"(365) Miranda "discovers her own feminine nature in the unearthing of a gold ring from the abandoned grave."(West 445), "and though she has enjoyed knocking about with her brother, wearing her summer roughing outfit, the world of boys and sports and hunting and all that goes with it is beginning to pall."(Brooks 3135) "The Grave", "is a story of sexual initiation"(West 445) and Miranda's newfound femininity.
Miranda now with this newfound realization loses all interest in hunting and when her brother shoots a rabbit, "she let Paul have it without dispute,"(Porter 365) and continues walking at her slow pace until she catches up with him. As her brother skins the rabbit, "and it is discovered that the animal contained a family of unborn young buried inside it's body, this discovery conveyed to Miranda the puzzling and ambiguous nature of death and birth."(West 445) She desires to see the tiny rabbits lying inside their mother's body, with "blood running over them"(Porter 366) and having seen them, she trembles at the sight. "She had wanted most deeply to see and know. Having seen, she felt at once as if she had known all along."(366), "the very memory of her former ignorance faded."(366) Miranda had never been told anything outright about animal life and she had never learned anything herself because she was so used to the animals and they didn't seem very important to her. Now, "the meaning of life and fertility and of her own body begins to take shape in the little girl's mind as she sees the tiny creatures just taken from their mother's womb."(Brooks 3135) She is beginning to learn "about birth and her own destiny as a woman; she learns these things suddenly, unexpectedly, in circumstances that connect birth with death."(3136) Both "Miranda and her brother are learning about life's extremities---birth, death, and loss---without any assistance from their father."(Martin 426) Miranda is helped to understand the secret of birth when it is "revealed in the place of death and through a kind of bloody sacrifice.
Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas on May 15, 1890. ... Katherine Porter had a unique style of writing, which was not very popular during her time. ... This use of language is one of Porters strengths. ... Her stories contain many religious symbols because of her intense religious devotion. Katherine Anne Porter was a very unique writer. ...
Katherine Anne Porter's "The Grave," Uses The Symbols The Dove, The Ring, The Rabbit, And The Grave To Express The Main Character's Journey From Innocence To Knowledge. ... (Brooks 3136) Katherine Anne Porter's "The Grave," uses the symbols the dove, the ring, the rabbit, and the grave to express the main character's journey from innocence to knowledge. ... Then there is the grave of the dead mother rabbit's body, called a grave because the baby rabbits were buried in it. ... The graves, "lying open and empty one burning day"(Porter 362), symbolize all of these experi...
