The Grave, written by Katherine Anne Porter, is a short story about two young children, Paul and Miranda, that go on an adventure, which ends up staying with Miranda into her adult years. Porter deploys the literary devices of symbolism and diction to convey her idea that “sweetness” and “corruption” signifies the inevitable growth from childhood to adulthood. By using references and symbolism, Katherine Anne Porter conveys the idea that sweetness and corruption that she speaks of is really about the transition from youth to maturity. At the time of the story, Miranda is at the young age of nine years old and is oblivious to her surroundings. For example, Miranda inability to understand the criticisms of her family and the way they are seen in the eyes of others. Similarly, Miranda understands that she is criticized for wearing “dark blue overalls, a light blue shirt, a hired-man’s straw hat, and thick brown sandals”, yet she is disregards it because she knows no better than what her father tells her to wear. The way she dresses symbolizes this innocence that she possesses because she really has no consciousness for the way she is judged. …show more content…
Upon seeing these graves, they have the peculiar reaction of jumping into the graves. Gravesites, especially for children, have the connotation of being “spooky” and “scary”. Miranda and Paul, however, not knowing any better, take the opposite reaction and go in. Again, by the two children hopping into the graves (of their grandparents no less), they are revealing this childlike immaturity in which everything is an adventure and that nothing can harm them. Similarly, this “leap” that they both take into the graves, symbolizes their leap into maturity (page 1027). Once they begin on this adventure, they seem to gain a certain sense of maturity and knowingness that they lacked before the trip into the