The Grave

by Katherine Anne Porter, W. Ralph Eubanks (Introduction)

"When the Virginia Quarterly Review accepted Katherine Anne Porter’s 'The Grave' for publication in February 1935," writes W. Ralph Eubanks, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, in the introduction to this issue, "VQR’s then-managing editor Lambert Davis chose the story from several Porter stories that were submitted for consideration in a collection labeled 'Legend and Memory.' At the time, VQR was preparing its tenth-anniversary issue, which would focus on writing from and about the American South. Initially, Porter was reluctant to be included in an issue that focused exclusively on the South. Her letter, typed on now-yellowed paper and posted from Paris on January 10, 1935, noted to Davis, 'I have never insisted violently on my Southerness, as a writer, because being a Southerner is for me quite literally as natural as breathing. But just the same if there is going to be an all-Southern number I almost feel like insisting that I must be in it.' Several weeks later, Davis returned Porter’s previous correspondence and told her, 'My final decision is to use "The Grave." It has more movement than the other parts, and a certain symbolism which completes it artistically and allows it to stand on its own feet.'"

Author’s Bio:
Despite the enormous success—both critical and popular—of her novel Ship of Fools, Katherine Anne Porter's reputation as one of America's most distinguished rests chiefly on her superb short stories. She is the author of the short story collections Flowering Judas, The Leaning Tower, and Pale Horse, Pale Rider. Her Collected Stories won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. Katherine Anne Porter was born in Indian Creek, Texas in 1890 and died in 1980.

About the Guest Editor:
For more than three quarters of a century, VQR has been a national journal of literature and discussion. And for good reason. From its inception in prohibition, through depression and war, in prosperity and peace, the Virginia Quarterly Review has been a haven—and home—for the best essayists, fiction writers, and poets, seeking contributors from every section of the United States and abroad. It has not limited itself to any special field. No topic has been alien: literature, public affairs, the arts, history, the economy. If it could be approached through essay or discussion, poetry or prose, VQR has covered it.

Each issue has contained work both moving and memorable; each has sought to provide the best that contemporary literature can offer. VQR's distinguished history has included: essays from H. L. Mencken, Allen Tate, Bertrand Russell, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Ashmore, C. Vann Woodward, Cleanth Brooks, Dumas Malone, and Louis D. Rubin, Jr.; stories from Thomas Wolfe, Katherine Anne Porter, Peter Taylor, Ward Just, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Chabon, Mark Harris, and Ann Beattie; poems from the likes of Robert Penn Warren, Robert Frost, Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, Randall Jarrell, Natasha Trethewey, James Dickey, Henry Taylor, and Rita Dove. And VQR has not only published the most celebrated names of contemporary writing; equally it has welcomed writers whose names were unknown until they appeared in its pages. VQR hews to one simple standard in its selection of writers: excellence.

About the Publisher:
Electric Literature is an independent publisher working to ensure that literature remains a vibrant presence in popular culture. Electric Literature’s weekly fiction magazine, Recommended Reading, invites established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommended great fiction. Once a month we feature our own recommendation of original, previously unpublished fiction, accompanied by a Single Sentence Animation.

Genres: Short Stories, School, Read For School

14 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 26, 2013

About the author

Katherine Anne Porter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and political activist. She is known for her penetrating insight; her works deal with dark themes such as betrayal, death and the origin of human evil.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherin...

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweet, yet hard, tale about how a moment in life changes us, informs us, matures us; and about the transitory nature of life and time.

