Born May 15, 1890, in Indian Creek, Texas; Katherine Anne Porter has written numerous short stories and a novel. Katherine Anne Porter uses autobiographical information and symbolism to relate the story of Miranda?s maturation into adulthood in her short story ?The Grave.? In ?The Grave,? Miranda discovers her feminine side (West 28), and although she is only a child, Miranda understands a few of the events that shape a person into adulthood (Mooney 20).
Porter?s genius as a writer is most evident in ?The Grave,? published in 1935 (Grubbs 3319).
Written in a style that is uniquely Porter?s, it is a powerful story of two children?s contact with the intricacies of life and death. Set on a farm in Texas in 1903 (Brooks 115), ?The Grave? recounts the story of Miranda, the character based on Porter?s life (West 6), and her movement from innocence to knowledge (West 29).
?Miranda learns about birth and her own destiny as a woman? (Brooks 118).
This short story is intensely autobiographical–both Miranda and Porter?s mothers died during childbirth (Givner 236).
Additionally, when Porter was young, she and her brother found a ring and a dove in the grave of their grandfather, as did Miranda and her brother Paul. ?Thus, not only did Porter employ real objects and events in the story, but she also carried the event in her mind for some three decades before it emerged and was reborn into fiction? (Grubbs 3321).
The Essay on The Grave Life Story Miranda
The short story, " The Grave," by Katherine Anne Porter began in a secluded area that had once been the family cemetery. The cemetery was owned by the grandmother who had just passed away. In her will she had requested the land be sold and this required the family cemetery to be moved. Two children had come across the empty graves while they were hunting. Their hunting excitement is lost when they ...
Symbolism is a prominent element in many of Katherine Anne Porter?s short stories. Much critical controversy exists over the symbolism in several of her works, particularly in ?The Symbolism happens of its own self and it comes out of something so deep in your own consciousness and your own experience that I don?t think that most writers are at all conscious of their use of symbols. I never am until I see them. They come of themselves because they belong to me, and have meaning to me, but they come of themselves. I have no way of explaining them…and I suppose you don?t invent symbolism. (qtd. in Unrue 17) On a separate occasion Porter is quoted as saying, ?I never consciously took or adopted a symbol in my life? (qtd. in Unrue 17).
While Miranda and Paul are hunting in the fields they decide to stop and explore the empty graves that once were the family burial ground. In one of the graves, Miranda finds a screwhead for a coffin, a small silver dove ?with spread wings and a neat fan-shaped tail? (70), which she rapidly exchanges to Paul for a golden ring. Many different views exist concerning the symbolic status of the silver dove. M.A. Grubbs describes the dove as a symbol of innocence, love, and peace; and proposes that the ?dove?s emergence from the grave suggests innocence born from experience? (3320).
According to Joan Givner, the dove, shaped like the dove of Venus, is a symbol of earthly love (237).
Another view is that the silver dove symbolizes ?the past, the mythic, and the sacred? (Cheatham, ?Death? 613).
The use of the dove as a symbolic figure can be perceived in various ways. Initially, the incorporation of the symbol could be coincidental. ?Second, the symbol might be a pretentious device to add a superficial sense of weight and depth to the story without any particular religious significance.? Perhaps the dove suggests a ?Christian meaning which the story as a whole affirms,? or the inclusion of the dove could be considered a ?parody of the resurrection? (Cheatham, ?Criticism? 113).
The Essay on Review Doves Of War By Paul Preston
Love and death on the front line Doves of War: Four Women of Spain Paul Preston 471 pp, HarperCollins Little has been written about the role of women in the Spanish civil war. If quizzed about it, most of us would probably have exhausted our knowledge after invoking the name of La Pasionaria, Dolores Ibrruri. Certainly she eclipsed her sisters, whether as the Republic's Joan of Arc or as the ...
Paul longs to have the dove, which typifies ?a killing for Paul, the archetypal male as hunter? (Unrue 59).
The imperfect dove also signifies Paul, and his ?flawed innocence? for he already seemed to be knowledgeable of birth and life (Hendrick 71).
The dove possibly could be merely a personal symbol for Miranda of ?her brother, her youth, and the day she lost a bit of her conventional innocence?; however, Porter?s diction validates the concept of resurrection. The dove exemplifies religious views of the Holy Spirit and the promise that He will save man?s soul (Cheatham, ?Death? 615, 617).
Porter herself explained that the dove was a symbol for the Holy Spirit, art and the transcendence over mortality (Unrue 61).
