Close Reading

“A Child’s Christmas in Wales” is the story of a man retelling certain events from the past Christmases in his life. He describes many activities an experiences through his eyes when he was a young boy as if they were miracles, some things that many adults overlook and take for granted. “A Christmas Memory” tells the tale of Christmas traditions between a seven year old boy and a grown woman, who the boy views as his cousin and best friend. Each of these stories was written with a certain purpose engrained in the authors mind. Dylan Thomas wrote “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” with the intent of instilling a sense of nostalgia in his readers. He uses certain words and phrases in order to create a sense of longing for the past. Truman Capote, on the other hand, wrote “A Christmas Memory” to emphasize the importance and strength of friendship, no matter how large the differences between two people can be. Nostalgia is defined as a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” achieves this yearning for past Christmases in many ways. Early on in the story, Thomas mentions the abundance of snow he always remembered during the winter months. He states: “It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas.” This account of the past implies that Christmases in the present are not represented with the idea of snow, a beautiful white canvas to wake up to on Christmas morning. He also says, “December, in my memory, is white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers.” The imagery of the ground covered in white gives of the impression of a happy time filled with light. Christmas was not a dark time in his past, but rather a part of the year that the narrator looked forward to. Thomas also mentioned one more instance where the snow was better back when he was younger than now:
But that was not the same snow… Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets… it came shawling out