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The Whaler

 

            
            
             The world of a child is full of illusions, which help with the foundation of a secure and manageable understanding of its existence. Among others innocent ideas, they often think that nothing evil happens in the world that one day the little girl will marry her farther or that babies are found under gooseberry bushes. Furthermore they create ideals or heroes, which they are able to look up to and aspire to become like, and through that develop an own identification. But as the child reaches the state of the early adolescence, many of these illusions are taken away from it. The child realizes that Santa Claus doesn't exist and that it's parents aren't perfect after all. It is a part of children's development; the childlike simplicity disappears in favour of a more nuancé and realistic understanding of life, when they are going through the process of growing up. .
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             The theme, sketched above, is mirrored in Joe Sheering's short story The Whaler. Here it finds expression in the passages where the illusions of the narrator break with the reality. The narrator, a young boy, has all through his life been fascinated with whaling and has read a lot about it; he knows about the geography of the Artic and remembers the haunting routine by heart. A solitary man form the town, who is said to be an old Whaler, has become his idol through the thousands of stories the boy has heard of him and his adventures around the world. The boy's picture of the Whaler as a: hero, magician and priest. (p.1 l. 7) turns however out to be wrong, when he meets the Whaler for the first time:.
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             "I never saw a whale in my life. - He broke the silence. Involuntarily I turned to stare at him in the shock of disbelief. Newer saw a whale. The hero of my lonely stories."".
             (p. 2 l. 68-71).
             As the Whaler discloses the truth he disillusionizes the boy. Suddenly the boy's idol seems to be like everybody else and not as he thought like a superman.


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