Childhood Represented in Emma with the Use of Symbolism

In the short story 'Emma' The writer shows that children can experience dissatisfaction as they gradually move from one stage in life to another while learning new things. The 'pain' they feel or refer to may not be physical pain but disappointments and dis-pleasures.

In 'Emma', the narrator Dory, is portrayed as being naive, that is, she has the understanding of an average eight year old who is unable to comprehend fully the complexities of life and how adults respond to various scenarios. Adult life is compared to and continually referred to as a 'game'. The narrator's friend, Maria tries to help Dory understand a less complicated game rather than that of the strange behavior of the adults. Dory and Maria launch their explorations into the world of adults. They imitate Emma's habits, speech and occasionally her dress code as in their opinion Emma makes the world of adults seem enticing. Dory's innocence is seen throughout the story in her language.

Dory learns in the latter part that adulthood is not as fun as it seems at all time. Maria attempts to make her understand adult life by linking it to a game of cards. Dory suspects that her mother is not the likely victor . Here is another example of dissatisfaction.

The use of the first person point of view is effective in that the reader is given an opportunity to analyse Dory's thoughts on first hand. Her childish innocence, not being able to understand and her pursuit of knowledge is seen as she questions Maria. She hears the squeaking and assumes that Emma has returned home but Emma is dead and no one has sat her down and explained 'death' to her.

Symbolism is also used throughout the story. The card game is used to represent adult life with the trickery and selfishness.As in Maria's explanation one playing the game would not want to lose to someone who had cheated. We see that Dory has grasped a higher level of understanding in the end whereas in comforting Maria she said that she'll be able to play a better game than Emma and Maria could count on that.