‘The Trick is to Keep Breathing’

By Janice Galloway

Narration

The story is told from the protagonist’s point-of-view. The narrator of the story is, Joy Stone, and therefore, written in the first person.

This makes it easier for the reader to understand Joy’s experiences and develop a close relationship with her.

Synopsis

The novel follows the mental life of one woman as she as she tries to find some meaning in life/reason to keep on living following the accidental drowning of her married lover, Michael.It is the story of a mind slowly fragmenting under the pressures of deep emotional stress told from a first person point of view.The novel is based on a certain degree of personal experience as Janice Galloway had a very difficult time as an adolescent, a student and as young adult. Her traumatic experiences are the basis of this novel.

Plot

In, The Trick is to Keep Breathing, it is the internal events that are more important; they are a collective series of actions and feelings which show the growing development of depression, alienation, fragmentation and despair, until, there is hope signalled at the end by acceptance.

Plot cont.

The book is generally considered to be a very accurate portrayal of mental illness and the choice of first narrator(s) that explore a person's consciousness is crucial to the depiction. Through the medium of Joy Stone's consciousness we see the increase of suffering and alienation from the world around her. Everything becomes perceived as a threat and the world increasingly becomes a smaller and more frightening place. Sex and self-harm become a way of trying to feel something instead of the numbness of depression.

Plot cont.

The major external event is not covered by the novel: it is the drowning of Joy's lover Michael Fisher in a swimming pool in Spain while on holiday with Joy. The plot does have external points that are of secondary to importance to the narrator's personal experience but are worth noting: the appointments with the doctor, the phone calls to Paul, an ex-lover, working in the bookmakers and the appearances of Tony and the visit by Myra, the self-harm with the tin, all of these are external markers of increased depression, but it is Joy's own narrative voice depicting her emotional state that carries plot progression.

Character: Joy Stone

Joy is the protagonist in the novel. She is 27 years old and lives on a council estate on the outskirts of Irvine, North Ayrshire, not far from the dilapidated cottage she owns. She is a successful Drama teacher as she escapes her depression through putting a lot of energy into her job. Presumably to further escape her feelings, she works part-time at a bookmakers. She is anorexic, and possibly as a consequence no longer menstruates. Her misery is increased by reading women's magazines that add to her unhappiness. This has led to a slide into what could be termed 'alcoholism' but certainly is a way to escape feelings.Small events continually present challenges to her and she is continually involved with people who it is not healthy for her to associate with, a symptom of her depression. The dominance of depression in Joy's life is such that the other characters are very much background figures.

Character: Joy Stone cont.

Joy is always conscious of the roles different people expect her to play: she rarely allows herself to consider what she wants. Joy writes many listsJoy’s loss of identity could be derived from Joy having no place to grieve for Michael. She is not his mother - wife - sister or daughter, she is simply his mistress. She has no real place in society, her parents are dead, she is no one’s daughter, no one’s wife mother or even girlfriend. Her job is the place where she earns her definition; however she is treated at work like a little girl, asked to smile and appear happy for the benefit of the other staff, to ease their working day.  

Character: Michael Fisher

He was the husband of Norma Fisher, and Joy's lover. He drowned in a swimming pool in Spain when on holiday with Joy before the novel's own timeline. His death is retold throughout the novel in italicized text. Joy struggles to accept his death.

Character: Marianne

Joy's friend who is also a teacher. For the duration of the novel she is teaching in Kentucky, USA. She regularly writes to Joy.

Character: Ellen

Mother of Marianne.

Lives alone in a house too large for one person.

Loves to cook, and equates food with happiness. This makes it rather awkward for Joy to visit, given her tortured relationship with food.

Character: Paul

Joy's ex-boyfriend.

Childhood sweethearts, they were together for seven years.

He is often called by Joy for support.

He has moved on and is impatient and exasperated by her. 

Character: David

An ex-student of Joy's school where she teaches.

Partner in Joy's affair while with Paul.

Currently in college David returns after Michael's death and from then on spontaneously calls and visits Joy, usually resulting in sex.

Character: Tony

Joy's boss at her part-time job. He calls her on a semi-regular basis to take her out to various events, usually resulting in Tony forcing himself on Joy, mostly due to her submission.Tony is seen as a rather repellent, odious character who has identified a vulnerable woman and intends to exploit her for his own needs, and is not beneath using his economic, social and psychological power to do so. 

