This short story exposes and highlights the differences in stature and class division from the perspective of children creating excitement and energy among their peers while showing that kids inherit their parents’ bad influence. .
The story starts when Mrs Hay gifts a luxurious Dollhouse to the Burnel children . The dollhouse is vividly decorated with furniture, a strong smell of paint and even an amber lamp , which especially captivated Kezia, one of the Burnell children . This shows the wealth of the family and shows their situation financially .The Burnels end up bringing the dollhouse to their school . Isabel, the oldest of the Burnel children, assumes the role of spokesperson to brag about their brand new luxurious dollhouse to try to impose the difference of status between the other children and herself . This is where we are introduced to The Kelveys children Lil and Else These children in the story are already excluded from the other children and even got bullied at times due to them being in poverty and their mother working as a washerwoman and even had rumors of their father being in prison . Which goes to show the exaggerated extent of how the other children pushed out Lil and Else and gives us the audience insight to the social hierarchy the kids have set up where the rich are held on a pedal while the poor are excluded and slandered . While The Burnells were showing off the dollhouse the Kelveys daughters were being excluded from participating in examining and playing with the dollhouse . But Kezia, the younger daughter of the Burnels, took pity on the Kelveys and invited them to participate . This gave Else and Lil a brief moment of relief and inclusion and this shows when the Two Kelvey daughters were happily examining the amber lamp . The Burnells’ aunt Beryl quickly chased the Kelveys away from the dollhouse then stated that the Burnell daughters should’t associate with the Kelveys . This part of the story shows where these kids can get their nasty behavior and ideals from and that is children learning their parents/guardians behavior and bringing it into school .
Overall I found that This story highlights themes of class division and childhood dynamics illustrating how the Burnell children were excited by the doll’s house while simultaneously participating in the exclusion of the Kelveys . The incident serves as a reminder of the social hierarchies that affect relationships among children .
What can we learn from the text? What are the key ideas? What message can we take from the text? Are the lessons we learn from this text going to help us in our everyday lives? How?
The message I got from this short story was that children inherit bad habits and ideals from their parents . And in this story is shown when The Kelveys daughters were excluded from participating in examining the dollhouse and more because of the difference in wealth between them and the other students and in this instance it was the Burnell family flaunting their wealth by bringing a dollhouse to school .
What everybody should learn from this short story to improve their everyday lives is to be more considerate and include everyone in every activity no matter race or wealth . And try not to pick up bad habits from older individuals such as parents and guardians and to determine right from wrong by your own individual thought .
What was your favourite part of the text? Why?
By far the most inspirational part of the story is when Keiza invited the Kelvey daughters over to participate in playing with the dollhouse . This for me shows that unlike the elder sister Isabel, who has been around her parents and guardians longer, had more time to absorb their ideals of not accepting the people in poverty . And since Keiza is the younger child and has least time to be influenced by her elders she took pity on the daughter and kindly invited them despite being ostracized by the other children .
Would you recommend this text to other teenagers? Why/why not?
This short story relates to teenagers especially in a way of opening our eyes to social norms and the bad effect it can have on children . Example of this is when the Kelveys daughters were being excluded and picked on by their peers at school because of their lifestyle and the situation they were in , like their mother being a single parent and washerwomen meaning that they didn’t have much luxury . Because the Kelveys weren’t socially normal like the other kids they had been excluded from the other children and even got bullied just because they stood financially . But the reason why I would recommend this story to teenagers is because it shows that you can change the social norms by accepting the excluded or ignoring the social norm altogether . Example of this happening in the story is when Keiza invited the Kelvey Daughters over to participate breaking the social norm barrier by including the Kelveys . I reckon everybody can relate to Being restricted by social norms in society whether it be school or work social norms are present and can make it hard for people that are different then the norm not to fit in . School is a place where Social norms are especially visible, making kids and teenagers band together in different categories of groups like different wealth status , ethnicity , race ect . I feel like this short story helps release the social norms that make us treat people differently than us and shows that it’s a simple problem to fix by including .
This story
Which events or influences in today’s society have made a difference to how you responded to this text? Explain.
I have a somewhat relatable experience in my personal life that can connect to this story . And that is the social boundaries that I found at my workplace . I work in a restaurant called the Gables in Russell and since I am the youngest employee of the whole staff I find sometimes there’s a social boundary between me and the other co-workers . Since the other staff range between 20’s- 40’s I don’t find too much to relate to them outside of work example would be during break when i go to sit down with a Coworker i find myself being excluded from discussions and events like being invited to parties and staff meet ups because of my age . So I grasped the feeling of being excluded just like The Kelvey daughters being excluded because of them being in poverty although not as bad .
