The adolescent female narrator in Katherine MansfieldÆs ôThe Wind Blowsö experiences the emotional and physical chaos of adolescence. In this passage from ôThe Wind Blows,ö we see the narrator describe the continually blowing winds that are not nearly so frightening as her bed, ôItÆs the bed that is frightening. There it lies, sound asleepö (Mansfield, p. 56). As she describes the forces of nature that impact her life and the lives of those living with her or nearby, the narrator is symbolically discussing the forces of nature that are awakening her dissatisfaction with her environment and family and he sexual desire. In MansfieldÆs short story, the forces of nature are portrayed as those that impact human existence but remain indifferent to it.
The author relies upon a combination of short and long and simple and complex sentences to achieve greater impact on the reader. She even relies upon sentence fragments to recreate the omnipresent, short bursts of wind that continually blow through the life of the narrator mimicking the winds of change she is experiencing because of the onset of puberty. In this one, short passage, as elsewhere in the story, Mansfield (p. 56) writes, ôThe wind, the wind,ö and ôThe wind-the wind!ö The fragments of sentences reinforce the fragments of short, gusts of wind that blow through the area as well as symbolically representing the winds of change the narrator is confronting due to the emotional and physical changes of puberty and adolescent development.
At other points in this passage, Mansfield relies on long, complex sentences in order to show the turmoil of thought processes being experienced by the narratorÆs stage of development. In fact, after the first three complete sentences in the passage, Mansfield (p. 56) uses ellipses to extend the length of sentences in order to mirror the stream-of-consciousness and chaotic mental activity of the girl, ôThere it lies, so
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