The Little Girl Summary
Katherine Mansfield's story The Little Girl is the story of a young girl Kejia, and her relationship with her overbearing father. His taut behavior shakes his younger daughter's confidence, and also in himself, to the extent that he develops a strong dislike for her; For him he is a figure to be feared and saved. She feels relieved when she leaves for her job every morning. His goodbye kiss is also accidental and he feels inattentive.
In the evening, when he returns home, Kezia hears that he asks for his tea and paper and gives instructions aloud. As the entire household runs to do their bidding, her mother tells Kezia to take off her father's shoes. The girl is so terrified of him that, to her annoyance, she stumbles while answering her casual questions. Interestingly, Kejia's speech is normal when she talks to other people; It is only his harshness that he finds himself so frightened that he cannot bring himself to speak properly in her presence. For Kezia, her father is a tall man of few words, a giant with big hands, a big neck, and a big mouth.
Kezia's grandmother tries to make an effort to improve Kezia's relationship with her parents and tells them to talk to them well when they are resting on Sunday afternoon. But little Kejia always finds her mother absorbed in reading the newspaper and the father sleeps on the couch in her drawing-room. As he sleeps, Kezia sits on a stool and waits for him to wake up, looking at him, wide-eyed in fear of him, until he wakes up, and asks for time - then to him in an irritable tone. Looks while saying. , "So don't stare, Kezia. You look like a little brown owl. "
One day, Kezia's grandmother suggested that she should make a pin-cushion to present to her father on his birthday. Kezia gets a yellow silk piece, stitched on three sides. Now he needs some stuff. He found some very nice papers on the bed-table in his mother's room. She tears these papers into small pieces before filling them in her pin-cushion and stitching the fourth side.
That night, there was a lot of uproar in the house; Her father's brilliant speech to the Port Authority could not be found. The rooms are searched; The servants questioned. Finally the mother arrives at Kezia's room and asks her if she has seen some papers that were placed on a table in her room. Kejia succumbs to her innocent mistake and the poor child is taken to the dining room where her father is desperately upside-down. When the mother explains everything to him, she asks the scared girl to confirm her wrongdoing. He scares the sc 'no in whisper. However, her angry father is not in a mood to forgive. He asks Grandma to put Kejia to bed that immediately and the child is left alone in her bed crying.
After a while, his father arrives at Kezia's room with a ruler. She screams and tries to hide under the bedcotch, but he kicks her out and orders her to hold her hands so as not to be taught a lesson on touching someone else's things. She tries to argue that it is for her birthday but he does not listen and kills her little pink palms with the ruler. Spanking leaves deep marks on Kezia's mind. Henceforth, she puts both her hands behind her back whenever she sees her father.
One day, Kejia sees the children of her neighbors - the Macdonald family, playing with her father. The Macdonald's are an enthusiastic, lively, playful family. Looking through the botanical garden-wall, Kezia sees five children playing with their father, swings a tube at her and the father tickles the children. When compared to her frightened father who never plays with her, Kejia next door sees the love between father and children and she sees that Mr. Macdonald is playful, cheerful and generous unlike his own father Which is very strict. This leads her to the conclusion that not all fathers are alike.
Days go by and one day, when her mother is ill and has to be hospitalized, Kezia's opinion about her father changes drastically. Grandma goes to the hospital with Kezia's mother and Kezia stays alone at home with her cook Alice. The time of day is fine, but when Alice puts Kejia to bed at night, the child is scared to be alone. She is afraid of nightmares, because Grandma is not there to take her to her bed and comfort her grandmother as usual. Alice warns her to scream and not wake her father up at night.
That day, Kezia dreams again of a terrible dream and she trembles and cries for her grandmother. However, she sees her father near her bed with a candle in her hand. On learning that she is scared because of her nightmare, her father takes her in his room on his lap. He lays her on his bed and makes her sleep closer to him. He is so tired that he falls asleep before her. Little Kejia watches her father up close and realizes that she is not the giant that he thought her to be. He cannot pamper her like Mr. Macdonald because he works harder than her. She lays her head on his heart and realizes that he has a big heart full of warmth and care.
0 Comments