Burying Your Life Essay

1. The short story Burying Your Life is written by Harkiran Dhindsa and published in 2010 on The Guardian website. Rahul is standing in his backyard trying to dig a grave. The soil is extremely hard so he struggles a lot with the hole. As he digs his wife Sarah walks back and forth from the house to the grave. They have agreed be nice to each other when Tom their son is around. Rahul try to make Sarah understand that it for the best that Tom stays with him at the house because of the incident with George their cat which has died. As Rahul continues to dig Sarah comes to the hole and try to explain that she haven’t been unfaithful and that it ´s just a friend that she has been seeing. Rahul don’t believe her as she is trying to explain her innocence. When the grave is complete they all gather around it. As Rahul puts the box with the dead cat inside down into the pit Tom says goodbye and help covering the grave with soil. Rahul watches Sarah stroking Toms back and gets emotionally touched. 2. Rahul is a normal man with a calm temper who lives with his wife Sarah and their son Tom in London. He gets home from work on time at least three times a week to eat with his son. He is a dependable person who appears to be in good contact with his own emotions. As Sarah wants to leave with Tom to her mom, Rahul try to talk her out of it. He is afraid of two things. That Tom is going to stay there for good and that Sarah will meet up with her lover again. He gets very affected by Sarah ´s unfaithfulness and actually don’t believe her, but on the other hand he want to believe her because he want their family to be together. Rahul is too dependable and that’s maybe why Sarah has been seeing another guy. Rahul is boring. 3. Sarah has many issues leaving her husband. The gardener Chris who she has been unfaithful with is probably more exciting than Rahul. They have been together for nine years and the spark between them is gone. But she still loves him and they have a son together. So that why she isn ´t just leaving him at once. She wants to work things out first by going to her mom and stay there for some time with Tom. As she walks back and forth from the house to the grave it is like she hasn’t completely made her mind yet about leaving. She can ´t decide whether to leave or stay with Rahul. She has big issues with keeping a job and drifts around from job to job and that also shows that she has big difficulties in keeping her attention on one thing for a long time. As she tries to explain to Rahul several times that she hasn ´t been unfaithful she also tells us that she wants to stay with Rahul or at least justify what she has done.