Which of these is the real nature of the girls? This is a question which is quite hard to answer because generally their nature includes both of these. These children play roles, they aren’t as innocent as Robert thought they would be. This area is also linked in to the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding – the children which were stranded on an island were shown to be not as innocent as people would think. By being stranded on an island for such an amount of time, didn’t have contact with civilization, this made them create their own rules and environment. An example which actually links in to Growing up is that in Lord of the Flies, Jack, a young boy, played the role of being a hunter on the island. This made him grow up in the island to be more and more malicious and by the end of the novel he turns into a complete savage. This also happens in the story Growing up, as Kate and Jenny always lived under wild conditions, with absolute no care or interference from the parents – this made them grow up to become wild and quite savage in their own way.
The wild garden symbolizes the wild children, which is an unattended area of Roberts’ life. However, he’s proud of it and doesn’t seem to realize the effect which this has on his children. Robert doesn’t even realize that his children have grown up, and the girls don’t seem to show a lot of interest when he comes home. So, basically, the last theme might be of self-consciousness – especially Robert’s concerns about his vanishing dignity and the meaning of his life, as his children become independent.
When the girls attack him, Robert has no means to defend himself. Possibly, this might be the symbolism of how he’s not able to control his daughters by force of personality. One thing which we cannot tell is if Robert is realistic or not. On one hand, we learn that he has “lost most of his illusions” and knows that children are “honest”. But he also wants to be in his daughters’ world. However, when he looks for some comfort he does not turn to his wife, but to male society – even though he sees it as boring.
If the father doesn’t seem to know his own daughters and the mother never actually seems to be there for them when needed, are they both good parents? The role reversal of parent and child at the end, with Jenny in a superior position, she is alarmed by the wound whereas Kate still laughs when she sees it. The girls in the story appear sometimes as individuals, but also as a pair who act together. We read that they adore each other “…and one always comes to the other’s help”. However, as the story is concentrated on Robert’s thoughts, this might also be about what Robert is thinking.
The girls have some contradictory feelings. We see that growing up does not mean becoming more sensible. The girls’ wildness makes them in some ways less responsible than when they were younger. This contrast is shown in the way they speak to their father. They call him “Paleface” and “Paleface Robbie” or “Daddy”. “Paleface” is usually the name used in Western films by “Red Indians”, and here the author might be suggesting that they are savage, like the stereotyped view of the “Red Indians”. Before they attack Robert, the girls chant: “Kill him – scalp him. Torture him”. After they have attacked him, Jenny says, “We’ve got to wash your bite” whilst Kate, who fetches the water for the washing, says, “Daddy – sit down – how dare you get up?”
This story is presented through Robert’s view, but not in his voice – so, we can never actually be sure that what we read is always exactly what is on his mind. The author uses interesting kinds of language use. Sometimes that word choices are surprising. When we read that Jenny is reading we learn that she does it “furiously”… this seems to be a bit odd when describing someone who’s reading, but on the other hand, it does seem quite appropriate to the character.
The writer uses patterns with repetition or exact opposite. “The original excuse for this neglect was that “the garden was for the children…The original truth was that neither of the Quicks cared for gardening.” By using the same words initially, the writer makes clearer contrast between the Quicks’ public and private explanations, before actually showing how the original excuse over time became true.
In the story, the attitudes we clearly learn the most about are Roberts’. He has a sense of a world where he knew his ‘home’, and could find happiness in it – but now that is all changing, and so he feels alarmed at what may become of him. Robert wants to escape the company of the women in his house, but only temporarily. Marriage appears to be permanent for men like Robert, so, the idea that he might leave home for good is not here presented as an option.
Concluding, this story invites the reader to see it from different viewpoints. The way that Robert doesn’t really seem to know his daughters very well, and that he’s proud of how his garden grows wildly (symbolising the children growing wild) seems to me that Robert has a lack of real personality. He wants to be different from the other parents, but on the other hand, he seems to love his daughters very much, even though he’s not such a good parent. The children grew wild, because no one actually seemed to take care of them when needed – they both spent their time playing around in the garden, under no adult supervision. It seems as though Robert feels quite scared of the fact that his daughters are growing up and that they don’t need him as much as they probably needed before. Possibly he might be realising that he could have spent more time with them when they were younger, but now, it’s too late as they are growing up. To me, the main message of this story is how children grow up and the parents still don’t seem to realize it quite well – and when they do, they get scared of losing them.
