Because It Is Running By

Essay - Because It Is Running By

The short story "Because it is running by" is about a summer where Wil meets Edie. The story starts very sudden by Wil's mother introducing him and Edie. Wil and his mom are running a bed and breakfast, in a small town, in England. Edie is supposed to help Wil and his mother with tasks such as cleaning, make up the rooms and help with the breakfast. The story starts with Edie arriving and ends with her going to leave. The short story has various themes such as, social heritage, love, figuring out what to do in life and when two worlds meet.

Characterization of Wil

We are not told Wil's age but if I were to guess I would guess that he is around 21 years old, there are some indications that he is around this age. He is sharing cigarettes with his mother, which aren't a normal thing to do if he was much younger than around 21. Another indication is that he goes to concerts and drinks quite a lot, which also points in the direction of him being around 21 years old, even though a lot of people do this all through life. Wil's looks it not described at all. At first Wil does not like Edie, he thinks that her working with him and his mom are redundant. But after some time Wil decides to talk to Edie and over a period of time they become fond of each other. Wil seems like he live a very traditionalized life, an example of this is when he goes to his friends concert the bartender asks him if he wants the usual, implying that he visits this place a lot. Wil has also experienced love before he meets Edie, he has been with a girl called Heulwen who he was in London with, but they are not together when he meets Edie.

Characterization of Edie

Edie is a girl approximately around the same age as Wil but we are not told. Like Wil Edie's outer appearance is not described besides her having pale skin and hair pulled back in a ponytail. Edie is from London, which is a big contrast to Wil's hometown. Edie has dropped out of college due to reasons she won't tell Wil. Edie is very different from Wil, which also shows when they are at the bar, and Wil asks what she would like to drink to which Edie says that she would like a Pernod, which Wil doesn't know what is.

The short story depicts two young individuals from two very different worlds with two very different futures meet. Wil's future is to take care of the family business just as his dad did before him and his granddad before his dad, this is shown in the short story when Wil says That field there, see, with the cows in it, my dad sold that to the estate. And those houses up there, across the road, that used to be our land once. My grandad's land." Edie's