I read Full Stop which is a short story written by Alecia McKenzie. The story consists of Grandma Scottie and her grandchild Carmen’s letters to each other. They live far away from each other so they have found a way to stay connected to each other by writing letters to exchange pleasantries.
Carmen and Grandma talk about their everyday lives by exchanging letters every once in a while. Eventually the conversation turns to Carmen’s real mother who is nothing more than a birth giver to her because of the fact that Grandma Scottie is the actual person who raised Carmen and her brother Richard. Carmen’s mother tries to contact her daughter but Carmen doesn’t want to face the woman who is like a complete stranger to her. When it comes to her mother Carmen feels abandoned and seems almost like bitter.
When getting no response to her communication attempts Carmen’s mother shows up in Carmen’s apartment. She tells Carmen her version of what happened – she and Carmen’s father had to give children up to under Grand Ma Scottie’s guardianship because they had no money. They moved in the UK to get employed and by the time they came back in the USA, their home country, Grandma actually refused to give the children up. Grandma broke the agreement she had made with the children’s parents.
Now it is in Carmen’s hands which story she chooses to believe. She still remains skeptic about her mother’s version but neither she is so sure about Grandma being truthful anymore. After her daughter showing up Grandma suddenly chances her action; she seems to go into her shell. Grandma finally agreeing to get the burglar bars reflects their relationship in a symbolic way. Burglar bars symbolize what Grandma starts to feel towards Carmen – she feels like she is isolated from Carmen now that also she has started to doubt her veracity.
I interpret Carmen as the story’s protagonist and Grand Ma Scottie as an antagonist – not actually meaning that the old apparently very religious lady is the villain of the story or anything but representing the opposite to her. Carmen’s character is a little naive and also really benevolent – she wants to protect her grandmother for example by sending her money to get somebody to put burglar bars over all the windows of hers in case of thieves. At first sight Grandma seems like an endearing old lady but in the end turns out she’s been lying about things in the past.
The story consisting fully of dialogue in the form of letters is an interesting solution from the writer. Grandma’s letters are illegible; she writes entirely without punctuation. Without full stop. I think the story title is chosen to represent what happened to Carmen and Grandma Scottie’s relationship. They receded from each other. No one really put the ”full stop” to their relationship but in the last letter Grandma seems to become distant.