How does the extract affect the whole story? ("The Persimmon Tree" by Marjorie Barnard)

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Extract: “I liked the room from the first… anyone who appeared to have her life so perfectly under control.”

Question: How does the extract affect the whole story?

The writer of the story “The Persimmon Tree”, Marjorie Barnard, was born in Sydney. She was a novelist, historian, biographer as well as librarian in her lifetime. She wrote many books, and among them, A House is Built (1928) and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1947) are the best known (124 tutorial 30-10-01). Although “The Persimmon Tree” is generally thought to be a piece of subtle work, and we may find it difficult to get the hidden meanings of the words, Barnard has made it charming by associating different things. She entitles the story “The Persimmon Tree” partly because persimmons represent the narrator – a weak and lonely individual whose life is in sharp contrast with what Barnard describes, the “shadow of the tree”, which represents the outside world. Barnard has delicately presented the narrator’s complex feeling living between her “shell” and the outside world, and how the outside forces contribute to her reform in the end of the story.

        Obviously in the beginning of the extract, Barnard suggests that “shadow” does not merely mean “shade that is caused by an object [it is the trees in the story] blocking direct rays of light” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary: 1380). Barnard, in fact, associates “shadow” connotatively with two things: changing matters in the outside world and new life. Although it is not presented clearly in the story, Barnard reflects her idea through the descriptions of the narrator about the “shadow”: “the movement of the branches [shadows] in the wind [seem] different.” (par.12) “the bare twigs [are] beginning to swell with buds [that represent new life].” The “shadow”, as described by Barnard, is itself a life, “[having] the wall on to itself.” that is “intricate and rich” (par.12). It is, in my view, the outside world in miniature – wonderful, lively, full of changes, complex but beautiful. However, the narrator does not enjoy being part of the world because as she claims, she “[has] been out of things for quite a long time and the effort of returning was still too great.” (par.1). She knows clearly that as a member in the society, she is rather backward and she feels the need to reform herself so as to adapt the life outside. Nevertheless, she is reluctant to change herself; she tends to escape from the growing tendency of the society. Therefore, Barnard, in the story, tells us that the narrator orders to cut down the swelling buds (that represent reform and new life) of the bare twigs. The “shadow”, to the narrator, is an intruder continually trying to creep into the “shell”, which is her only protection from the outside world. The “swelling buds”, in my opinion, continually remind and urge the narrator to abandon her current self and accept a reform. Both the “shadow” and the “swelling buds” force her to open her heart and even though she wants to get rid of the “shadow”, she fails since she cannot remove the “shadow” from her “shell”, as she can never live without the outside world.

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        The narrator, despite her reluctance to be part of the outside world, always focuses on the people in the society. Barnard suggests that she “[grows] familiar with all the people in the street.” and she always “[lies] looking at the shadow [that represents the outside world]…” (par.12). Because of her attention to the outside world, she can easily pick up as what Barnard says, the “regularity” of people’s lifestyle. She describes people as the phony “mis-en-scène” which she “never [feels] the faintest desire to become acquainted with”. Here we are given a clear idea about the narrator’s total disagreement with ...

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