INTRODUCTION
What is this text about?
This hypertext "Afterwards" is about the story of three couples : Dorothy and Sid, Gwen and Gunter and Jerry and Tina.
The main couple of the story is the one composed by Dorothy and Sid, an
older couple who just got married after years of having a relationship. Then we have
Gwen and Gunter, a couple who split up and now meet again with the
purpose of a second chance. And the last one is the couple formed by
Jerry and Tina, a young couple who is studying and have problems with
their commitment.
The author uses these three couple's relationships as examples of what love means depending on the character's age.
Through conversations and parallel thoughts we can virtually see their
problems,
their fears, their dreams. Thanks to the structure of the text we can
see the difference between what one character says to his partner (in
the conversations) and what he is really thinking (in the parallel
thoughts). It's a text with a topic so present in all the
relationships in these days, that the author needs to create an
structure that let the reader have the feeling to be witnessing a real
conversation.
She uses for this purpose connected columns of words to simulate
parallel thoughts and appearing text to simulate conversations.
We also read references to things happened in another work of the author, because "Afterwards" immediately follows the hypertext "A party at Silver Beach".
We find the couples right at the end of that party and from that point
on we start reading things about their lives. Thus the name of this
hypertext "Afterwards", meaning what happens with those characters
after that party.
We see now that:
Dorothy and Sid have to learn now hot to live together, how to
coordinate their work and their private life and resolve things
like: where are they going to live?
Gwen and Gunter meet again at the party and now Gunter asks for the
opportunity to explain why he left her in the past without saying a
word.
Jerry and Tina are students who don't know if they are at the right moment of their lives to start a serious relationship.