Miss Katy-Did And Miss Cricket Summary

Harriet Beecher Stowe is a famous author known for her story Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Stowe was raised in Litchfield, Connecticut in a home with strong Puritan values. With her father being a Calvinist preacher and being raised around a family that took their religion seriously, she developed a strict moral and spiritual code that influenced all her writings. Later in Stowe’s life, she rebelled and converted her religion to Episcopalianism. Still, her sincere and intense conviction of her moral in her youth is evident in all her antislavery novels. Stowe described her novels as “works of religion”(535). She married a preacher and to make ends meet, Harriet began to write her short stories. Miss Katy-Did and Miss Cricket was one of these short stories.
The reader uses Stowe’s use of literary terms and the author’s biography to write this analysis. The setting in Miss Katy-Did and Miss Cricket starts off in a smaller area and progresses in to something larger. In the beginning of this short story, it starts off with our main character, Miss Katy-Did. It is morning; she is sitting on a branch that has budding azaleas. The grass and leaves still had water on them from a rain that took place the night before. It is windy; windy enough to make the leaves look like they are dancing. Stowe states, “the small winds had blown brisk little puffs, and whisked the heavens clear and bright with their tiny wings” (Stowe ). As
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the story progresses, it expands to the whole forest.
It is starting to get late. The leaves are still blowing but now it is because of the party Miss Katy-Did threw. The sound of music from all the insects is filling up the whole forest with joyful sounds and music. At the end of the short story it is late in the year; September. Frost hit the forest and it has gotten cold. The plot starts with introducing our main character, Miss Katy-Did “on a branch of a flowering azalea” (Stowe). Miss Katy-Did was expecting a visit from her cousin, Colonel Katy-Did. She was in the best of moods so she decides to throw a party with the help of her cousin. They start to go over who they should and should not invite. As they are going over this, Miss Cricket, comes to them to inform them of some sad news. After realizing Miss Katy-Did had no interest in what she was saying, Miss Cricket went on her way. Colonel Katy-Did had asked his cousin if they were to invite the Cricket family to their party. Miss Katy-Did’s response was “Who? I? Why, colonel, what a question! Invite the Crickets? Of what can you be thinking?” (Stowe). She soon tells her cousin she would not invite the Crickets because of their
color. There are a few themes Stowe uses throughout he short story. One being humility. After not being invited to the party because of their color, the Crickets open their home to Miss Katy-Did because she was in need. Stowe states, at the end of the short story, “So when poor Miss Katy-Did’s satin and lace were all swept away, the warm home-talents of the Crickets made for them a welcome refugee” (Stowe). Even after being hurt by her, the Crickets still opened their home to someone else who was in need. Another theme would be vanity. Miss Katy-Did thought she was upper class more than others. This made her make unfair decisions and clouded her judgment. Henthorne3
Stowe uses imagery to describe not only her surroundings but her characters and actions as well.
Her imagery creates beautiful scenes for the reader. At the beginning, she starts to describe Miss Katy-Did and her outfit. She states, “in her best suit of fine green and silver, with wings of point-lace from Mother Nature’s finest web” (Stowe). Stowe also uses imagery to describe the setting. She writes, “There had been a patter of rain the night before, which had kept the leaves awake talking to each other till nearly morning” (Stowe) She also wrote, “and so now there were only left a thousand blinking, burning water-drops, hanging like convex mirrors at the end of each leaf” (Stowe). Her descriptions are very detailed and help paint a picture of what the reader is reading in their head. Stowe’s Miss Katy-Did and Miss Cricket incorporates internal and external conflicts. An example of internal conflict would be Miss Katy-Did’s decision to not invite the Crickets because of their color. It affected the story line and was a major part of the story. An example of external conflict would be the weather at the end of the story. It starts to get cold. Frost starts to settle on the forest. Miss Katy-Did ended up needing a warm place to stay. This also affects the story
line. Stowe uses current time problems and incorporated it in to the story. Slavery, racism was a big issue when Stowe was alive. She uses beautiful wording to describe not only her surroundings but her characters as well. Her wording makes it easy for the reader to understand what she is trying to say and the point she is trying to get across. The story line is simple and easy to follow. The reader found this short story enjoyable and found the author to be very detailed. The Literary World in 1852 wrote “Mrs. Stowe is evidentially intended by nature for a
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humorous writer, and an occasional dash of wit and fun prove that her forte is rather farce than comedy and tragedy or political economy” (537).