In The Gloaming

The daily lives of many people are filled with duty, responsibility and efforts directed at some form of future fulfillment. Living this kind of life often tends to undermine the closeness and understanding we experience in some of our deepest relationships. In Alice Elliott Dark's "In The Gloaming," we see how Laird, a young man dying of AIDS, and his mother Janet attempt to reconnect. When Laird learns he has AIDS, he returns home to die with peace and dignity. In so doing, he and his mother engage in a process of reconnection and conversations through which they become closer. In essence, Dark is demonstrating how in the course of our dutiful and busy lives it is often tragedy that brings us closer to each other and deepens understanding.

The return of Laird and his dying of AIDS creates a situation in which he and his mother must learn to reconnect with each other. In a series of conversations and interactions, Janet learns to how to express her love for Laird as they discuss many of the unspoken things that have caused them to drift apart over time. The "gloaming" is the final hour of sunlight and it is symbolic in this story, for it is in the final light of his life that mother and son bond (Dark 11). Janet is initially uncomfortable with a degree of closeness to and attention from her son that she has not experienced since he was a baby, "He regarded her in a close, intimate way that made her self-conscious" (Dark 12). Her

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Category: Literature - I