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On Pale Green Walls Essay

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On Pale Green Walls
B: Analysis and interpretation of ”On Pale Green Walls”
Word count: 969
Clare Wigfall’s short story”On Pale Green Walls” explores some of the most important aspects of growing up as a child. It explores concepts such as the curiosity of a child and the relationship between adult and child, the importance of there being a good understanding between the two, and the jealousy and misunderstandings that come as a result of a bad relationship. Life is harsh and full of disappointments, especially growing up as a child while being neglected by your parents. The mute protagonist of the story, Violet, is forced to realise this at a very early age. We follow Violet through this moment of realization.

During a church attending just before Christmas the main character Violet sees a painting of a beautiful woman in blue dress. Not realising that this woman is a painting of Mother Mary she mistakes her for a real person. This gentle woman is starkly different from her own strict mother who lambasts her every action. Thus she begins to greatly admire Mother Mary whom she begins to see everywhere. Thus one day when she sees a picture of Mother Mary lovingly holding the baby Jesus in a newspaper the jealousy swells inside here and she stabs his eyes with a pencil and draws blood on him. Greatly disturbed by this her mother takes her to a priest. While there she once more sees Mother Mary with the baby Jesus. As her mother slowly grows more disappointed in her she comes to realise that Mother Mary will never love her more than the baby Jesus, as she tries to scream, nothing happens. This moment of disappointment, likely her first real disappointment, shows her how hard life can be, and her own powerlessness.

The story is told by a first person narrator in a past tense. The story is told as a retrospective, as the narrator looks back on one of the

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