Summary Of The Thing In The Forest By Susan Byatt

Antonia Susan Byatt, the author of “The Thing In The Forest”, was born in Sheffield, England. In 2009 she won the Man Booker Prize for her collection of fiction, short stories. The short story “The Thing In The Forest”, discusses and demonstrates how big events have the capability of affecting our lives without us realizing it. Some people who have lived during wartime or have been involved in a war, may react differently to certain situations. Occasionally we may over exaggerate our fears and create creatures or objects that are not real. The three main symbols of the story is Penny, Primrose and the monster. Penny and Primrose are two girls who have to leave their city and move to a mansion in the country, along with other children during

Byatt points out, “She stood stock-still, and snuffed the air for the remembered rottenness: she listened to the sounds of the trees and the creatures” (Byatt 314). She acted as if the monster was watching her. Byatt reveals, “She forced herself to go into the dark, stooping, occasionally crawling on hands and knees” (Byatt). Penny could not let the monster go. Byatt states, “She found — spread around, half hidden by roots, stained green but glinting white — a collection of small bones, finger bones, tiny toes, a rib, and finally what might be a brainpan and brow” (Byatt 314). She looked for clues and objects and found bones that may have belonged to a human. Penny waited for the monster to return and it never did. When the monster did not return, Penny felt disappointed. Penny’s occupation related to her childhood and consisted of her being a psychologist. She studied objects that could not be seen. She never found the monster that she thought she had seen because it never existed. Penny expected to see the monster again. Penny symbolizes a person who had lived during wartime and was not able to cope and move on with her new life. She felt like she needed to see the monster one more time before she could move

The short story demonstrates how wartime had different affects on many people. Some people are able to escape their wartime mindset, while others are stuck living that way for the rest of their lives. Penny was not able to live a normal life because she was always worried about the past. Penny believed in things she could not see. As Primrose got older, she realized the forest was her imagination and the monster never existed. When she revisited the forest and did not find any signs of a monster she let go and moved on with her life. The monster did not exist in Primrose’s mind and in Penny’s mind, the monster could have been a war