“On Pale Green Walls (1997)” is a short story written by Clare Wigfall. It is about the relationship between parents and children and about how children’s curiosity can be misunderstood by parents. In this essay I will expound the characterization of Violet and her surroundings, the relationships, the symbols and the main themes.
SUMMARY AND CHARACTERISATION OF VIOLET
It is about a child named Violet. The story starts in medias res: it’s a cold Christmas and like a good religious Christian family, Violet and her family go to church. Though Violet is mute she’s still very observant and in the church she notices a picture of a woman in a blue dress. Without knowing that the woman on the painting is Marie (the mother of Jesus) Violet begins to admire this woman. Of course she can’t ask her parents about the picture because of her muteness.
One day Violet is outside and she picks up a “curled-up embryo”, which has been left by its mother. Like every other little girl Violet pretends that she’s a grown up and so she decides to take care of the bird and puts it in her mitten. Violet doesn’t see the world and religion like adults do and therefor people are often misunderstanding her. One day, Violet sees the picture of Marie holding Jesus on the front-page of her father’s newspaper, she gets jealous – probably for the first time. L. 49: “I Stared at the baby’s face and hated it as I’d never hated anything before. She was looking down on it, smiling at its bald head. And I could tell how she loved it.” And because of her jealously she stabs two holes where the baby’s eyes (Jesus eyes) are and draws blood with a red crayon.
Det er gratis at oprette en konto