Another Language

A short story ” Another Language” by Craig Cliff is written about a seven years old boy who is curiously finding out the reason of his sad grandfather’s stutter. The purpose of Cliff’s story is the loss of innocence of a child. The boy asks his grandfather, Dedo and questions why he is always quiet and left his native country. His reply for the grandson is that he always feels sad because of missing Yugoslavia and he has left his place because he stutters. However, the boy does not understand the reason of his grandfather escaping his questions.

Using a first person narration, James is the main character and narrator in this story. Cliff’s work is a contemporary story as it was written in 2007. The author employs a simple language usage like “Do you speak another language?”and ” I am always sad”. This is the reason why the narrator is a child. The interactions and the secret between the boy and his grandpa are emphasised through of the author on the characterisation ,for example, the young boy often asks questions to grandfather concerning his stutter . The grandpa just replies a few words like ” because I stutter” and sometime gestures such as nodding his head. The boy just wants to satisfy his curiosity but he has lost his innocence as he does not understand that his family wants to protect him from the persecutions.

Overall, Cliff clearly reveals his perspective about a boy losing his innocence. After reading this story, I realise myself that I sometimes lie my children to preserve the reality in front of them. It should be possible to give appropriate reasons and answers when I can, otherwise they might lose their trust in me. My mom left me when I was two years old. I do not know whether she alive or not. I tried to find her and asked some of her friends about her. They told me that she is still alive and living in somewhere but whenever I asked my dad, he told me that she was dead. His answer made me lost trust in him. Therefore, the feeling and emotion of the boy in this story resonate with me.