Misery, trauma, and isolation all have connections to the war time settings in “The Thing in the Forest.” In the short story, A.S. Byatt depicts elements captured from both fairy tale and horror genres in war times. During World War II, the two young girls Penny and Primrose endure the 1940s Blitz together but in different psychological ways. In their childhood, they learn how to use gas masks and carry their belongings in oversized suitcases. Both Penny and Primrose suffer psychologically effects by being isolated from their families’ before and after the war. Byatt depicts haunting effects in her short story by placing graphic details on the girls’ childhood experiences. Maria Margaronis, an author of a critical essay entitled “Where the Wild Things Are,” states that “Byatt’s tales of the supernatural depend on an almost hallucinatory precision for their haunting effects.” The hallucinatory details Byatt displays in her story have an almost unbelievable psychological reality for the girls. Penny and Primrose endure the psychological consequences and horrifying times during the Blitz along with the magical ideas they encounter as children. As adults they must return to the forest of their childhood and as individuals and take separate paths to confront the Thing, acknowledge its significance in their childhoods, and release themselves from the grip of the psychological trauma of war.
The war time childhood events Penny and Primrose encounter result in psychological traumas such as parental abandonment. These two girls in particular endure psychological trauma of isolation, neglect, and displacement that begins when the two girls begin walking with the other children to climb aboard the train. The two young friends set off at the ...
... middle of paper ...
...ghout their lives psychologically. The passing of their mothers is the moment they both try to confront their psychological struggles. Both girls find their selves back in the forest with a new outlook on life. Primrose and Penny, for the first time in their lives, are relieved from the burden that the war placed upon them.
Work Cited
Bell, Amy Helen. London Was Ours : Diaries And Memoirs Of The London Blitz. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
Byatt, A.S. “The Thing in the Forest.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013. 352-67.
Margaronis, Maria. "Where the Wild Things Are." The Nation 278.23 (14 June 2004): 24-28. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resource Center. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
The poem “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin, is about the narrator’s attempt to eradicate woodchucks from a garden. The figurative message of the poem is how a person can change from good to evil effortlessly. The metaphor of the Holocaust is intertwined in the poem and helps enhance the figurative message. The uniform format and the implication of Kumin’s word choices creates a framework that allows the reader to draw out deeper meanings that the literary devices create. Maxine Kumin’s use of an undeviating format, word choice, and allusion to the Holocaust reinforces the purpose of her poem.
Annemarie is a normal young girl, ten years old, she has normal difficulties and duties like any other girl. but these difficulties aren’t normal ones, she’s faced with the difficulties of war. this war has made Annemarie into a very smart girl, she spends most of her time thinking about how to be safe at all times “Annemarie admitted to herself,snuggling there in the quiet dark, that she was glad to be an ordinary person who would never be called upon for courage.
“Short Stories." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 127. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2010. 125-388. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. VALE - Mercer County Community College. 28 February 2014
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Cheng, Ah. The King of Trees. Trans. Bonnie S. McDougall. New York: New Directions, 2010. Print.
Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jenny Cromie. Vol 39. Detroit: Gale, 2000. Short Story
O’Brien, Tim, and Jonathan D’Amore.” Every Question Leads to the next: An Interview with Tim O’Brien.” Carolina Quarterly 58.2 (Spring 2007): Pages 31-99. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 123. Detroit:Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 6 May 2014.
None of the false-front signs are in neon lights, nor are the houses in vibrant hues. The shops are aligned, the houses are grey, and there stood one singular tree that wreaked havoc. This simplicity acts as the unassuming catalyst in the wedging of the brother-sister pair. The walk to the aunt’s house (a simple trek) showed signs of alarm when the aunt’s butcher shop was not to be found. In there place, there was “a string of houses, weathered gray or peeling gray.” The second caution comes in after the presence of the tree entices Karl. A single tree, one with “white petals” and a “delicate perfume.” The two begin to stray from each other. Karl remains hypnotized by this tree while Mary remains pragmatic and continues walking. The final simple act that completely separates the two stems from the tree. After a moment of mesmerization of the tree, a woman comes out of the house and lets her dog loose. This, while maybe loud, is a simple and expected act. No one wants random strangers surrounding themselves in the yard shrubbery. The dog let loose, the two split their ways: one to the aunt’s house, the other to the freight train. The unobtrusive objects of the town all act as admonitions for the pre-adolescents for what is to come, their complete
In Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier the continual coverage made by the media of the war during its occurrence and the infectiousness it had on those back home is portrayed through the eyes of her narrator, Jenny. The use of a female narrator wasn’t uncommon nor new but the way West includes her feminist values into Jenny without making it central to the story is fascinating. Up to this point in history, coverage of a war had never been read about as it was during this period. Because of this advancement in getting news out had improved drastically from the last war, people back home were more aware of what was occurring from reading a newspaper without having to wait for letters from their loved ones out on the front lines. West took this information in full stride and wrote about the emotional turmoil it causes the women back home waiting for their men to come back. She makes mention by focusing and bringing to attention the elements of class, exile from being deployed and the trauma that war causes on the soldier.
In the beginning of this story, one expects for the characters to follow the concepts that they represent. This story displays one man's journey to leave his home and comfort zone in order to fully explore his curiosity. He goes off into a forest and undergoes a life changing experience there. He encounters three different things that set him on the path to the journey of knowledge. This forest was symbolic of an assessment of strength, bravery, and survival. It took determination to survive in the forest and the young person entering into it would not emerge the same. Conversely, this story is more representative than realistic and the peril is of the character. This story is more of a vision or conscious daydream th...
Byatt starts off by telling the reader that the girl, Primrose and Penny, were evacuees from the air raids on Britain and that they were by themselves. This allows the readers to start getting the feel for the scared children. Upon arriving at the mansion the two girls made a pact to stay together, “It’s like were orphans, she said to Penny. But we’re not. Penny said, If we manage to stay together….” (Byatt 353). Once allowed to go, the girls went out to wonder the forest, showing their independence and pushing away Alys in the process. The Thing appears scarring Primrose and Penny, then Byatt pushes to the girls’ departure. Once the girls came back the when on a tour seeing each other. Showing that they still are not orphans because they still have each other. This can also be shown when we figure out each girl is still single. They decide to go looking for the Thing but have no luck. Primrose gets caught up in the magic of the forest and tries to figure out what Penny meant by the Thing being more real than themselves. What can be concluded from her thoughts were that she has a connection to the forest and she wants to regain what she lost. Penny finds the “den” of the Thing and finds reminds of its victims. She tries to confront the Thing but she concluded nothing else was there for her and that it was their way of
Early in the film , a psychologist is called in to treat the troubled child :and she calmed the mother with a statement to the effect that, “ These things come and go but they are unexplainable”. This juncture of the film is a starting point for one of the central themes of the film which is : how a fragile family unit is besieged by unusual forces both natural and supernatural which breaks and possesses and unites with the morally challenged father while the mother and the child through their innocence, love, and honesty triumph over these forces.
The narrator, Twyla, begins by recalling the time she spent with her friend, Roberta, at the St. Bonaventure orphanage. From the beginning of the story, the only fact that is confirmed by the author is that Twyla and Roberta are of a different race, saying, “they looked like salt and pepper” (Morrison, 2254). They were eight-years old. In the beginning of the story, Twyla says, “My mother danced all night and Roberta’s was sick.” This line sets the tone of the story from the start. This quote begins to separate the two girls i...
Cheng, Ah. The King of Trees. Trans: Bonnie S. McDougall. New York,NY: New Directions, 2010. Print.
(Sept. 1976): 35-39. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Carol T. Gaffke. Vol. 26. Detroit: