Sunrise On The Veld Symbolism

Anne Frank once said, “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.” This final forming of a person’s character depends on their actions along the path from innocence to experience. Parents can put their kids on the pathway of innocence to experience but it's the child that must find a way to cross the bridge between innocence and experience by themselves. For some people it is the small events like death that can trigger or push them to change their perspective on life. Doris Lessing, Sandra Birdsell and Alistair Macleod use symbolism to signify that the pathway from innocence to experience involves an encounter with death in the stories “A Sunrise on the Veld”, “Stones” and “To Everything There Is a Season”.

Doris Lessing integrates symbolism to portray that death allows one to lose its innocence, like in “A Sunrise on the Veld” when

When the protagonist, Laureen, starts to understand that there might be a relationship blossoming between her family and the Hallman’s he makes a decision of her own out of jealousy to kill the potential relationship between the two families. “I stood and watched the wind flip the paper under the stone. Then I saw Emily’s bicycle lying in her driveway and I lifted the stone and let the recipe blow away.” (175, Birdsell) Because Laureen let the recipe fly away she killed the relationship between the two families and crossed the bridge from innocence to experience. She made the decision on her own and understood that the relationship was unhealthy between the two families and caused her mother stress because her family wasn't as wealthy as the Hallman’s. Laureen lost her innocence by taking action and standing up for what she believed in, that is killing the unhealthy relationship between the two will be for the