On the golden porch

I think that the point of this story was to demonstrate the way in which children view the world, how innocent they really are. One of the best quotes in this short story was " childhood was a garden... without ends or limits without borders and fences". Here, I think that the author is trying to express how as children we have a much better imagination than adults do. To children everything is an opportunity to create something magical, where as to adults that very same thing could be viewed as plain and impractical.

Also, I think that throughout the short story, the narrator grew and matured. By having the child age while telling the story allows the reader to see the changes that most children go through from childhoodto adolescents and then adolscence into adulthood. In the beginning of the story, the child was fascinated by what was kept in his uncles room. " Will you show us the room". this statement expresses the childs anxiety in discovering and exploring new things however once he grew up and finally did see the room- we are able to see the disappointment due to the lack of something exciting." So thats it? thats what enchanted us? All of this second hand rubbish, these chipped painted night tables, these tacky oil paintings... these cheap beads".
For kids, these things probably would have provided hours of entertainment however for an adult its just a bunch of stuff thats taking up to much room. The quote "surfacing from the magical bottom of childhood, we open our chilled fist in the cold wind but what have we brought up with us besides cold sand" reinstates this point. For young minds, the possibilities are endless yet for adults we are searching for something magical but bring up nothing but a fistful of cold sand and let downs.

I also noticed a difference in the childs attitude towards his uncle as he grew. I think the same can be said for everyone, that once we hit a certain age, we were to busy and wanted to spend the smallest amount of time possible at home. Of course we all had much better things to do. As a child the narrator seems to be eager to be with his uncle and learning things from him, but towards the end he says " Well, alright I have five minutes for you.Its been so long since I have been here..."(572) This quote is showing his impatientness and how he wants to make a hasty exit to move onto the much more important things of the day.

I cant decide if the author at the end of the story was a full grown adult, or in the teenage years. What do you think his age is, and how it reflects his actions throughout the story.