Thursday, March 26, 2015

In paragraph 2 of "Dust Tracks on a Road," what does the sentence, "The other children didn't count," suggest about the narrator?

This sentence actually occurs in the fifth paragraph of chapter 4. In this chapter, the author is describing her childhood, and specifically the notion (not uncommon to children) that the world seemed at the time to be a magical place, with her at its centre. She says that when she played outside, she thought that "the moon followed (her), whichever way (she) ran." She also says that the moon always "seemed so happy when (she) came out to play, that it ran shining and shouting after (her) like a pretty puppy dog."
The author then writes, "The other children didn't count." When trying to work out what this sentence might reveal about the author, it is important to remember that she is here describing what life seemed to be like from the perspective of her childhood self. She is not saying, as at first it might seem, that she didn't care about other children. Rather she is saying that, when she was a child, she would always imagine and assume that the world was organized so as to accommodate her. This may seem like a selfish, egocentric thought for an adult to have, but for a child it is quite normal and understandable.

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