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Example research essay topic: Katherine Anne Porter Studies In Short Fiction - 1,017 words

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... for her offspring (3320). The scene horrifies yet excites Miranda, and she refuses to accept the fur from the rabbit for her dolls. The sight of the young rabbits forces Miranda to realize the knowledge of the complexities of life and the birth process. Having seen, she felt at once as if she had known all along. The very memory of her former ignorance faded, she had always known just this (76).

The meaning of life and fertility and of her own body begin to take shape in the little girls mind as she sees the tiny creatures just taken from their mothers womb (Brooks 116 - 17). Through the experience of seeing the pregnant rabbit, Miranda comes to understand the difference between herself and her brother (Grubbs 3320). George Cheatham states in his article, Death and Repetition in Porters Miranda Stories, that the rabbit suggests the present, the personal, and the profane (613). The human mind is also considered a grave in this short story. Miranda never told, she did not wish to tell anybody. She thought about the whole worrisome affair with confused unhappiness for a few days.

Then it sank quietly into her mind and was heaped over by accumulated thousands of impressions, for nearly twenty years (78 - 9). Miranda put this memory in the back of her consciousness, and she did not recall the day until nearly twenty years later when the grave of the human mind is opened and found to hold something more important than horror; it holds knowledge of life and experiences (Curley 344). The title of the story comprises another symbolic component of the story. It represents the death of Miranda's childhood. Many minor symbols also exist in Porters The Grave. Several characters in the story contribute to the innumerable symbols.

The grandmother represents authority, structure, stability and order in the past. She also symbolizes strength and fortitude (Mooney 17, 20). The children are used as symbols of innocence in this short story (Grubbs 3320). Pauls name suggests the Biblical character, the apostle Paul (Hendrick 71). One critic implies that Paul, standing in the blazing sunshine, recalls the apostle Pauls conversion in the blinding light on the road to Damascus (Cheatham, Criticism 114). The sugar candies of the vendor in Mexico City in the shapes of all kinds of small creatures, (78) are primary symbols of the small animals Miranda and Paul once hunted.

These sweets suggest aborted life and aborted art (Gardiner 269). The candies evoke Miranda's memories of that day with a suddenness and a clarity that overwhelm her. She was so reasonless horrified she halted suddenly staring, the scene before her eyes dimmed by the vision back of them (78). Miranda's epiphanic vision suggests that, although the mind is a grave, memories are alive and in transit (Grubbs 3321). The Grave is a tremendous story with an innumerable assortment of symbolic elements. Porter uses symbolism to its greatest advantage to describe the tale of a young girls movement into adulthood.

As Ray B. West Jr. writes, In the awareness of decay and death comes the important knowledge of the mature self, felt but not understood, recognized in its completeness only later when recalled by a similar sensual awareness (29). In The Grave, Miranda renounces the perceived bondage of repeated meaning, to seize the freedom of unconnected existence, of modernity -- the freedom of the grave (Cheatham, Death 610).

Bibliography: Annotated Bibliography of Katherine Anne Porters The Grave Brooks, Clean. On, The Grave. Katherine Anne Porter: A Critical Symposium. Eds. Lodwick Hartley and George Core. Athens: U of GA P, 1969.

Summary: Brooks article focuses on a summary of the plot of Porters short story, and it discusses the symbolism of the different items found by the children. Brooks also talks about the themes Porter included in her story. It describes Miranda's transformation throughout the story from a girl who did not care how she dressed and who liked going hunting to a feminine young woman. Cheatham, George.

Literary Criticism, Katherine Anne Porters Consciousness, and The Silver Dove. Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 25. (1988): 109 - 15. Summary: Cheatham discusses the autobiographical aspect of Katherine Anne Porters fiction.

He also talks about the symbolism of the silver dove in The Grave, and what the inclusion of this symbol means. It also ties the use of the silver dove back to Christian meanings and references. Gardiner, Judith Kegan. The Grave, On Not Shooting Sitting Birds, and the Female Esthetic. Studies in Short Fiction.

Vol. 20. (1983): 265 - 70. Summary: In this article, Gardiner focuses on analyzing the female esthetic in Porters The Grave and Jean Rhys One Not Shooting Sitting Birds. The article talks about the symbolic meaning of the silver dove, the ring, and the dead rabbits. Gardiner also discussed how Miranda repressed all that happened the day she and Paul were exploring the graves. Givner, Joan. Katherine Anne Porter.

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 102. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel. Detroit: Gale, 1991. Summary: Givner focuses on the life of Katherine Anne Porter in her article.

She gives a chronology of Porters works. Givner also explains several of Porters short stories, including The Grave. In her discussion about The Grave, Givner gives a summary of the plot, and talks about the knowledge that comes to Miranda from this experience. Rollyson, Carl.

Letters of Katherine Anne Porter. Magill Book Reviews. EBSCOhost. AN: 9101076027. Summary: This short article explains the use of letters in Katherine Anne Porters works. The article talks about how the letters used in her works are proof of the quality of her friendship.

Porter uses the letters as starting points for her fiction. Unique, Darlene Harbour. Katherine Anne Porter, Politics, and Another Reading of Theft. Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 30. (1993): 119 - 27. EBSCOhost.

AN: 9511241777. Summary: This article examines the political views of Katherine Anne Porter and how those views affected her work as an author. It also tells of the issues that molded these political beliefs. It tells of her involvement with socialist and feminist political activities.


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