Character Analysis: It Used To Be Green Once

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It Used to Be Green Once – Patricia Grace Key passages/Excerpts | Interpretation of Patterns/Motifs | Analysis | “Mum was cruel to us.” (p.3) | The mother has high standards and has to be organized with so many children to take care of. | The short story It Used to Be Green Once by Patricia Grace is written as a narrative with the first point of view. It is set in New Zealand, British. The story tells about a poor family. Poorness is the main reason to create the conflict between a younger and a much older, more influential character. The older character is negatively affecting the younger character. In this story, the conflict is between a young child and his mother. The children feel ashamed of their mother because she makes them make use things that other people do not want. Similar with other stories, this story has two types of characters. There are the main character and the minor character. The character of the mother in this story is very important because she helps show the main theme of the story. She is a little old fashioned and lives by traditional values. She is also selfless and puts her family’s welfare first. However, her children only see her and her actions as embarrassing. In It Used to Be Green Once, Dad is a minor character. Patricia Grace gives some information about Dad, but does not…show more content…
What’s warrant?” (p.4) | The mother is not educated well. Despite this, she shows more ability than a lot of educated people do. | | “We were all ashamed of our mother. Our mother always did things to shame us.” (p.2)“Oh, the shame.” (p.5)“We tried everything to stop her shaming us all.” (p.) | This story has a repeated motif. It is also an ironic because it is clear from everything else she says that the author is anything but ashamed of her mother. | | “…hoped Mr. Hadley wouldn’t notice the car with our mother in it, and yelling and tooting…”(p.5) | This quote shows how the mother advertises their family’s poorness without shaming. |
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