Literary Essay - A Great Day (Frank Sargeson)

How different we are? Do we all have same abilities and weaknesses? Would you expect that somebody who is seen as a less worthy person could ‘kill’ someone who is strong, intelligent and liked by generally most people? Through a short story called ‘A great day’ writer teach us about people’s value and complexes.
The story is beginning on the beach, in a Fred’s bach. Fred and Ken are going to fishing. The weather is really nice. Ken helps Fred with carrying a dinghy to the beach’s coast. Ken navigates Fred. They are talking about the work, education etc. Fred notices that Ken is a good looking, educated guy who also has money. Fred feels low beside the guy who has everything, in his opinion. They are coming to an island and weather changes. After all Fred leaves Ken on the island. Ken is trying to get on the boat, but he cannot swim. His friend rolls the boat upside down to look like it is an accident. Fred lives Ken to die.
Fred is a shorty, ugly guy. He’s not high educated and doesn’t like his job. He calls himself for a joker and feels low beside others. He is jealous of Ken’s body and intelligence. He has many complexes. He is meeting with girl he like – Mary – but it doesn’t seem to be something more than friendship with occasional meetings. Ken has almost perfect life. He is a good looking guy, who girls chase. He is a tall and handsome man who is high educated. He lives with his auntie and is meeting girl liked by Fred – Mary. She probably likes him a lot. He doesn’t have job right now, but he has some saved up money.
One of the themes in this short story is jealousy, which we can notice by comparing those two guys. It’s also about complexes, that nobody is perfect and everyone is different. We may find a bit of friendship theme too. Writer tells about different kind of friendship – false friendship, which is really difficult to discover. It’s tells also about abilities and dominance. Which abilities are really important to us, people? Maybe if Ken could swim, he could save himself.
It was only one thing in story that I liked. It was the time. A couple of hours were described on a few pages. I could really feel a situation. But I didn’t like the story at all. False friends theme is pretty boring for me. I think that it’s just too easy, too simple. It’s not deep enough. Characters were not so interesting for me. It was boring as much as whole theme.