The Weekly Visit

This study guide will help you analyse the text “The Weekly Visit” by Emanuel Melo. We will show you examples of elements in the text that will be relevant for your analysis. In these notes, we will focus on the summary, plot and structure, characterisations, themes and interpretation.

Presentation of the text

Title: “The Weekly Visit”
Author: Emanuel Melo
Genre: Short Story
Year of Publication: 2014

Emanuel Melo is a writer who was born in the Azores, on the island of São Miguel. His family moved to Canada when he was nine, and he still lives in Toronto. He is famous for the short story “The Weekly Visit” and he is currently working on developing a short story collection.

Excerpt

Below, you can read an excerpt from our study guide:

Selfishness

Although the author does not directly express this idea, we tend to assume that he wanted readers to understand that selfishness is sometimes a good thing. Jake seems to be so absorbed by his mother’s demands that he forgets about his issues. In his case, selfishness surfaces when he tells his mother that he will not be able to visit her the following week. However, his mother’s selfishness is negative. She states that Jake is ungrateful and that she is unlucky for having such an inconsiderate son.