- By Frederik Schou-Juul
A:
Beneath the surface of this utopian place we call society, lays the truth of what really is and what really isn’t. And it is also here – in the underground, deep buried underneath the outer shell of this notorious community of men – we find the moles of society, the neglected creatures we love to hate and despise. These sick creatures… These vicious and unattractive creatures, they live their own lives as insects; lonely, miserable and most of all unwanted and unloved. They squirm around trying to cope with the demands of society – really just attempting to live a decent life. But how can one live a decent life, when others – in society - claim that they are indecent? … If truth were to be told; I am earnestly afraid that one cannot.
In life, it is not uncommon to feel lonely at one time or another, but when being exposed to loneliness for a longer period of time, it often leads to an urgent need or hunger for human contact and some kind of sympathy or compassion. This is quite the case in the short story “Sorry for disturbing you” by Richard Knight. In the short story we meet an abandoned and unwanted man, who is longing for company and compassion in a society of rejection and constant denial.
The story starts in media res, when Ian – one of our main characters – opens the door only to notice Michael – the second one of main characters – standing in the doorway. He seems very drunk. “… (He) placed a hand on the bright yellow painted wall inside the door, leaving a dark print”(line. 22-23). This passage not only tells us that Michael is a dirty and unclean man, but also implies the influence and affect he – later in the story – will have on Ian. Thereby could
the bright yellow painted wall symbolize Ian’s life, and the dark print could be a symbol of Michael’s life and his mental condition. So when leaving a dark print on the clean and unspoiled wall, he actually makes an impression on Ian’s life. The fact that the author...