To create joy and bring Sunshine into peoples everyday life, in a metropolis like London, seems only to be a satisfying act, but how do you know, what you do comforts others? Who tell you what is good and bad for others, and why do you listen to these people? Anne Billson handles these questions in the short story Sunshine from 1993, through a 1st person narrator of the female main character, who is never named. She arrives to London, snotty and frustrated by “…a gaping void within me, waiting to be filled.” (p. 80 l. 30-31) Even tough she “…earned lots of money …” (p. 80 l. 28-29), something was missing and she felt “… I was going places, but never seemed to arrive.” (p. 80 l. 30) But suddenly the story’s pivotal point, 82 l. 35-36). They live as a modern harem, dominated by the manipulation of Charlie, but the women including the main character, hardly finds something wrong about it – only Naomi protests. Another reasons for this, is that Charlie’s image of enemy seems rightful as male chauvinistic men who look at women as “Playthings and objects for the opposite sex” (p. 82 l. 19) even though that is exactly what he is himself. How can he hate something he is himself? It seems impossible and therefore the women stay with him to fight against male chauvinism together by bringing “Sunshine” in their lives, as he say; “We’re all in this together, toiling towards a common goal. As individuals, none of us can change the world, but – together – we can try.” (p. 82 l. 22-24).
The title of the short story indicates how the women also are blinded by Charlie, ”He always stood in the brightest part of the room, so that we had come to associate him with the sun.” (p. 82 l. 27-28) as though he makes them blind for good and bad, and creates his own, new rules and for that reason is able to delude them. In addition to this he creates a contrast between him and them as “…he always wore white, so that it was sometimes difficult to look at him directly.” (p. 82 l. 28-29) which provides respect for Charlie and in that way the secures him from rebellion, at least for a while… Actually the girls compete for his attention and to make him
