Mount Pleasant – An Essay

Mount Pleasant is a short story written by Mary-Louise Buxton. The short story is published back in 2005.
Mount Pleasant is about a girl named Elizabeth and her sister Lena. They have recently moved to a new town called Mount Pleasant with their parents. Mount Pleasant is told by the main character Elisabeth, which makes it a 1st person narrator. The language in the text reminds us of the mind of a child, because in the beginning of the story, we are not introduced to Mount Pleasant immediately, but instead, we jump into an event, just like in medias res.

But we must not forget that in the beginning she is introducing her mother, who is described is a very, very strict mother towards her children. Elizabeth’s mother, Mary, is not at any given time in the story described as a good mother nor wife. She is not afraid to psychically abuse her daughters and giving them orders to do as they are told to, otherwise there will be consequences for their actions, if they do not listen properly. As Elizabeth tells us in the beginning: “Mammy'll take to me with a wooden spoon if she catches me up in the attic”

Their father, on the other hand, is described as a very loving father, who would do anything to please his children, as long as their mother is not nearby, for example: “Bed, before your mammy comes in and catches you up." The bond between Elizabeth, her sister and their father radiates reciprocated love, because only “Daddy” bring justice to the table whenever Elizabeth thinks her mom is unfair. “But Daddy always gives us five minutes more to finish our games”

Elizabeth is no more than 7-8 years old, which we can tell from the text, where she finds an old photo from the addict where she was playing. She describes the boy in the photo no more than 9-10 years old, because he could not be that much older than herself. So we follow the