Check-in
1. Summary
The story is about the narrator, Mrs. Nair who was recently fired after twenty years of working in a company in Nether land. As she was walking towards the boarding gate, she had a trip down to memory lane on what happened thirty years ago on her first experience traveling to Singapore, when she was fifteen. The story lingers on the preparation that was taken care of by her loving parents, Achan and Amma. Her father, Achan, tried his best to get all the necessary and needed references and books, as well as her traveling documents. While her mother, Amma, busied herself with things that she might need or even might not need for her journey as well as her stay in Singapore, packing, unpacking and packing her things again and again into the huge suitcase. On the journey from Wadakkanchery, a small town in Thricur district, Kerala in India to Chennai Airport, then known as the Madras Airport, the readers get to feel her feeling and emotions that were so overwhelming, which at one point showed that she had the urged to sneak out of the hotel and take the next train home. On the day of the flight to Singapore, as she proceeded to the boarding gate, she looked back at her loving parents to get the strength for her journey to the unknown world. It is the same feeling she is having at the moment, queuing at the boarding gate in KLM Airport.
2. The Plot
The Exposition
We are introduced to the narrator (Mrs. Nair) at the beginning of the story when she was on the next flight home, early Monday morning.
Introduces the setting of the story.
The Rising Action
The preparation carried out by the parents as well as the journey from Wadakkanchery to Chennai Airport, then known as Madras Airport.
The Climax
They arrived at Madras – it was the night before her departure. The writer couldn’t sleep due to her overwhelming emotions about leaving the country and especially leaving her parents to embark on the journey to the unknown world.
The next day – the day of her departure, at the airport, she tried very hard to control her emotions and feeling, at the same time trying to convinced her parents that everything would be alright.
The Falling Action
At the check-in queue she waited with two other students who were traveling with her.
She faced the grumpy old lady at the counter who was inspecting her up and down, and was summoned to proceed to the boarding gate without further delay. She looked over her shoulder to see her parents, the get the strength to pursue her dream.
The Resolution
The narrator was brought back to the present time by the voice of the KLM assistant. She realized that she was having the same feeling she had on the day she departed from India, from her loving parents.
3. The Setting
Time
Present time – 5 am on Monday morning
Flashback – thirty years ago when she was fifteen years old
Place
Present time – KLM Airport
Flashback – Wadakkanchery, a small town in Kairala, India
Chennai Airport, then known as Madras Airport, India
4. The Conflicts
Mrs. Nair (narrator)
Internal Conflict
The reader can feel the internal struggles of the narrator on her journey from her home town to the airport, before she left her country to pursue her education in a strange country.
External Conflict
The only external conflict that was portrayed in the story was of her mother who was not so convinced that it was a good idea for her to go. However, the conflict was hushed by her father by comforting words and a stern look.
5. The Characters
The narrator, Mrs. Nair (Main)
· present time: successful career woman, just being promoted to be the first woman CEO of a big company in Nether Land
· past time: a young, naïve fifteen years old girl who was offered to further her education to one of the most prestigious junior college in Singapore.
Successful: She was the first woman CEO of Biacorp, a company in Nether Land , managing multi-billion dollar revenues and over 200,000 employees, or just as easily. She had served the company for twenty years.
Torn-in-between: She was torn-in-between not having the courage to leave her parents and her country to stay in a strange country or to pursue her dream to see the world, to be out in the open, to be free. The night before her departure, she woke up in the middle of the night, choking with feelings, having the urge to take the next train home.
Courageous: She was only fifteen when she left her country and parents. She tried her best to conceal her feelings from he parents, trying to convince them that everything would be alright.
Achan (Minor)
Devoted: Ensuring his daughter got all the references and books form several bookshops and trip to the city. Making proper arrangement for her traveling documents, foreign currency, and their traveling itinerary to Madras as well as convincing Amma that their daughter was no longer a small girl and it was for her own good to further her education to Singapore.
Amma (Minor)
Devoted: Ensuring her got all the necessary things for her journey and stay in Singapore – new clothes in the latest styles, food for her journey and stay in case she didn’t like the food on the flight or tired of the bland Chinese and Malay food in Singapore, home remedies for all ailments and a large collection of god and goddesses to keep her safe and away from troubles of any sort.
Worried: She voiced out her worries about her fifteen-year-old daughter traveling to a strange country on her own.
6. Tone
Nostalgic: This tone is seen (or felt) through out the plot where the narrator longed for her past.
7. The Theme
We face constant changes in our life.
Mrs Nair faced lots of changes in her life. Her changes first took place when she decided to accept the offer from one of the esteem colleges in Singapore when she was fifteen. Of course, as years passed, she also faced changes in her life; from a college student to a career woman, got married and now the big promotion. (Inferred)
Then, we can see the other main changes that took place in her life when she was offered the post of the first woman CEO in Biacorp.
Sub-theme: Parents will always be there for us, to give us strength to face the unknown world.
This sub-theme can be seen where the narrator, when she was at the Madras Airport, kept looking at her parents over her shoulder, looking for the last beacon of reassurance. She knew everything would be alright as she kept giving them convincing smile even though she had thousands butterflies in her stomach.
Again, this sub-theme is stressed in the present time where she absently waved goodbye into the wide open space, as if she was again waving towards her parents, absorbing their strength and reassurance.
8. Point of View
1st person point of view – the story is told from the first person’s point of view, the narrator herself.
Readers would be able to feel her feelings and turmoil as well as look into the world, present and past, from her point of view, as well as what she observed around her
0 comments:
Post a Comment