Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • Free Essays • My Term Papers • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Creative Writing None Provided9 None Provided9 1In Katherine Mansfield’s Her First Ball, Leila, the main character is an eighteen-year-old girl from the rural country who has recently moved into the city with extended family members. To Leila, everything was “so new and exciting” (4th paragraph) and she immediately begins her path from innocence to experience. I can empathize with her, but I don’t feel sympathy for her. She didn’t have a tragic experience, she a learning experience. Leila’s metamorphosis during the course of the story proves that she is a heroine who overcame the conflict in her journey. 2 The structure of the plot begins with a description of the 6setting, which is interesting because the setting is not that significant to story because if it were in another time and place it would be just as effective.7 The way she describes the car was as though she was describing the road to enlightenment, and the image she gave of sitting in her own corner of the cab is significant foreshadowing: “she sat back in her own little corner of it, and the bolster on which her hand rested felt like the sleeve of an unknown young man’s dress suit; and away they bowled, past waltzing lamppost and houses and fences and trees.” (1st paragraph) Leila has so many expectations and anticipations that leads to the climax, and is filled with5 symbolism and color that describes a vivid vision of a need for freedom and experience: “the road was bright on either side with moving fan-like lights, and on the pavement gay couples seemed to float through the air; little satin shoes chased each other like birds.” (6th paragraph) 10 The plot definitely falls under the innocence to experience theme. In the beginning of the story Leila notices everything from the smoothness of the floor to the way the light “dances off the wall”, by the middle of the story she reaches her climax and by the end, the glamour, fantasy, and quintessential state of being faded and reality intercepted. 3Surprise plays an important role in the plot only because if it weren’t for the fat bald man surprising Leila with reality, she would have never reached her epiphany. Theirs is foreshadowing throughout the play from the very beginning when Leila describes her place in the cab as being in her “own little corner of it”, and in the end of the play, I think she found her own little corner in the ballroom, and made a decision to perceive the world the way she wants to, and be “in her own little corner” of it. Mansfield uses flashbacks of Leila’s home life only to contrast the differences and similarities of the two environments.4 I found irony in the plot theme, whereas usually there’s a young boy who goes on a journey, and an older more mature woman gives the young boy a life lesson, causing him to have an epiphany, and she’s reflected in the story as being cold and dark. Nevertheless at the end of the story, he goes from being a young boy to a young man. In Her First Ball the roles are reversed and the author leaves it open to the author as to whether or not the main character actually reached an epiphany and reached a new level of maturity. 8The main character narrates the story, and she’s reliable to me because the story is written both subjectively and objectively, and I feel as though it’s the closest thing to an unbiased opinion as possible. 9 The title is self - explanatory, Her First Ball is about a young woman going to her first ball and all of the experiences that coincide with it. Mansfield did an excellent job of portraying the perspective of a female experiencing a major stepping stone in her life, showing growth in the development of the character while the story develops, and leaving the ending open ended, because the reader decides for themselves the outcome of the situation. Bibliography: Word Count: 663
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