Basic Needs By Amanda Coe Summary

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“My parents, engrossed by other matters”: Negligence and attention craving in “Basic Needs” “Basic Needs,” a short story, based on Amanda Coe’s British short story from 2000. Basic Needs is dealing with a problem, negligence, which is increasing as we are evolving. This problem has been evolving since the secondary socializa-tion has started. Parents depend on the institutions and think that it is the insti-tutions that are responsible for raising their kids. The story takes place in United Kingdom in a middle-class society, where there in a two story house lives a family of four. The family does not seem poor; they are able to afford their children with pocket money “We’ve always given you pocket money.”(ll. 23-24) It seems like the parents are not much home and not neither that they are interested in …show more content…

The mother also seems scared of what the father could do to Michelle, so she says to Michelle; “We won’t tell your dad about this,”(l.92). No matter what it looks like it’s the mother’s decision to get a divorce, but the dad also have the opportunity to save the relationship, which he declined. “The tea had gone cold. I gently asked him if he wanted another cup. He declined, as embarrassed as me.” (ll. 128-129). The relationship has gone so far now and the parents seem so different, that there’s no way it can be good again. I think the theme in the text is family problems or negligence. Because of all the problems the parents end up getting separated, this is something we see more often nowadays, since the women now is able to get a job and make their own money. The title “Basic Needs” refers to Michelle. Michelle is craving for attention, which for her and everyone else is a basic need. The parents are engrossed by other matters and Michelle is trying to get their attention. And since she cannot get is properly she end up getting it in a bad

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