STORYTELLING AS PART OF HUMAN NATURE IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S NOVEL ”HERE WE ARE”
STORYTELLING AS PART OF HUMAN NATURE IN GRAHAM SWIFT’S NOVEL ”HERE WE ARE”

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the novel Here We Are by Graham Swift according to the way Swift views human nature. To him, storytelling is a defining feature of human nature, and reality and fantasy are impossible for us to separate (Cottier, 1998). Ronnie’s path in life is intertwined with magic. He is a young boy sent by his mother during the London blitz to a safe place, with an elderly couple. There he learns how to do magic acts. Magic becomes a keyword for him, in his understanding of life. He applies the framework of magic to his romantic relationship with Evie, to his job, which is, literally, magic, and integrates his love story with Evie into the show, as she is his assistant. In the end, when Evie marries his best friend, he disappears from everyone’s lives, together with his final magic show, during a disappearing act. The disappearing act becomes literal magic, showing how much a part of his own personality and of his own understanding of life magic was. The magic moments spent with the elderly couple in safety during the London blitz are also part of his understanding life through magic. His childhood fantasy of having a mother and father, together, living peacefully in a safe and loving atmosphere, comes true with the elderly couple. Fantasy and reality mix in Swift’s novel, in an attempt for Ronnie to find a sense of meaning in life.

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