Read it Here

[Hossein Sharifi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plot Summary

The story begins in the family cemetery of the heroine, Miranda. Then nine years old, she and her twelve-year-old brother, Paul, pass through the cemetery on their way to go hunting; they set down their rifles and climb the fence to explore the now-empty graves. The bodies had been removed to the public cemetery so the small plot of land, a portion of Miranda’s grandmother’s farm, could be sold to provide money for other relatives. Miranda and Paul play among the graves with little thought of the coffins and dead bodies they once held. Digging in the grave of her grandfather, Miranda discovers a small silver dove—she announces proudly to Paul that he must guess what she has found. Paul, too, has found something, and they play at guessing what the other has unearthed. Unable to guess, each reveals their treasure: Paul displays an engraved gold ring, Miranda shows him the dove, and they trade. Paul is especially pleased; his silver dove is the screw head for a coffin.
داستان در یک قبرستان آغاز میشود، میراندا شخصیت اصلی داستان که دختری 9 ساله است و برادرش پُل که 12 ساله است از میان یک قبرستان میگذرند تا به شکار بروند. بعد از این که اسلحه هاشون رو روی زمین میگذارن و از حصار بالا میرن، می بینن که قبر هارو خالی کردند که اونجارو بفروشن و پولش رو فک و فامیل بدند. میراندا و پُل هم جای قبرش پدربزگشون رو میکنن و میراندا یک مجسمه کبوتر نقره ای پیدا میکنه و پُل هم یک حلقه طلا. و با هم دیگه اینا رو عوض میکنن. پُل خوشحال میشه که اون کبوتر نقره رو گرفته.
Miranda is satisfied with the ring, and they decide to leave, continuing the hunt for rabbits, birds, and other small prey. Miranda has never been particularly interested in hunting—a trait that her brother finds exasperating—and she is not attentive today either. Her brother tells her that the first dove or rabbit should be his to shoot, and she asks without concern whether she can have the first snake. Her mind is on the ring, which contrasts sharply with her overalls, straw hat, and sandals. Despite criticism from neighbors for wearing boys clothes, Miranda had never been bothered by it, and had always accepted her father’s explanation: the overalls were perfectly suited to playing on the farm, and wearing them would save her dresses for school. The ring seems to change Miranda’s mind: she begins to think about turning back, going home for a bath, and dressing up in her finest dress. She nearly turns back without telling Paul, she has fallen so far behind him in their walk, but decides to catch up with him and inform him that she is going home.
میراندا هم خوشحاله که اون حلقه رو گرفته و تصمیم میگیرن که برای شکارشون بر. میراندا تاحالا علاقه ی خاصی به شکار نداشته. برادرش میگه اولین کبوتر و یا خرگوشی که دیدن رو اون شکار میکنه و میراندا هم میگه اولین ماری که دیدیم رو من شکار میکنم! ذهن میراندا هنوز درگیر اون حلقه ی طلاست. لباسای میراندا همه حالت پسرونه داره و همیشه حرف پدرش رو که اینجور لباس ها واسه کار کردن سر زمین خوبه رو گوش داده ولی الان تصمیم میگیره بعد از شکار بره خونه و حموم کنه و لباسای خوبی بپوشه و دخترونه. تقریبا داره بدون این که پُل رو ببینه برمیگرده که یک دفه تصمیم میگیره بره و به برادرش خبر بده که داره میره خونه.
As she catches up to Paul, they spot a rabbit, and he shoots, killing it with one shot. Paul begins skinning the rabbit; Miranda’s Uncle Jimbilly could turn the skin into a fur coat for one of her dolls. Miranda admires her brother’s skill in skinning the animal. Then Paul lifts the rabbit’s belly—it was pregnant. He cuts the tiny rabbits from the mother’s womb, and Miranda is rapt with wonder and excitement. Touching one of the unborn bunnies, Miranda feels vague stirrings about her own body’s reproductive abilities. She feels as though she has discovered something that she had, in another way, always known. The more she thinks about it, the more troubled she becomes. She tells Paul she doesn’t want the fur, so he puts the little rabbits back inside their mother’s body, then wraps the fur around them and hides them in the bushes. At some length, Paul commands Miranda never to tell anyone about what they have seen. Miranda, unnerved by the incident, never tells a soul.
وقتی به برادرش میرسه، یک خرگوش می بیین. برادرش اون رو با یک تیر میکشه. و میخواد اون رو پوست بکنه ! عموی میراندا میتونه از پوست خرگوش رو یک کت خز برای عروسکش درست کنه. میراندا همینجور از مهارت پوست کندن برادرش تعریف میکنه که پُل به جای شکم خرگوش میرسه و میبینه خرگوشه بچه داره توی شکمش! بچه رو از شکم مادرش جدا میکنه و میراندا شگفت زده میشه. وقتی به یکی ازون بچه ها دست میزنه یه حسی بهش دست میده. هرچی بهش فکر میکنه بیشتر دچار مشکل میشه. به پُل میگه که اون خز رو دیگه نمیخواد و پُل بچه های خرگوش رو دوباره توی شکم خرگوش میزاره و اون رو لای بوته ها پنهان میکنه. پُل به میراندا میگه که نباید ازین ماجرا هیچوقت به کسی چیزی بگه و اونم قبول میکنه.
Miranda eventually forgets the rabbits entirely, and does not remember them for nearly twenty years. Then, while in a foreign marketplace, a vendor presents her with a tray of sugared candies shaped like little animals, including lambs, birds, and rabbits. She is startled by the sudden remembrance of the dead rabbits and is briefly frightened by her recollection. That memory fades, and instead she pictures her brother, standing in the sun and admiring the silver dove she had found.
تقریبا این ماجرا رو فراموش کرده و حدود 20 ساله که تقریبا اون رو به یاد نیاورده و اما وقتی یک دوره گرده فروشنده خارجی یک سینی از شکلات هایی میاره که شبیه حیوونای کوچیکن مث گوسفند و پرنده و خرگوش، یک دفه میراندا وحشت زده میشه و خاطره ی ترس اون روزش و اون حالت عجیبش بهش بر میگرده. اون خاطره محو میشه ولی بجاش اون توی تخیلش برادرش رو میبینه که تو آفتاب واستاده و اون سر کبوتر نقره رو که میراندا پیدا کرده رو با عشق و علاقه بهش نگا میکنه.

