The Little Girl with the Steel Bowl by Jovian W

[Graeme]

The Little Girl with the Steel Bowl by Jovian W

 

What is the price of innocence in a war-torn country?

 

 

:nuke: :nuke: Spoilers Below!!! :nuke: :nuke:

Edited June 10, 2009 by Graeme

[AFriendlyFace]

The Little Girl with the Steel bowl

by Jovian W

**Spoilers**

 

 

I found this story very thought-provoking. It's interesting how the narrator went from focusing her energy on figuring out the world around her to figuring out the girl in the steel bowl. I felt that this story raised a lot of issues about just how much right one person has to alter another person's life. For example when I read the following:

 

Somehow, whatever she said did not rest my jittery soul. As much as I loved to remain in her little sugarcoated world, I couldn

[jovian_w2002]

Hey thanks Kevin

 

You're absolutely right. The narrator is "making a big mistake and overstepping what she had the right to do". In fact, the narrator is unable to subject herself to a child's interpretation of the world because she is not a kid anymore. She has lost her "innocence". Then again, what is innocent? How do we define innocence? We often subject a child to adult interpretation and force him or her into our corrupted society with "open arms". Why can't a kid choose to be happy? Why must we define his/her happiness in terms of our pseudo-standards of our psychological and social norm?

 

"A part of me wanted to cast aside my education and my years, so I could experience again what and how it felt like to be a child. I wanted to experience my childhood again before my culture’s social norm forced it to come face to face with an unforgiving reality."

 

For me personally, the contrast in the child's enthusiasm for life and the narrator's fear of death slightly pertains to the Freudian concept of "returning to the Womb", but any other interpretation is perfectly fine.

 

Ultimately, the question I'm posing is, how do we define "innocence"?

 

Like the word "promise" in the story, innocence "(is) a word so easily said, yet hard to define."

 

Thanks for reading *hugs*

 

Jovian

[Dolores Esteban]

I also thought that the narrator crossed a line. She acted selfishly, in my opinion. The story is very well written and, I agree, it is thought-provoking. I think it's a great story, although I do not share the narrator's view

[kitten]

As others have said, this is a very thought-provoking story.

 

There are many levels on which this can be read, but if we eschew the metaphorical and stick to the literal, my opinion is that narrator was indeed wrong to behave as she did. Her motives were selfish and she didn't really try to understand the girl or her needs. In fact, she didn't even try to find out the girl's name. In the end, she did more harm than good.

 

It was well written, although I think that it would be much better without that first paragraph about Sept 11th and political agendas, etc. For me it delayed the point at which the story drew me in and grabbed my interest. Most readers would know that background, and even if they didn't, is it necessary know it in order to enjoy the story? If it is, then maybe it could be a little later, once the reader has been 'hooked'?

 

Well, that's just a very minor point - as it stands, it is still a good story, well told.

 

Thanks, Jovian!

 

Kit

[C James]

I found this very well-wri9tten, and thought provoking.

 

I too felt the narrator went a bit too far, but that, to me, bespeaks of a lesson; if you don't know what you're doing, don't do it. I think the narrator learned that the hard way, but the little girl was the victim.

[jfalkon]

I liked this story a lot.

Sometimes we asume that someone does not know what he or she is doing because they are too young or too poor. The girl knew exactly how to survive in her environment. If the reporter had stopped to consider that the girl had survived there all alone for a long time the outcome might have been much better.

[David McLeod]

...Sometimes we asume that someone does not know what he or she is doing because they are too young or too poor. The girl knew exactly how to survive in her environment. If the reporter had stopped to consider that the girl had survived there all alone for a long time the outcome might have been much better.

 

Or because they are from a culture that is different from ours, or because they lack our level of education, or because there is some other "difference" that in our minds is enough to overcome the shared similarity of being fellow human beings. This story is so much more than it appears to be, and has a depth that can be appreciated upon re-reading it.