Mushroom and Mansfield

Jefferson Lee
It conveys the sense of significance because similar to the mushroom neither of their existence are very significant. He still notices the mushrooms for what they are even though they are pretty ordinary and by doing this he is able to connect with the mushrooms. The mushrooms become significant to him and similarly he is able to become like a mushroom because he also grows. He recognizes his own significance.
“I don’t know,” she said forlornly. “It is all so dreadful. I feel we ought to have tried to, just for a time at least. To make perfectly sure. One thing’s certain” – and her tears sprang out again – “ father will never forgive us for this – never!” (368).
This was kind of strange because they are talking about how their deceased father is mad at them for allowing himself to be buried. They consider not burying him which is strange because generally people want to bury the ones they love. The fact that they even considered not burying him is pretty inhumane especially if he is their father. I am not sure what they would have done with his body if they did not bury him. I am not sure how significant this passage is to the story but it gives me a pretty good sense of the kind of person Josephine is.

okay, interesting idea about the mushrooms, but your articulation needs work. the point isn't quite clear yet, but worth pursuing. The mushrooms are significant to the character and over the course of the story the mushrooms come to signify the character. Wow. a cool idea. push your words to do justice to your ideas.

the Mansfield passage you choose is a good one because it illustrates the extent to which the daughters are under their father's thumb, such that they can't really think straight by themselves. I don't think Josephine means she wouldn't bury him in actuality. I think her words reflect her disbelief and inability to accept reality. She can't think of the world without her father because he has been the center of her life, in effect has dominated and controlled her life. His death is nearly impossible to her.

“It is all so dreadful. I feel we ought to have tried to, just for a time at least. To make perfectly sure.” Josephine expresses her disbelief and inability to accept her father’s death through this passage. She says these words in the context of a conversation where she suggests she should not have allowed her father to get buried. “I feel we ought to have tried to” indicates her inability to part with her father yet and she feels that she “ought to have tried to” prevent their father’s burial for a little longer. Trying to prevent his burial indicates that she has not accepted his death. She exclaims “father will never forgive us for this – never!” which indicates her denial to accept that her father is dead. By claiming that “father will never forgive” also gives her a false feeling of her father still being there and punishing them when in reality he is dead.

Jeff, you are getting closer to the text, but still not facing it directly. "I feel we ought to have tried to" is interesting because of its suggestion of regret around not having done right. This sentiment of retrospective regret seems to reflect a general apprehension the girls can never shake in thinking about their father. "To make perfectly sure" is a ludicrous statement given the context, but at the same time expresses both the denial you mention and again the desire to not make a mistake with regard to their father, hinting at the kind of oppression they must have been under. While they feel disbelieving of the fact of his death, "One thing's certain," and that is that he will never forgive them. The uncertainty and certainty juxtaposed like this in the dialogue almost suggest a state of paralysis, as if the latter cancels the former. IT'S A MATTER OF ASKING WHAT THE WORDS THEMSELVES ARE SAYING, BUT GOING FRAME BY FRAME. IT'S MORE ANALYTICAL THAN PARAPHRASING. Do you want to try another sample from Mansfield?