Characters

Miranda
Miranda is the main character in the story; through most of it, she is nine years old, but the story concludes with the adult Miranda, perhaps nearing thirty, reflecting on her memories. She lives on the farm of her grandmother, now dead, with her father, Harry, her brother, Paul, and her older sister, Maria. Although her family once had money and social status, her grandmother had slighted her father Harry in her will, leaving them “in straits about money.” Miranda thus has an awareness of both her family’s grand past and their current difficulties; she has a “powerful social sense, which was like a fine set of antennae radiating from every pore of her skin.” Lacking the guidance of a woman—either her mother or grandmother—Miranda’s father dresses her in boys clothes: “dark blue overalls, a light blue shirt, a hired-man’s straw hat, and thick brown sandals.” To neighbors, Miranda’s odd dress reflected both their family’s fall from grace and the disorder of a motherless household, and Miranda senses their scorn. At the beginning of the story, Miranda seems innocent, “scratching around aimlessly and pleasurably as any young animal.” When she sees the bodies of unborn rabbits, pulled from the womb of the mother rabbit her brother had shot, she feels she has received forbidden knowledge—a feeling that haunts her even twenty years later, when she suddenly recalls the incident.

Paul

Paul is Miranda’s twelve-year-old brother. He takes Miranda hunting with him reluctantly and instructs her on how to handle her gun, although she listens poorly and displays little interest. By contrast, Paul is almost too involved with the sport: “She had seen him smash his hat and yell with fury when he had missed his aim.” When Paul discovers the unborn rabbits in the body of a rabbit he kills, he seems surprised, although Miranda suggests that he is not as innocent as she was: “Her brother had spoken as if he had known about everything all along. He may have seen all this before.” Nonetheless, Paul seems concerned about exposing Miranda to this new knowledge of the birth process. Usually impatient and condescending toward Miranda, he approaches her “with an eager friendliness, a confidential tone quite unusual in him,” instructing her never to tell what they’ve seen. When Miranda remembers the image of the rabbits as an adult, immediately it is replaced by a vision of Paul, “whose childhood face she had forgotten, standing again in the blazing sunshine, again twelve years old, a pleased sober smile in his eyes, turning the silver dove over and over in his hands.”

