Mount Pleasant Essay

Louise Buxtons Mount Pleasant is a very uniquely written get around myth, where we experience a normal day from a child perspective. Its a modern story from 2005. The story is t archaic in first person singular, where the narrator is a young girl whose stir is Elizabeth. () same the glue wee peel off our hands later arts and crafts hour at school with Mrs Kelly. (p.2, l.16-17) Based on the tuition we feel that Elizabeth goes to school, but also that she earth-closetnot be to a greater extent than 6 to 8 twelvemonths old. When she finds the old photo of a boy which is a 9-10 year in a costume, we are told that she is not quite as old as he is. We know that she is a young girl, judging by her verbal skill and behavior. With the sun in my eyes, I couldnt hitch my moms face, not even squinting with both blazonry above my head and my head tilted. (p.2, l.22-23) The language is very descriptive and it seems as if one were looking through the eyes of a child.The short story var ies from other traditional first person stories by pose the focus on a child and what a child does. Elizabeths focus is on insouciant play, and those days are to her full of take chances and close friendships Lena, Little Fran, Wilf and me playing for hours at class or functional at some theatrics. (p.5, l.152-153) Or where there is a break with everyday routines. For compositors case, when Lena and Elizabeth discovers a business with unlimited possibilities in the form of raftdy and crackpot, until the set out puts an end to the adventure () raspberry ruffles and chewing nuts and chocolate raisins and liq-uorice sticks and ice cups and strawberry boot lace. We put them on Mammys key at first but Mammy found out by and by she got given a bill (). (p.4, l.92-94)The children also play ghost games, where they try to frighten one another by dressing up in linens and pursue one another. In some(prenominal) cases reveals the narrator herself as a child by acting irationaly. When Lena and Elizabeth lie in their beds and think they can hear ghosts, they pull the sheet over their heads and lie still. The reaction shows a boyish logic. If they cannot see the ghost, then the ghosts cannot see them If I dont move, they cant get me. (p.5, l.147-149)Since the perspective is a childs, it is especially interesting to see where the childs perception of situations and episodes differs from that of an expectant. For example, when Elizabeth thinks that the bring forth reknits the nuns clothes, because themother is good at knitting and can do it better () and mammy isnt proud, she always takes them and unravels them and knits them again, better, because shes a good knitter, my mam. (p.4, l.87-89) The reason is more wish wellly that the mother does not want people to know that they pay back gotten the clothes from the nuns.The narrator being a child has the effect that we as readers several times pause to think about what it means. At several places in the story where Elizabeth tells about an episode where the reader has to interpret the situation, to subside whether its a ghosts or just the narrators childish imagination. Its for example unclear in Elizabeths depiction of how the pullulate ends up on the mantelpiece again and again But someways it found its way back on top of the mantelpiece. (p.4, l.102) Or where she feels like there is somebody sitting on the bed and watching them. The concomitant that the narrator is a child is very easy to see by analyzing the language. She mentions her parents with expressions such as mammy and daddy. The little brother, George William she calls babby. The language is characterized by an absence of literary language.An example of this is where she says that their hands are () lickity-stickity. (p.5, l. 121-122) She invents her own expressions, which results in the story being poor in traditional imagery like comparisons and metaphors. The imagery used is mainly related to the childs imagination. F or example when she feels uncomfortable in her clothes she says Im all blowed up like an old frog. (p.2, l.12) Another interesting thing is how the sounds in the house are described. Elizabeth perceives the sounds caused by the wind to be scary, and describes it with the use of personification. The short story takes place in an environment that Elizabeth knows well, which is at their house, Mount Pleasant. We dont hear much about the world outside the neighborhood, or thoughts that pass away it.This is of course because she is a child who is not involved in it. We know the roads around Mount Pleasant pretty well now. And everybody knows me and Lena. (p.4, l.83-84) The scrap of the short story Mount Pleasant, which is the name of their house, indicates how safe and merry their purport is, and stands as a stark contrast to the spookiness. Mount Pleasant can be seen as a symbol of childhood joys and play. Her childhood in the end gives in to a more mature and realisticperception o f reality. When Elizabeth throws the photograph in the fireplace, it seems as if she actively tries to fight her fear. She might think that the deceased person person boy had something to do with the ghost. She goes to bed, and the tension builds up and gets stronger and stronger until she finds out that there is nonexistence there at all. Elizabeth takes a small step towards becoming an adult she finds out that there are no connections between the photo, the scary sounds and the deceased boy.