just breathing
Just breathing This British short story, ”Just breathing”, written by Diana Hendry deals with some interesting themes. In my opinion one of the main themes is how meeting a special person and developing a bond to this person can change your view of life radically. Also it is about the serious matter of addiction to smoking and the difficulties it causes. In the story we meet the woman Nina who is thinking back on her stay in the hospital which was caused by a serious asthma attack. While in the hospital she and another patient in her ward, Madge, who has been there for a while, develop a special bond, but Nina does not realise the importance of what Madge is trying to tell her until the end of the story. Madge is a loving and caring person who is also, “A woman of enormous emotional energy.”(Page 4 lines 130-131) She has desire to love and to be loved and this is why she gets so close with Nina. Madge knows what makes her happy and she does not try to fit into society like Nina does, which we can see from this quote; “Nina spent the whole night heaving for breath and thinking she was going to die – not of asthma but of mortal carelessness; of the English dislike of making a fuss, shared, apparently, by nurses, GPs and Tom.” Nina is aware that other people might look down on her for having to go to the hospital because she has not taken good enough care of herself, but at the end the story she realises what Madge is trying to tell her, which is that she should think of her own happiness before thinking about what other people might think about her.