Themes

Coming of age

Only nine years old during the main part of the narrative, Miranda is not yet interested in the stuff of womanhood, like her older sister Maria’s violet talcum powder or wearing pretty dresses. When she puts on the ring her brother Paul finds among the empty graves in their family’s cemetery, however, she begins to feel differently. Before, she had been content to play in overalls and a hired-man’s hat, “scratching around aimlessly and pleasurably as any young animal”; now, wearing the ring, she suddenly feels an urge to “put on the thinnest, most becoming dress she owned, with a big sash, and sit in a wicker chair under the trees.” It is as if she starts the transformation from child to woman.
That transformation is pushed further along when Miranda sees the pregnant belly of the rabbit her brother shoots. Paul takes the unborn baby rabbits from their mother’s womb, and Miranda is filled with curiosity and excitement. Looking at the babies, she learns more about what it means to be female: “She understood a little of the secret, formless intuitions in her own mind and body, which had been clearing up, taking form, so gradually and so steadily she had not realized that she was learning what she had to know.” Although Miranda won’t be a woman for several years, she is already changed by the incident. Before, she might have wanted the skin of the rabbits for her dolls’ fur coats, but not anymore. Without fully knowing why or what has happened, Miranda puts a part of her childhood innocence away forever.

Redemption

Although the story begins in a grave and ends with the death of a pregnant rabbit, it also celebrates a triumph over the grave, especially through the use of Christian symbolism. It begins with empty graves, no longer the resting place of dead bodies, but a playground for young children—new life in the face of death. In the grave of her grandfather, Miranda finds a silver dove—the screw-head for a coffin. Even in the context of the story, the dove acts as a Christian symbol of rebirth, for that is why it is used to decorate the coffins of the dead.
Playing among the graves, Miranda and Paul seem to be in a kind of Eden; they are in a “garden of tangled rose bushes and ragged cedar trees and cypress.” We can guess that there will be a fall, however, when Miranda asks if she can “have the first snake” in their hunt, suggesting the snake that led Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. Shortly thereafter, Miranda has her first taste of forbidden knowledge, as well. Upon seeing the bodies of the unborn baby rabbits, Miranda’s innocence transforms instantly into an irreversible awareness of both birth and death: “Having seen, she felt as if she had known all along. The very memory of her former ignorance faded, she had always just known this.”
If the story of the rabbits suggests a kind of fall for Miranda, the end of the story.

Social order

Without a mother to guide them, Miranda’s family adopts practices that contradict prevailing social standards. Miranda’s boyish dress— “dark blue overalls, a light blue shirt, a hired-man’s straw hat, and thick brown sandals”—raises eyebrows among the neighbors. “Ain’t you ashamed of yoself, Missy?” they ask her. “It’s aginst the Scriptures to dress like that.” Her older sister Maria “rode at a dead run with only a rope knotted around her horse’s nose.” As the story explains, such unfeminine behavior is a serious affront: “it was making a scandal in the countryside, for the year was 1903, and in the back country the law of female decorum had teeth in it.”
Behavioral standards determined by gender are closely tied up with other kinds of social order in “The Grave.” Although the neighbors ask Miranda about her clothes, they are at least as concerned with her father’s slipping social status, the result of being snubbed in Miranda’s grandmother’s will: “Some of his old neighbors reflected with vicious satisfaction that now he would probably not be so stiff-necked, nor have any more high-stepping horses either.”
Thus when Miranda puts on the old ring, she feels a desire not only for feminine trappings, but also for a return to her family’s grand past: “she had vague stirrings of desire for luxury and a grand way of living which could not take precise form in her imagination but were founded on family legend of past wealth and leisure.” At once, the ring seems to symbolize a standard of femininity and an aristocratic social status, suggesting that perhaps the two ideals are closely related.

