Trudell is an independent scholar with a bachelor's degree in English literature. In the following essay, Trudell discusses the narrator's loss of innocence in "Islands," particularly how this loss is articulated in his identification with the Soviet prisoner Vanyka.

Uncle Julius scares and traumatizes his nine-year-old nephew in a variety of ways during the short scenes that make up Hemon's story, "Islands." His toothless and smelly body, his description of the snakes and mongooses on Mljet, his characterization of the death of his grandfather, his comments about the former pirate island now sporting a hotel, and his story about the oldest man in the world during which he tells his nephew, "You might as well stop living now," are all frightening for a nine-year-old boy. Perhaps the aspect of the visit that has the greatest impact on the narrator, however, is Uncle Julius's story about Vanyka, the...