‘The blood beat in my ears like a slack drum’ and ‘wiped away like the crude drawings of a child’.
These similes reflect on the way her perception of things has changed to adulthood, she uses very strong words like blood and crude to describe her feelings. The simile about the crude drawings being wiped away is especially effective because it corresponds together with her situation. She also uses words such as ‘dissolved’ and ‘vanished’ in relation to describe her sense of loss.
The very last line, ‘ That was the year the war began and the real world, and the difference’, in this line we get the true impression of what the writer is trying to say, which is that the adult world is a much darker place compared to childhood and also a place where the truth cannot come out, a place where you can’t trust anybody but yourself.
The second short story is in effect, quite similar to the previous one in the sense that it is also related to childhood; it is called Snowdrops, which is written by Leslie Norris. Leslie Norris is a Welsh poet and a short story writer. He was born in Merthyr, Wales in 1926, and much if his work is about his childhood in Merthyr. In the previous story the writer portrays the image of the Second World War in her biographical account as a child. Although the situation is slightly different in this story, we see a thematic connection between the two. Both the authors talk about their past and of their experiences.
In Snowdrops the boy is basically the central character and everything evolves around his little world. Miss Webster, a teacher in this story, and the snowdrops are the central things in the boy’s mind during the story. The writer emphasises this in the first five lines, by the way he sets the opening to the story. Similarly to ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s new snowsuit’, the story opens with a child’s perspective. The author does this when he writes,’ ‘All he could imagine was one flake of the falling snow, bitterly frail and white, and nothing like a flower’. This is very effective in the sense that it gives the opinion of the child, and also the way a normal child would think. There is a great deal of description used in the above quote; this might be due the author’s decision to set a particular type of mood.
Later on in the story we find out that the boy is very anxious to find out what happens to the snowdrops, and we see that the author uses a lot of excitement in this part of the story. It all fits in with the over excitement of the boy, ‘the taste was incredibly new and marvellous’ and ‘the children cheered and clapped as they saw Miss Webster’. This is more evidence of the boy’s innocence, again we see a comparison with the previous story, where the girl was innocent and imaginative in the way she used to see things.
The mood in 'snowdrops' changes suddenly from when the boy is anxious to see the snowdrops, to hearing the people sing mournfully at the funeral. This is where the other uses words and creates images of a different mood; by doing this he totally changes the atmosphere. The moment of change in the story takes place in this story when the mood turns melancholy and gloomy. This is shown in lines (188-onwards). ‘He felt a slow, sad disappointment’ the above quote shows the impact made on the boy when he sees that the snowdrops weren’t what he had expected them to be. In contrast to ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s new snowsuit’, we also see that in this story the character’s perception changes and starts to realise the reality of this world. The way the author has brought this change into this story is very effective because it reflects on the mood. He uses similes such as ‘her back was as hard as stone’, to describe the boy’s teacher, as she is also mourning over her loss. Words such as ‘stone’ are used to reflect on the gloomy mood and possibly to describe how the characters are feeling.
The next short story is called ‘Flight’, this is written by the author Doris Lessing. Although this story is similar to the two previous ones, this one concentrates on how a change in characters can have a negative impact on relationships. In this story we find out that the author uses a great deal of symbolism to reflect the characters mood in the story. This story mainly focuses on how the relationship between the old man and his granddaughter changes.
In the opening two paragraphs of Flight, the grandfather is holding a young bird that is beautiful; he looks after this bird and the old man controls it like a possession that is symbolic. The way the author has set the scene and mood out at the start of the story is very effective,
‘The sunlight broke on their grey breasts in to small rainbows’.
‘Her hair fell down her back in a wave of sunlight’.
These lines show us how the sunlight is used to link the granddaughter with the pigeon. The linkage shows us the way the pigeons are used to express how the granddaughters has grown up and is now leaving home. This description sets a very content mood; this has also been the case in the previous two short stories. The way the author has used symbolism of the pigeon and sunlight is very affective.
The author clearly connects the two when he uses words that describe the bird, which also applies to the girl, ‘Pretty, pretty, pretty’.
While in the next paragraph there is an attractive description of his Granddaughter, we can see a similarity between the young girl and the birds, it is attractive and he controls it like his granddaughter.
Later on in the story we see a transformation between the relationships of the two characters. It seems in the story that the grandfather has not met his granddaughter after some time, and so naturally he would treat his granddaughter as a little girl. From line 25, we see that the author has used words and phrases, which reflect the attitude of the girl to her grandfather.
‘Hey, he shouted, saw her jump’ and ‘ Waiting for Steven hey? He said, his fingers curling like claws into his palms.’
Theses quotes taken form the story show that the grandfather has been offended by the girl’s attitude, although the girl is shown as acting calm and ‘lost in her own world’. This can only mean that the girl has found someone else to love, and does not show any understanding for her grandfather. By showing this moment of transition the author gets the idea of growing up across her readers through the ideas of Alice being the last of many and the grandfather wishing to hold on to her so that he can protect her again. But the writer is trying to say that the girl has now got a different perspective of things and she is now in a way independent.
Also in ‘superman and Paula Brown’s new snowsuit’, and ‘snowdrops’ we see the same change in the characters perspective and a transformation in the characters attitude, except in this story there is change in relationship.
The final short story is called ‘Your Shoes’ which is written my Michèle Roberts. The first comparison we can make between this story and ‘Flight’ is that the authors express mot of the ideas through objects, in ‘Flight’ pigeons were used likewise in ‘Your shoes’, white training shoes are used.
Similarly to ‘Superman and Paula Brown’s new snowsuit’ this story is also written as the authors personal point of view. So it will include some of the writers past experiences. This story is written as a first person narrative, which is different from all the other stories. From the title ‘Your Shoes’ we can conclude hat it mans looking from someone else’s perspective.
In your shoes the trainers could represent two people in the story, the first person would be the writers mother, and the second her daughter. The writer has used the symbol of the white shoes very effectively because it symbolises ‘purity’ and ‘cleanliness’. In reality we would expect the colour white to be worn on weddings, this is done to symbolise the virginity of the brief.
The author has used his idea to full effect because she wants her fifteen-year old innocent daughter to remain a virgin and tying to protect her from impure things such as prostitution, she says:
‘I mean the people of your age hanging outside the supermarkets, tube stations up in London’.
In the story we see that the mother is looking for a way of trying to explore the bonding that comes through her breast feeding, the narrator does this because the symbolism of breast feeding represents unity within the mother and the child, like an ‘umbilical cord’. The mother wants to do this because it is something she did not have with her mother and does not want the same thing happening to her daughter. She does not want her daughter to be in her shoes. In the previous story ‘Flight’ and this one both writers thicken and enhance their ideas in the story with the use of symbolism. In ‘your shoes’ and ‘flight’ both symbols are attached to movements, the pigeons represent the symbol of flight and the trainers represent the idea of purity. Ironically both the symbols of the stories are actually in the title itself, whereas in the other two short stories it isn’t the case.
In conclusion, after analysing four of the short stories we get the idea that they are written to get the point across quickly and to create more dramatic tension, it is far more easier than writing a novel. We see all thorougout the four short stories that there are changes and transformations in characters perception on things. We also may argue that most of the short stories are written from the authors past experiences or feelings.