Symbolism

“The Grave” is rich with symbolism that can be interpreted in many different ways; such symbols can be called “multivalent.” For example, the ring Paul finds in the empty graves and gives to Miranda seems to symbolize for her both an ideal of femininity and the now-lost wealth of her family. The rabbit Paul shoots was pregnant; her dead body thus reflects both death and life, and for Miranda, it marks both a fall from innocence and an initiation into womanhood. Finally, Miranda’s visit to the foreign marketplace twenty years later suggests the power of symbolism. Seeing a tray of sugar sweets shaped like baby birds and rabbits—animals she and Paul hunted that day—the full force of that incident immediately returns, making her temporarily immobile. The symbolic power of those little candies brings the entire incident to life for her again.

Modernism

Porter’s writing style in “The Grave” shares some characteristics with modernism, a literary movement that occurred after World War I.

Epilogue

The final scene in “The Grave,” in which an older Miranda suddenly recalls the image of the dead rabbits, functions as a kind of epilogue to the story. Normally, we might expect the epilogue to assist the reader in interpreting the events of the story better, particularly since we first understand them through the eyes of Miranda as a nine-year-old child. This epilogue is remarkable in that it seems to make the meaning of the story less clear, or more ambiguous; Porter’s conclusion emphasizes Miranda’s contradictory feelings— “like the mingled sweetness and corruption she had smelled that other day”—rather than providing a kind of closure. Similarly, the epilogue contrasts two very different images from Miranda’s memory of the day: “the bloody heap” of the rabbits and “her brother—again in the blazing sunshine—turning the silver dove over and over in his hands.” The epilogue thus compels the reader to consider the relationship between these two images, and to wonder what that day really meant to Miranda.

Setting

The Southern setting of “The Grave” provides the reader with a great deal of background information not explicitly stated in the story. Porter announces that the year is 1903, so the story happens in Texas not long after the Civil War and Reconstruction had devastated the South. Thus the “family legend of past wealth and leisure” evokes images of plantations and a Southern aristocracy destroyed by both the war and the economic decline it caused. Miranda’s “powerful social sense” and concern with seeming “ill-bred” reflect not merely an individual personality trait, but a Southern sense of humiliation and disgrace. The Southern setting also colors Porter’s depiction of feminine stereotypes. When she describes Miranda’s desire to “put on the thinnest, most becoming dress she owned, with a big sash, and sit in a wicker chair under the trees,” the story evokes not just any ideal of womanhood, but a Southern belle. As a result, Miranda’s desire to return to the house suggests a nostalgia for the South’s pre-War greatness, although the ambiguity of the story does not allow that nostalgia to remain.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Fig Tree and The Grave by Katherine Anne Porter

Another version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... and http://realini.blogspot.ro/


These are two excellent short stories, described in an article that I have seen as short pieces.
Indeed, they may be shorter than stories and they also form the fabric of The Old Order.

And they are connected to each other.
The protagonists are:

Miranda- that I have met in a different story, Pale Horse, Pale Rider, but when she was already a grown woman- And Grandmother.
Miranda's brother is also present, but it appears that his importance will fade with time.

The Fig Tree

In this first part, the family is getting ready to leave for another property.
They both have fig trees and that may explain in part the title.

But the fruits are different from one place to another and as they get ready to leave figs are taken along and offered to Miranda.
The little girl is very intrigued by what is happening in the animal world.

Albeit at one stage she evaluates those beings and she concludes that their existence is boring, uneventful and primitive...not in these words though.
But when an animal dies, she is aware that it needs to be buried.

And they expire often when they are small.
Hardly ever a cow or a horse is dead.

But it happens frequently with chicken, piglets and small turkeys.
As she is watching the hen with her small offspring, one of them is not moving.

Miranda knows that when you poke an animal and he is not budging it means he is gone.
And because this small bird is not alive anymore, she prepares a wrapping and a box as a coffin.

After the burial alas, there are sounds like cries:

- Wee, wee, wee...

