Time

Given the movement between the events of the past and the present, time and its passage must be counted among the most significant themes in "The Daffodil Sky." The story's treatment of time suggests that past errors must be accepted and cannot be forgotten. For the protagonist, past dreams of success and love are not distant memories. Indeed, he remembers his past "as if, in the way the barman said, it had been a minute ago." Nonetheless, even if he is able to travel back in his mind, the protagonist is always separated from the past by the effects of his youthful mistakes. Frankie Corbett's death and the protagonist's years in jail form an impenetrable barrier between his past hopes and present reality. He can return home, but he can never return to his former life; blaming Cora Whitehead or simply talking to her about past events cannot...