A Great Day Analysis Essay Example

in his hands. He seems almost thrilled to see that the poor fish can’t breathe over the water, and he holds it for so long that he nearly kills it. Ken, on the other hand, begs Fred to throw the fish back in the sea. There is one more character mentioned in the text, Mary. She is Ken’s girlfriend. Fred has known Mary for years, and thinks only well about her. I think most of Fred’s jealousy all in all is based on Mary. He is in love with her, and wants her to be his girlfriend, not Ken’s. Ken’s aunt is also mentioned a few times, because Mary and Ken live with her.

In the small dinghy out at the sea, the two chaps seem very relaxed and peaceful, and they act like just two normal friends having a good time together. The weather is excellent, the blue ocean is perfectly still, and the tide is over half-way up. Fred and Ken talks about things that are normal for two grown-up men to talk about, but after a while, you can sense that Fred, by his way of speaking, is more than just a little bit jealous of Ken. The two guys are heading for a reef to get some mussels to use as bait, when the weather starts to change. The wind slowly blows up, making waves appear at the sea. Ken and Fred reach the reef, and Fred jumps in the water and starts pulling up mussels while Ken keeps hold at the boat. He gets tired quickly, and he and Ken switch positions. But then Fred suddenly shoves off the dinghy and

rows away, leaving Ken behind in perfectly knowledge that he can’t swim.

The ending is very surprising, though the author gives many hints of what is going to happen. Fred probably had planned to kill Ken all along. Fred talks about death, and says that Ken could just as well die now as anytime. When they reach the reef, he takes a look back at the shore, to be sure that they were alone at the sea. He also puts cotton-wool in his ears, explaining to Ken that the spray gives him the earache, while the real reason was that he should not hear Ken screaming for help. The change in the weather also gives you an unpleasant feeling that something bad is going to happen.

What the text is all about is jealousy. Fred is jealous at Ken in many ways. Ken is strong, has a well-shaped body and has a great success with women – he has got everything Fred does not. Ken also has an education, and therefore is easier for him to get a job than it is for Fred. Most of all, I think why Fred kills Ken, is because of Mary, Ken’s girlfriend. Fred seems to be in love with her.

The message the author wants to give us in this text is that you should not be jealous of your friends. You should rather be happy for what your friends achieve, and appreciate the things you got instead of longing for everything else. Fred was probably very miserable, being so jealous of Ken and not being satisfied with what he had. He might also be trying to say that you should

not trust everyone. Though a person seems very nice at first, he might turn out to be something else.