And just as she hears this cry for help, her father calls for her to come because they are starting on their long journey.
Miranda is panicking because she wants to help and obey her father

But she cannot do both.

She tries to escape and go back y saying she has to go...

- Are you sick?
- Did you eat something wrong?

Finally, she is told by a relative what the sound was.
And she can even see it.

But I will not reveal the secret.


The Grave

In this second part, Miranda is playing with her brother.
But they are doing this near and within The Grave.

- Sounds horrific?
- Well, it is not a Gothic vampire story though.

The reason for this bleak place for action is that land was sold.
And on this piece of land the family had their graves and now thy had to move them on the remaining property.

And the children feel at one moment as if they were trespassing.

They get into the grave and find a ring and another item.
And they trade and exchange what they found.

The gruesome part for me is not here.

It has to do with their hunting.
And I always hate it when the story moves to killing deer or other game.

As I am a vegetarian-again- I can now have some moral justification to be squeamish.
An eleven year old with his eight year old sister are shooting pigeons and rabbits.

This does not sound right to me.
And I think it is not just the epoque because even now, children are encouraged to do just that.

Especially in the south and on account of the Americans love for their second amendment and their guns.
Not all of them of course, but a huge number nevertheless.

A pregnant rabbit is killed, with just about to be born little ones inside.

A terrible picture.

That notwithstanding, the two accounts are very good.

[Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly · Rating 4 out of 5]

You'd think it is about the grandfather's grave, dead for more than 30 years where Miranda, nine, and her brother Paul, twelve, are playing. Each with their Winchester rifles, exploring the now empty grave, their grandfather's coffin now gone, in-between hunting rabbits and other small games. Paul finds a gold ring, Miranda picks up a small, silver dove hollowed in its chest. Paul says that is a screw for a coffin. Miranda likes the gold ring. They exchange treasures.

Later, Paul shoots a rabbit dead. Skinning it, he notices it was pregnant. He slits it open and shows the now dead baby rabbits to Miranda. Both decide they do not want to keep any of them so Paul puts them all away.He warns Miranda never to tell their father about it. Miranda never did.

Fast-forward twenty years. Miranda is in a market street of an unnamed city in a strange country. She had, by then, already forgotten Paul's childhood face. An Indian vendor offers her a tray of dyed sugar sweets in the shapes of all kinds of small creatures...

In the graveyard of one's soul are treasures waiting to be found.

[Dyson · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.25 ⭐️

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was an interesting note on the human condition and it also wins the prize for most unnecessary racial slur usage but that’s old timey writing for you.

[Sara Kamjou · Rating 3 out of 5]

تکان‌دهنده بود...

[Kelly]

The Grave by Katherine Anne Porter is about two children not unlike the two children in "To Kill a Mockingbird". Their names are Paul and Miranda. The siblings are exploring a small empty grave yard that had held the bodies of their family. When the property was sold the family graveyard was moved to another cemetery. The kids were out hunting small game when they came upon the empty graves. Delighted with their find the jumped in and out of the empty graves, digging at the bottoms to see if there were treasure to be found. Soon Miranda dug up a decorated birds wing that once decorated a coffin. She found no interest in it. Paul was very jealous and coveted the wing and went back to digging. Soon he found a golden ring that Miranda wanted very much. They took no time in trading the treasures. Both pleased they went back to hunting. Paul had the only gun, being the older of the two and much better shot. Just as they were leaving the old graveyard Paul shot a rabbit. While he was field dressing it they discovered that the rabbit was pregnant and the kids were first excited and then a severe guilt came over both of them. Sick with pity because they were just about ready to be born (Miranda knew nothing of reproduction and Paul knew he would be in trouble if their father found out she had seen a bit of it) he carefully wrapped the babies and entrails back into the rabbits body, wrapped it all up in her fur he had removed and hid the whole gruesome package deep in a sage bush. He told his sister that she had better not tell anyone of this or their would be bad trouble. He drilled this into her so well that she never did tell anyone. She buried deep into her brain until she had no memory of it until 20 years later while walking home it resurfaced out of nowhere leaving her completely horrified. She then thought of that day and how her brother looked as a child and the fun they had exploring the empty graves.

