Compare And Contrast – The Trout And Crackling Day

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English Coursework                                        Page                                         02/05/07                              

Compare And Contrast – The Trout And Crackling Day

     In this essay I aim to examine the themes of childhood in the short stories ‘The Trout’ and ‘Crackling Day’. I will go about this by examining the words, thoughts and actions of the characters that the authors have created. I will also examine the social attitudes of the time period in which the stories were written and how they relate to the theme of childhood in both stories.

     The Trout is about a 12 year old girl called Julia who when exploring finds a trout in a well. Eventually she sets it free in to the local river. Crackling Day is about the journey of a little boy in Johannesburg, South Africa, to collect some crackling from the something or other.

     The first impression I got from The Trout was one of confusion. The fairy tale style of the story made it not very realistic. It was almost as if the story was written ‘out-of-this-world’ which made the story odd. The first impression that I got of the main character, Julia, was that she was very sarcastic and rude. However when I re-read the story I realised why she was acting that way. I think that she acted that way because she was trying to grow up.

     The themes within The Trout  and Crackling Day are both treated in a different way despite the fact that they both have the same theme of childhood. Crackling Day uses more language and descriptive words to illustrate his point as opposed to symbolism and imagery, compared to The Trout.

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     For example the theme in  The Trout is childhood and growing up, “her long lovely neck…”. This is similar to a Swan, which implies that Julia is gradually blossoming in to a mature adult. There is also a underlying desire that is occasionally shown from Julia that she wants to grow up. For example when her mother tells her a fairy story to explain how the trout got in to the well she simply dismisses the story “Pooh…”. I think that she dismisses the story because fairy tales are seen as childish and she wants to seem mature. ...

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