Say Hello, Wave Good Bye!!

Andy zhang

English 1121 (Prof. Scanlan)

Journal 6

April 26, 2020

Say hello wave goodbye by Tony Parsons, was my favorite story among the five stories I’ve read. The short story starts off with the narrator introducing a united kingdom border agency Jaswinder ‘Jazz’ Smith that works at the united kingdom airport. As a UK border agency, Jazz’s everyday duty was to examine passenger’s passports and question their visits to the united kingdom. There is a great chance that Jazz is affected by the setting and the role that she plays as a border agency. 

The setting plays a huge role in the short story, where the narrator manipulates the reader sympathy through Jazz’s role as a border agency. The narrator latently implies the symbolism of justice, protection, and security to the character under the duty that it serves as a border agency. This causes readers to side with the actions that the character performs and the point of view of the character. From the setting, we can connect to the topic of politics and society because it must have been very beneficial in living in the united kingdom from the indication that people are so eager that they even try to use a fake passport to enter the united kingdom. Another connection to the setting is economic. In the story, when Jazz deals with the man in black, shes perfectly performs her knowledge of psychology through her experience as a border agency and her analysis of the result being caught as drug smugglers. Where Jazz sharp sense and feelings also helped out a lot while examining different passengers. This event of the drug smuggler may indicate that the united kingdom is also a victim of drugs and may also signify that there is a stable source where the drug is safely transported and sold. Through these events, drug, and stowaway are some of the common main conflicts that greatly affect a stable place. 

The story is told only from Jazz’s point of view, which is third-person limited. Which also adds to the chance of the reader siding with the character. The most interesting part of the story was where at the beginning of the story the bride informs Jazz that she is marrying Prince Harry, and at the end of the story, it also ends by discovering that Megan’s English boyfriend is also called Prince Harry. I really wonder whether it’s the same “Prince Harry” or whether it’s just an excuse for the bride to pass the examination.