Theme of the Story All Summer in a Day
In the story ‘All Summer in A Day’, there is the theme of the darkness of the unenlightened mind. As the children who had lived on Venus most of their lives, had not seen the sun. They were limited to their perspectives. For this reason they resented Margot’s little verse that was superior to theirs. They even accused her of not having written these lines :
‘I think the sun is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.
Further, in the darkness of their mind, they hated Margot for her memory of the experience of the heat and colour of the sun, an experience that they (the children) were too young to remember because they came to Venus sooner than she. When the day arrived for the sun’s appearance after seven years, one cruel boy pretended that it was not the day that the sun came out. He declared that nothing was going to happen. In the absence of the teacher who would correct the boy, the others went along with him. The cruel boy seized her and the others assisted him in putting Margot into a dark closet. They locked the door. When the sun came out for an hour, the children ran excitedly, pressing their fingers to their faces there the warm, golden rays touched them.
After an hour, when the sun disappeared, they looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down. The light of the sun had given them self-knowledge and shown them the shamefulness of their actions in depriving Margot of the incredible experience that had just occurred. For, they had known now the truth of what Margot had said about the sun. In their enlightenment, the children realised the terrible wrong that they had committed against Margot because of the darkness of their own minds.
Next, in the story, there are two predominant themes which examine adolescent bullying and being a social out cast. Throughout the story, Margot was considered a social out cast because she was different from her peers. Unlike the other students, Margot was born on Earth and recently moved to Venus five
years ago. She also remembered what the sun looked and felt like, which was a significant source of jealousy stemming from her peers. Margot was a shy, reculsive girl who did not participate in many of the games her peers played. Unfortunately, Margot was teased and regarded as strange because of her unorthodox behaviour.
Adolescent bullying is portrayed as extremely traumatic and heartless as the students locked Margot in a classroom closet while the rain stopped. Margot’s rare chance to experience the sunshine was lost due to adolescent bullying.
Treasure Trove Poems and Short Stories Workbook Answers