Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory

“A Christmas Memory,” by Truman Capote, shows a heartfelt and loving Christmas memory between two completely different people, a seven-year-old boy and the other a sixty-something-old lady with a child's heart and mind. "A Christmas Memory,” starts in late November. The man is a seven-year-old boy, and the relative is a sixty-something lady. She exclaims it is fruitcake weather, and that they had thirty fruit cakes to bake, which meant there was no time to waste. They start by going to get windfall pecans. Then, the following day, they buy Cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla and canned Hawaiian pineapple, rinds, raisins and walnuts, flour, butter, eggs, spices, and flavorings. Lastly, they need whiskey, which is hard to get, and technically

Dusk turns the window into a mirror”, which shows how it is becoming dark turning the window into a mirror. Capote writes, “our reflections mingle with the rising moon as we work by the fireside in the firelight ''. He talks about the rising moon, which only happens when it is night or coming up at night. This clearly shows how it is nighttime during this part of the story. He also talks about how they are working by the fireside in the firelight, giving the picture of them relying solely on the firelight and moon for light, not electricity. Capote writes, "When the moon is quite high, we toss the final hull into the fire and, with joined sighs". Capote writes about how the moon is high in the sky, which shows that it is late into the night, along with how they, with a joined sigh, toss the last hull into the fire. A painting is painted when Capote writes, “The buggy is empty; the bowl is brimful '', this gives the reader the image of the buggy being empty of all their fruitcake supplies and the bowl being full with those supplies all mixed. They are going to find a Christmas tree with their burlap sack and hatchet. They cross a stream and head to the place they are going to get their Christmas

The childishness is revealed when Capote writes, “Queenie sneaks under the stove. My friend gazes at her shoes, her chin quivers, she lifts her skirt and blows her nose and runs to her room. Long after the town has gone to sleep and the house is silent except for the chimings of clocks and the sputter of fading fires, she is weeping into a pillow”(68). This quote reveals the childishness of the lady by saying how she looks at her shoes with her lips quivering just like a child does when they are getting yelled at or know they did something wrong. Capote also shows this when he writes about how she blows her nose on her skirt instead of in a handkerchief or tissue like one should at that age. Instead, she blows her nose with no manners like a young child would do. She also runs to her room like a child does when they are mad or sad instead of acting like an adult about it. Capote uses imagery when writing ¨A Christmas Memory¨ for the setting of the story, the mood, and even the characterization. Imagery is shown in "A Christmas Memory" because it helps the reader understand the setting, the mood, and the