Character: Myra

Joy's sister. She is twenty-three years older than Joy and they do not have anything in common Joy is frightened of her since she used to abuse her as a child, perhaps due to having a miscarriage around the same time as Joy was born.Myra is another dark and bullying presence in her life. Joy carries the guilt of the victim in regard to her. 

Theme: Human Experience

Jane Galloway is trying to get the reader as close as possible to a particular set of experiences, the experiences of a young, Scottish, west coast, working class woman with mental health issues. The novel both gets across universal experiences - opening a tin in Ayrshire is pretty much the same experience as opening a tin in Beijing - and the specific experience of doing something when you are Scottish, working class, suffering from mental health issues and a woman. The attention to detail, the typography and the choice of narrative style is all about getting the reader closer to human experience, and empathising with one aspect of it, and, most of all, understanding it.

Theme: Alienation

 'Alienation' is the state of being isolated or withdrawn, or of not belonging to or sharing in something.

Janice Galloway was influenced by Franz Kafka - the aspects of alienation that Kafka identified are present in her work: the difficult authority figures, the ability to reason round and round in circles, the alienation from the body and the focus on consciousness at the expense of a wider connection with the world.

Theme: Social Attitudes

A novel can clearly demonstrate, through characters, how groups of people perceive and are perceived. We see how society views a person with mental health issues. The doctors and institutions involved with therapy view it as something to be treated like a physical illness. There are forms to be filled in and appointments to be met if this is the case. A suffering individual is lost among forms, visits and prescriptions. The consciousness of Joy demonstrates that there is, or should be, a human being at the centre of this process, not the need to tick boxes.

Theme: Social Attitudes cont.

The novel explores the attitudes that people have to mental health. For Joy, it is a shameful secret that has to be kept hid from her employers as it will arouse suspicion and little sympathy. It is kept hidden from friends and family members too as it will be seen as a burden and when she does open up there are not always people prepared to listen. Depression is met with little understanding, sometimes hostility, often exasperation and, sometimes, with exploitation as people look to take advantage of someone in a weaker state.

Theme: Social Attitudes cont.

The institution of the mental hospital explores the medicalisation and standardisation of depression and mental health issues. An individual is not treated as an individual whose mental ill health is to be explored, but something with a physical and diagnosable illness which can be treated by pills and a series of benchmarks can be achieved on the way back to health and 'normality'. The fact that someone cannot adjust to society and function as a happy, working member means they must be treated until they can, irrespective of what is meaningful to that individual.

Theme: Women

In The Trick is to Keep Breathing, Janice Galloway gives voice to Scottish, west coast, working class, late 20th Century women but there is also the experience of being a woman and being a human portrayed that makes the novel accessible to everyone, everywhere - a feature of all great Literature. The situation of women in the novel is portayed as challenging. There is the need to work to make a living and have some sort of independence. There is also the need to have a relationship; however, modern relationships are far more insecure and people are much more mobile than they might have been even twenty years previously.

Theme: Women cont.

There is still a great deal of condescension and exploitation of women. The authority figures in the novel tend to patronise or dismiss, and the men can view a weakened woman as someone to exploit for their own sexual needs and ego. A woman is constantly in danger of being turned into a victim of male power through one institution (medical) or another (company). Other women, unable to blame men, can find other women to victimise, like Myra, or they can limit themselves to the society's assumptions about women - women should be about knitting, and gossip, and diets, and cooking. These limiting ideas are promoted as much by other women as by men and they are an obstacle to women finding their own individual paths in life. The theme of woman's attitude to the world and the rest of societies relation to women is central to the novel.

Class and National Identity

It would be fair to argue that both nation and class are central to the novel in ways that are not always apparent. If Joy was not working class, she would not be stuck in some council estate that is bleak and ugly and adds no sense of uplift to her daily mood. Instead, it further deepens her sense of alienation. These estates are ubiquitous all over Scotland and particularly so in the Clyde valley and the west coast. Having to engage with institutions where you are a number not a person is a feature of working class life. Many institutions lack individuality and are under-resourced so they struggle to cope with demand. Joy is not able to get the attention or the time her condition merits, nor is she able to take time to recover because of her economic position. This is a fact of her being working class, although she has entered a middle class profession.

Class and National Identity cont.

