forget how to appreciate every little thing they have, when everything is given to them. Sometimes a tragedy, like a near death or an overwhelming experience, has to take place before we actually can see how precious every moment of life is.
In the western part of the World lots of young people take everything for granted because they are raised in a rich culture, where there is no lack of the basic needs, and they become more self-serving. This is shown in Debi Alper’s short story “How Lucky You Are”, from 2010, which revolves around the main character Max, who is in the point of his life where he has forgotten how lucky he is to have all the opportunities to form a good life. However Max’s point of view changes after his meeting with the foreign girl Ishraqi, who does not have the same opportunities as him.
The short story “How Lucky You Are” takes place in a large town in South London called Coydon, which is about 16 km south from the centre of London. The main character lives near “the UK Border Agency building in Croydon Town Centre”(p. 8, l. 21), which becomes the story’s central setting, due to the meeting with Ishraqi. From the tram’s window, Ishraqi describes round the town centre as gloomy with all the grey buildings and not much nature. It is a typical environment for a big town with a large number of inhabitants. This is seen in the sentence from the text: “The buses and trams were filling with rush hour commuters.”(p. 12, l. 169). There are lots of slang among Max and his friends.
The main character is characterized as a sixteen-year old boy, who is a student at The Brit School - a school for performing arts and technology. However he is taking his spot at the school for granted, and bunking off school as often as he can.
All things considered it appears in this quote from the text: “Besides, Max was sixteen and was focused inwards, unaware of anyone else unless they
Do you know how lucky you are? Nowadays people tend to forget how to appreciate every little thing they have, when everything is given to them. Sometimes a tragedy, like a near death or an overwhelming experience, has to take place before we actually can see how precious every moment of life is.
In the western part of the World lots of young people take everything for granted because they are raised in a rich culture, where there is no lack of the basic needs, and they become more self-serving. This is shown in Debi Alper’s short story “How Lucky You Are”, from 2010, which revolves around the main character Max, who is in the point of his life where he has forgotten how lucky he is to have all the opportunities to form a good life. However Max’s point of view changes after his meeting with the foreign girl Ishraqi, who does not have the same opportunities as him.
The short story “How Lucky You Are” takes place in a large town in South London called Coydon, which is about 16 km south from the centre of London. The main character lives near “the UK Border Agency building in Croydon Town Centre”(p. 8, l. 21), which becomes the story’s central setting, due to the meeting with Ishraqi. From the tram’s window, Ishraqi describes round the town centre as gloomy with all the grey buildings and not much nature. It is a typical environment for a big town with a large number of inhabitants. This is seen in the sentence from the text: “The buses and trams were filling with rush hour commuters.”(p. 12, l. 169). There are lots of slang among Max and his friends.
The main character is characterized as a sixteen-year old boy, who is a student at The Brit School - a school for performing arts and technology. However he is taking his spot at the school for granted, and bunking off school as often as he can.
All things considered it appears in this quote from the text: “Besides, Max was sixteen and was focused inwards, unaware of anyone else unless they