I enjoyed this story. While working as a veterinary technician I assisted in surgery to spay a cat that was pregnant and do an abortion as well. I inspected the perfectly made but tiny kittens and felt overwhelming guilt and sadness that I still feel to this day. I try not to think about it.

[Inder Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grave by Katherine Anne Porter is a nice wholesome story. It has a nice message about maturing and dealing with loss and understanding the world around us. The story takes place in the early 1900's in the south. The main character is Miranda. Miranda and her brother are just kids who were exploring a cemetery that once belonged to their family. They were exploring the grave that once housed their grandfather. In the graveyard they each find tiny treasures that they exchange with each other. Later on, they were hunting for rabbits, and Miranda's brother killed one. When they examined the rabbit, it turned out to be pregnant. They cut it open and saw the tiny baby rabbits. Miranda was not scared by it at first. She wasn't very observant of the world around her and didn't understand the significance of that moment. Miranda felt an odd sense of terror when she touched the babies and saw blood running down them. Miranda's brother tells her to never tell anyone about this, and they hide the rabbit and leave. The story flashes forward to later on when Miranda is older. She is in a market and sees a food vendor selling food shaped like baby animals. She is reminded of that day they killed the pregnant rabbit. She finally understood the significance of that moment in her life and saw how it helped her mature and understand life. I think this story is good because it shows how children aren't always ready to understand the meaning of things until they are older. Many things in my life I didn't understand what they mean to me until I got older. The story shows how kids are innocent.

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Grave” is a story that gives us as readers a glimpse into what life was like for 9 year old girl, Miranda, living in 1903 Texas. Miranda spends her summers exploring with her older brother, Paul, while learning about life on their family’s land, including hunting small animals for food. On this particular outing Paul successfully kills a rabbit and while skinning the defenseless creature, he remarks to Miranda how it had been pregnant and shows her the sac filled with now dead bunnies. Miranda, at first, is filled with curiosity and intrigue, however; she becomes increasingly aware of the loss of life at hand and unbeknownst to her, simultaneously loses her childlike innocence

I quite enjoyed "The Grave" the titled caught me off guard but it overall was a very interesting "coming of age" story. I especially enjoyed this because of it having a female protagonist character and all though we aren't ever told anything to describe her looks we get the sense of her being a tomboy being raised by her father and her older brother. I truly enjoyed the thoughtfulness that went into the story and I appreciate how there are varying perspectives regarding the purpose of the story and there are logic arguments for all.

[Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like stories about kids who think the cemetery is more fun to hang out at than the Bayshore Mall, than you are IN FOR A TREAT! Little Miranda and her big brother Paul are one day looting some local gravesites when they stumble upon some primo artifacts! They trade items, and as they go forth on that fine and dreary cemetery day, Paul sinks a bullet in the cranium of a rabbit who as luck would have it, turns out to be pregnant! Of course they decide on making playthings of the rabbit embryos, then sewing them back into the mother and burying them in a shallow grave.

Then it is time to split! Little Miranda makes use of the n-word to light a fire under Paul about getting a move on before one of the black neighbors tells on them.. You see, the grounds they are playing on happen to be property their family recently sold, property that in fact was part of a chain of events that saw their Grandma toting dead family member's carcasses around every time she moved. And that is how the story begins, with an explanation of Grandma and her corpse-hoarding mannerisms.

