I chose a short story by Alecia McKenzie, because it seemed quite interesting. Full Stop is a story about Carmen and her Grandmother Scottie, who has raised Carmen and her brother Richard. It’s also a story about the ice cold relationship between mother and daughter. The story consists of letters which Carmen and Scottie send to each other. Through letters reader can form an image of the characters’ lives.

Carmen is almost thirty years old woman who is married to Normy. In her letters Scottie writes about “hubby” referring to Normy and asks Carmen to give regards to him. Carmen and Normy live in New York. Carmen is raised by her Grandmother because her parents weren’t able to do it by themselves. Carmen’s parents were really young when Carmen was born, so this arrangement was quite necessary. Nevertheless, Carmen’s mother is stubbornly trying to contact her daughter. Carmen isn’t happy about that because she doesn’t consider her as a mother and her mother is completely strange to her. That’s also the reason why Carmen by herself doesn’t want to contact her mother or in any way be in touch with her.

Scottie is Carmen and Richard’s Grandmother. Scottie and Carmen write letters to each other quite a lot. Carmen sends money enclosed to her almost every letter for some specific purpose but Scottie spends the money always to something else or puts the money in the bank. For example, Carmen sends money to Scottie for getting a painter, but Scottie decides to paint her house by herself because she thinks that painters can’t do the job right and she would have to do it anyway. Carmen also sends money to Scottie for putting up some burglar bars, but Scottie needs a dress to funeral so she buys a dress instead of the burglar bars. Scottie asks Carmen to visit her in almost every letter she sends. Scottie is a little worried about her time in the earth and she would like to get to know Carmen’s husband before she passes away.

Richard – or Richie – is mentioned in the text a couple of times. He is Carmen’s little brother. Grandma Scottie is waiting a letter from him but Richie is too busy to write. When he finally sends a letter to Scottie, he writes that he has worked overtime and just moved into a new apartment. However, Scottie is a little doubting about the reasons why he hasn’t written earlier. I think that there may be many different reasons why Richard doesn’t keep in touch with Scottie. Maybe he is telling the truth and he just simply is too busy to write. Or maybe he isn’t that much into writing. But I think it’s more likely that Richard has just never found his relationship with Scottie close enough to be in touch with her.

The way that Grandma Scottie writes her letters is rather interesting. She writes everything without any punctuation. It isn’t explained in any point why is she doing like that. Maybe it’s something in her personality. Maybe she just isn’t interested enough to pay attention to them. Or maybe she is not that educated to know how to use punctuation. That’s why it’s really weird that it’s so huge a problem to her when Carmen writes her first letter without any punctuation. Scottie even seems to be a little disappointed in her because of that. But why should Carmen use punctuation if Scottie doesn’t use them by herself?

Grandma Scottie writes a lot about God and she uses phrases from Bible. She strongly believes that The Lord will take care of everything. At first Scottie seems to be a good Christian. She believes in God, she prays, she knows phrases from Bible, etc. But is that enough? Are you really a good Christian if you know Bible by heart? I don’t think so. What about charity and forgiveness? I think that those are the most important Christian virtues. Nevertheless, Scottie is comparing her own daughter to “a snake in the grass” and she even seems to be a little disappointed in her. Scottie didn’t like Carmen’s father either. However, she tells Carmen that she should forgive “seven times seven” like God has said. So why isn’t she doing that by herself? I think that Scottie has a little bit different values that Christianity represents. That’s why I think that Scottie isn’t a good Christian.

It’s quite obvious that Scottie doesn’t like much her daughter. I get a feeling from the text that Scottie is trying to manipulate Carmen against her mother. Scottie keeps telling Carmen that she can’t trust her mother and that Carmen’s mother is a liar. Despite that, Scottie always tells Carmen to write her mother. Is she trying to make amends for something? And who is right in the end? In the last letter Grandma doesn’t explain properly what has actually happened between her and her daughter. I think that Carmen’s mother has some point in her accusation. Why would she fake all that? Because her guilty conscience? Yes, maybe, but not entirely. There must have been some disagreement in some point. But if Carmen’s mother would really have wanted to have her kids back, she would have worked harder because she does have a legal right to her own children. I believe both stories partly and I think that there is something true in both versions of events. Grandma Scottie has probably done something wrong but Carmen’s mother must have some faults as well.

Carmen takes a really good care of her Grandmother. She writes several times that Scottie should install the burglar bars for her own safe. However, Scottie refuses to do that until right at the end of the story. Scottie promises to install the burglar bars right after Carmen has asked her about her mother. Maybe she is trying to draw Carmen’s attention to some other things instead of her mother. That can also be seen as a symbol of their relationship. In the beginning Scottie is Carmen’s trustworthy guardian but after Carmen’s mother’s visit, everything changes. Carmen starts to question her and Scottie approves Carmen’s insistence to install the burglar bars. Maybe that’s some kind of atonement.

All in all, I think that Full Stop is quite an interesting story even though it was really hard to read the text in some points because there was no punctuation. I also found the ending a little weird, the story just ends. Nevertheless, Full Stop is an impressive narration of the relationships between three women.