The gold ring Paul finds in one of the graves serves as a representation of Miranda?s femininity, which she is slowly coming to know and understand. This ring is most likely a wedding band, the unbroken circle of which symbolizes a continuous connection. From the instant Miranda first beholds the small ring, she adores its beauty. In Miranda?s eyes the ring denotes extravagance and comfort. It also symbolizes ?marriage, and a luxurious, aristocratic past? (Unrue 61, 59).
Additionally, the children?s past and their ancestral heritage are also portrayed by the ring (Grubbs 3321).
The intricate designs of flowers and leaves that are engraved on the ring are symbols of fertility. Miranda?s wearing of the ring on her thumb is symbolic of the fact that she is not mature enough to wear the ring on the appropriate finger (Hendrick 69).
Her fondness of the ring provokes Miranda?s realization of her femininity. She suddenly detests her appearance and longs for effeminate clothes and accessories. With the ring now in her possession, Miranda wants to go back to the farmhouse, take a bath, dust herself with talcum powder, and put on ?the thinnest, most becoming dress she owned? (74).
This longing is seen as preparation for her entrance into womanhood (Poss 333).
The word ?grave? has several meanings in this short story. Each of the three classifications holds secrets that must be revealed in the story (Grubbs 3320).
The literal grave, the rabbit, and the human mind serve as the three types of graves in this short story (West 28).
The Essay on The Grave by Katherine Anne Porter
The Grave “The Grave,” by Katherine Anne Porter, is about two young children’s lives and how their past affected them while growing up. Both Paul and Miranda are related as brother and sister.Paul was a twelve year old boy who really enjoyed hunting and gathering skeletons.Miranda was a nine year old girl who use to like shooting targets, and grew up as a tomboy. They used to ...
The literal grave is what the children are playing in when they find the dove, ring, and rabbit. These empty graves represent maturity, experience, and resurrection (Grubbs 3320).
When the children come across a rabbit and Paul shoots it, they discover that the rabbit was about to give birth. The mother rabbit is a symbol of life and of Miranda?s knowledge of life?s events. The rabbit represents generation and death (Poss 333).
According to Grubbs, the rabbit symbolizes rebirth and fertility. The mother rabbit becomes ?a womb that is a grave? 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 girl?s mind as she sees the tiny creatures just taken from their mother?s 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 Porter?s 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 Porter?s ?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 Essay on Prose Appreciation “The Fly” By Katherine Mansfield
“The Fly” by Katherine Mansfield is a short story which focuses on the trials and tribulations faced by those who lost relatives in World War One. Many who lost family and friends in the war struggled for years with grief, while others accepted the shortcomings and managed to overcome it. Everyone faced their own challenges, and everyone overcame them different ways, or in some cases not at all. ...
The children are used as symbols of innocence in this short story (Grubbs 3320).
Paul?s name suggests the Biblical character, the apostle Paul (Hendrick 71).
One critic implies that Paul, standing in the blazing sunshine, recalls ?the apostle Paul?s 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 reasonlessly 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 girl?s 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 Porter?s ?The Grave? Brooks, Cleanth. ?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 Porter?s 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.
The Essay on Katherine Anne Porter Master Of The Carpe Diem Theme
Coleman 1 Katherine Anne Porter: Master of the "Carpe Diem" Theme Katherine Anne Porter's writings demonstrate several predominant themes that occur throughout many of her stories. Porter's writings all encompass her personal ideas regarding death and dying, mourning, loss and loneliness, injustice and rejection. Katherine Porter explores the lives of her characters, who seem drawn into ...
Cheatham, George. ?Literary Criticism, Katherine Anne Porter?s Consciousness, and The Silver Dove.? Studies in Short Fiction. Vol. 25. (1988): 109-15.
Summary: Cheatham discusses the autobiographical aspect of Katherine Anne Porter?s 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 Porter?s ?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 Porter?s works. Givner also explains several of Porter?s 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 Porter?s 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.
Unrue, Darlene Harbour. ?Katherine Anne Porter, Politics, and Another Reading of ?Theft.??
The Essay on Katherine Anne Porter Miranda Stephen Dicey
Rejection in Life Katherine Anne Porter is regarded as one of the leading modern writers of short stories. Born on May 5, 1890 in Indian Creek, Texas as the great-great-great- granddaughter of the famous American frontiersman Daniel Boone, Porter was educated at various schools. In the 1920's and 1930's, she contributed articles to several newspapers while living in New York City, Louisiana, ...
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.
