A Gap of Sky: in Life You Have to Overcome Many Obstacles

A Gap of Sky
In life you have to overcome many obstacles. These obstacles often take place in ones youth where you experience a transition from childhood to adulthood and where you begin finding your place in society. This transition is often difficult as it is often hard to choose the right path to follow. More and more young people get caught up in drugs and peer pressure that keeps them from choosing the path that fits them the best.
In Anna Hope’s short story “A Gap of Sky” from 2008 we meet the nineteen-year-old Ellie who is experiencing the transition to adulthood.
The short story is written with a third person narration but it is written in a way that makes the text seem as Ellie’s thoughts. The language is therefore that of a nineteen-year-old girl. It is written as a stream of consciousness, which can be seen through the whole text but is especially clear at the beginning of the story where Ellie is in distress,
“Coffee. Swill out cafetiére, fill it. Computer. Is. On. Fags… Student shop. She could always score some more, too; see if Jez is about. Good plan. Good, this was good, fine.” (L. 33)
The language makes the reader feel Ellie’s stream of thoughts as if they were in fact inside her head.
Ellie is a college student in London and seems to be living at a college, as she has to walk down a hall to use the bathroom. When Ellie wakes up Monday afternoon she finds that she cannot remember much of the night before;
“She sits on the bed, brings her legs up under her chin, rummages for what ever she can remember from the night before.” (L. 16)
She is confused and can’t remember if she did drugs. What she can remember is that she went home at about eight in the morning. The fact that she partied all night and that she does drugs give us a hint that Ellie has let drugs and alcohol interfere with her education. Ellie discovers that she has an important essay about Virginia Woolf due the next day and she feels anxious to hand this essay on time because she is close to being thrown off the course she is taking.
While Ellie seems to party a lot and do drugs she also seems very keen on remaining in the course even though she doesn’t like it. She blames her parents for making her do the course,
“It was their fault she was doing this bloody course in the first place.” (L. 66)
Even though she is angry with them she also wants to stay in the course. Perhaps to prove to them that she can do it.
After getting some coffee and some coke Ellie sits down to write the essay but discovers that she is out of printer ink.
The city of London plays a vital role in Ellie’s story. As she walks among the other people she begins to feel as a part of the city and the people and it is in the city she finds her right path.
Ellie walks to a Student shop but finds it closed. She contemplates not doing the essay but casts the thought aside when she thinks of repeating the course. She decides to go to another shop and as she walks Ellie begins to feel the air clearing her head,
“There is a clarity to the air, a quickening (…) There are people moving together, here in this part of London, moving with purpose, with meaning, and Ellie is one of them.” (L. 57)
Ellie begins to feel like part of the group of Londoners walking on the street. She does not feel like an outsider and feels that she can walk with her head held high.
She stops at Russell Square and sees a glove rammed down on top of an iron railing. The glove is posed so that the middle finger is raised. Ellie sees the glove as a symbol for giving the finger to the system and authorities. She suddenly feels free of responsibilities and sees the glove as a sign for her to forget about the essay and the course. A sign for her to live life as free as she felt the night before. She sees two South-American men walking by her with trolleys and sees them walking towards the British Museum. Ellie decides to follow them and by that she walks away from the task at hand: finding ink and writing the essay. The glove has given her a sense of freedom.
“Fuck Virginia Woolf. She’s never been in there before, and so, why not?” (L. 74)
Ellie ventures into the museum but as she enters a headache starts to form. Suddenly thoughts about death appear in Ellie’s mind and she begins to wonder what will happen if she dies. Ellie can’t handle thinking these thoughts and she suddenly feels afraid. In the darkness of the museum Ellie becomes overwhelmed and feels everything become too much for her to handle;
“Ellie doesn’t want to go to a shop now, couldn’t go into a shop now, doesn’t want any more coke, ever again. She wants to be outside, to stay outside, to walk and walk and walk.” (L. 86)
Ellie had felt the coolness of the air clear her mind and when she is inside she feels trapped. Ellie hurries outside and when she gets there she feels released. As she walks outside she discovers a gap of sky between the buildings. She feels an emptiness that she hasn’t felt before and this can be a sign of the emptiness she feels inside herself. The title of the short story refers to this emptiness inside Ellie – a gap she’s slowly filling.
She suddenly feels certain she won’t die now. She continues walking when all of the sudden a door of a shop opens and the light streams out onto the street. Ellie walks inside and finds a table with pots of stones. She takes one in her hand and remembers her mother giving her a stone like this a long time ago for protection or something, and Ellie had just shoved it into her backpack,
“Whatever, it was still an expression of something, a distilled expression of something, of her mother, of her love, and Ellie had just shoved it away, taken it for granted.” (L. 110)
Ellie feels sad that she disregarded her mother’s obvious sign of affection. As she is remembering her mother, Ellie begins to feel confident that she can handle the essay and the course. She feels that she has something to offer the society and that she isn’t a nobody,
“Feels as though everyone must be able to see this substance she has inside her, wants people to see it.” (L. 117)
Ellie becomes more and more sure of herself and she goes back on track and walks to find the ink. Ellie lets go of the partying and begins to focus on her schoolwork, which will help her in the future.
In the short story Ellie struggles to find herself in between school and parties and in the end she finds what she seeks – a path to follow and a purpose in her existence.
The discovery of ones path in life often takes place in the teen years as it happens with Ellie.
The hurdles are hard to handle, but if you have the will, you will overcome any obstacle that lies in your way.