Scottish attitudes are prevalent throughout the novel. Aside from the 'depressing' weather and atmosphere, there is a very Scottish opinion of 'pulling yourself together' and giving short shrift to the emotions. 

Literary Techniques: Symbolism

Symbolism is when an object, an image, a word, a person, a colour or a setting represents ideas beyond what it is.

Literary Techniques: Symbolism

CharactersIn a novel characters can often be used as symbols. A character represents him or herself, and can symbolise their class, their gender, their nation or a particular idea. In,The Trick is to Keep Breathing, Tony can be taken as representative of predatory males; Marianne's mother is a symbol of the traditional female roles and Myra can be taken as an embodiment of those bullying forces that push women back.

Literary Techniques: Symbolism

Setting

Setting can be used to represent ideas. The setting of the novel is bleak and characterless, devoid of any uplifting parts, a bit like Joy's mental state. It is 'an annexe of nowhere'. Again, a bit like Joy's mind. The bleakness of Joy's consciousness is reflected in her setting.

Literary Techniques: Symbolism

Actions in book take on a symbolic status. The 'Bathing Ritual' and other such acts are important because they symbolise Joy's need to have order in her life and her attempts to impose order through such rituals. Having a bath becomes a series of things that must be done properly otherwise the world, her world, is in danger of falling apart.

Motifs

A motif is a recurring element or feature of a story that has symbolic significance or a reason behind actions. 

Literary Techniques: Motifs

Repetition

Throughout the novel The Trick is to Keep Breathing words and phrases are repeated again and again. This gives a strong impression of a mind that is trying to hold onto things, trying to keep it all together by repeating things, making lists to impose a sort of reasoned order and one that is also drifting off to somewhere.

Literary Techniques: Motifs

WaterWater is a recurrent theme, particularly in regard to the bath. Water has associations of the water of life, something that Joy is lacking, and, as a bath, it is like the womb when a child was safe surrounded by the water of the womb. Many people find baths comforting for this reason.

Literary Techniques: Motifs

SexSex recurs throughout the book. However, instead of being a life-affirming action, it tends towards the miserable and the slightly seedy. It is done as release not for love or even much pleasure. The failure of sex to satisfy at any point underlines the misery and sadness in Joy's life.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

First Person

A great deal of the novel is told in first person. The voice of the narrator predominates as does their consciousness. This allows the reader to get to know and experience what the narrator is experiencing. It creates that sense, common in depression, when you cannot 'switch off' and lose yourself in doing things.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

Script DialogueJanice Galloway uses dialogue set out like a script to convey a series of different encounters. The names of the people are often changed to show the speakers representing institutions or emotions or ideas. One of the ideas conveyed by this is that many exchanges are so predictably routine and familiar. We know what an exchange with a doctor is going to be like. We know where it is going and what the likely outcome will be.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

Type in the Margins

There is type in the margins that literally represents the voice, perhaps the genuine voice, of Joy that is marginalised. The voice that is not listened to.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

Capitalised Words

Capitalised words and sentences create both the impression of loudness and insistence. There is a demanding voice in capitalisation and it is another of Joy's internal voices either panicking or bullying her.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

Blanks

In depression, there are moments when a person literally goes blank. They go to 'another world' and seem completely out of the moment. The blank pages in the novel literally represent the blanks that people experience during depression.

Literary Techniques: Narrative Techniques and Typography

Italics

Italics are used for the parts of the novel which recall the past and which represent another voice which is trying to come to terms with things. This voice is more reasoned and accepting and it is the voice that slowly heals Joy.

Literary Technique: structure

The structure of the novel also reflects the title of the novel in respect to the task of breathing. There is a huge lack of punctuation within the novel which almost represents a breathless speech, coming back to the idea that “the trick is to keep breathing.” The structure of the novel is very spaced out, as if Joy is trying to catch her breath,“especially for his wifeespecially his wife” The structure shows that despite her obvious breathlessness, Joy is adamant that she needs to inform the reader of her feelings, showing the reader that she will do anything to find the “trick” of fluent speech which she finds later in the novel. The structure used throughout the novel helps the reader to realise Joy’s great discomfort with catching her breath and this is also illustrated through the title of the novel, ensuring the reader that Joy will eventually find the silver lining to life. (http://higherenglish.blogspot.co.uk/)