[Rachel Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read online here: https://www.vqronline.org/fiction/grave

I loved this quick short story about Miranda and Paul, two kids who explore their family's old cemetery on their property, although it has long since been emptied of bodies, moved as they have been to a more modern gravesite. Miranda and Paul find treasures there, and share a moment together over a small animal that becomes formative to Miranda though she doesn't realize it until years later. I loved the juxtaposition of death and life in this story, the meaningfulness of the kids coming face-to-face with both of those heavy topics. Even the short imaginative glimpse we see of Miranda envisioning herself as a luxurious woman bathed in talcum powder serves as a contrast to the raw, rural childhood that she and her brother are having in the story, exploring old cemeteries, hunting in the woods.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a child who grew up on a farm I was taught by my father how to hunt with a 22 rifle. I wanted to read and ride my horse rather than play with dolls. Thankfully this was not the time of the Grave. I could be a tomboy and not feel ashamed. Miranda is hunting with her brother when he shoots a rabbit that would have soon given birth. She had not known the "facts of life" - I find this a little difficult to believe as when living in a rural setting births and deaths were commonplace. As an adult she is still disturbed by the image of the loss of the unborn. Parts of the tale resonated with me; parts seemed unlikely to be true of a farm daughter. Only so-so for me. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another gem mentioned in Eudora Welty's On Writing. I had never read Katherine Anne Porter and I'm favorably impressed with the story telling. The story of two little siblings used to hunt in quite a disoriented manner gives way to other conversations such as the role of women, their proper behavior, culture and even life and death. Without spoiling much, I think it's a powerful coming of age story crammed into four pages. I wish I had this power of synthesis.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the short story "The Grave," for a college class and had come into it with a bias of it being a bland story. Nevertheless, it proved me wrong, the author does a great job of tying in adolescence and death without being blatantly obvious. The thing I liked the most about it is the turmoil within the main character and her recognition of how learning about death is necessary for her life. I think it was very well written and an easy read, I like it enough to keep it my own library.

[Danielle Schunneman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Grave provides a very interesting point of view on death. By exploring it through the eyes of a young girl named Miranda. Her and her older brother Paul went hunting a lot when they were young, but one trip had a lasting impact on her view of life.
I liked the short story because it reminded me of times with my brothers when I was younger. We didn't kill anything together but they taught me things I shouldn't have know at that age.

[Autumn Cardelli]

Katherine Anne Porter's book, "The Grave" was a wonderfully written story about Miranda and her brother Paul and their personal discoveries about death and life.
My favorite part was when Miranda finds the silver dove in her grandfather's grave and trades it with her brother, Paul for the ring that he found in his Grandmother's grave. The imagery used in this story was breathtaking. I am very glad that I got to read this book.

[Rebekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this story, a young girl and her older brother discover the open burial site of her grandparents, along with treasures inside. Along the adventure, they begin hunting, when the brother accidentally shoots a pregnant rabbit they are very disappointed and sad they agree to never speak of the incident again. Twenty years later the girl finds herself reminded of the memory from her childhood. Overall I think this is a great short story. I would recommend this book!

[Kimberly Unruh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story. I enjoyed the images the author was able to create. The feel of the cemetery and the woods. The attitudes of the children about not just their surroundings, but about different people in their lives (their father, older sister, old women who had known their grandmother). The story had a nice progression, and even though I might not have picked it up except for it being for my English class, I really enjoyed it.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of many "Miranda" stories by KAP - I wonder why no publisher has ever thought to collect them in a single volume - but I guess they're all in The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter - but I just meant alone together.

[Damien · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I never would have read this story is if wasn't for one of the classes I am currently taking. I found this story to be quite interesting and dark. The author really paints a great picture of the curiosity children have regarding life and death. I thought the author did a great job incapsulating the fear, curiosity, and adrenaline behind death.

[Dakotah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this story for my English class. I personally really enjoyed this story because the era that it is written about really interest me. I think that his story gave great adjectives explaining every ascent of the story. This allowed me to have a good image inside my head about what I was reading. I would defining recommend reading this short story.

[krissy · Rating 2 out of 5]

READ FOR ENG1102
i didn't like this, but it was interesting i guess.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written sad little story!

[Emelia Lagousis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

[Miguel Vega · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a wonderful read for class as we were able to look into gender roles as well as the terrifying realization of our own mortality and how confined we are by it.

[Lullaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The very memory of her former ignorance faded, she had always known just this”