The short story "The Little Girl" by Katherine Mansfield is about a little girl named Kezia who is afraid of her strict father. Kezia sees her father as a frightening figure and avoids him. However, one night when Kezia has a nightmare, her father comforts her in his bedroom and she realizes he loves her deeply despite his tiredness from work. The story shows how Kezia's negative perception of her father changes to understanding that beneath his sternness lies heartfelt love for his daughter.

1. The Little Girl
By Katherine

2. Elements of prose
Setting : Where the story takes place.
Characters : The people that are part of the story.
Plot: What happens in the story.
Mood : The feelings or the emotions the author
creates or the feeling you get when reading the
story.
Theme: The theme in a story is its underlying
message, or 'big idea.

3. Katherine Mansfield
Born: 14 October 1888
Died: 9 January 1923
Was a prominent New Zealand
short story writer.
Short stories: The Garden
Party, Miss Brill, The Doll's
House etc.
About the author

4. About the Story
'The Little Girl' is the story of a little girl, Kezia
who misunderstood her father's strictness and
usually remained scared of him. She kept a
distance from him, whenever he would be at
home. She considered him to be as big as a
giant. She would often get nervous and stutter
while talking to him.

5. Theme
The theme of the story is the relationship
between children and their parents and the
writer Katherine Mansfield wants to tell us
that children share a very important bond
of love with their parents. ... The parents
were concerned for them and beneath the
strictness lies a heart full of love for the
children.

6. Unfamiliar
words:
a figure to be
feared : a
person to be
feared
Glad sense of
relief : feeling
relaxed
Fainter and
fainter: to
lessen or
reduce

7. Unfamiliar
words:
slip down: come
down quietly
and unwillingly
Stutter (v): to
stammer, to
speak with
pauses
given it up (v):
stopped doing it
Trying so hard :
making a lot of
efforts

8. Unfamiliar words:
Wretched (adj):
unhappy, sad
suicide: kill
oneself
Snoring (n): the
sound produced
by some people
when there are
asleep.
Gravely (adv):
seriously

10. Value points
• Kezia was a little girl, who lived with her mother,
her father and her grandmother.
• She was afraid of her father and used to avoid
him.
• She used to feel relieved on seeing her father go
to his office.
• Kezia was so afraid of her father, that she
stuttered in front of him.
• He appeared to her as harsh, rude, and critical.

11. Value points
• Her grandmother wanted her to understand
her parents better, and would ask her to go to
the drawing room to chat with her parents.
But she found them indifferent towards her.
• Her father used to lie on sofa and her mother
was busy in reading.

12. Unfamiliar words:
Laboriously (adv):
with lot of effort or
difficulty.
Wandered into (v):
went into, by
chance
Scraps (n): small
pieces of cloth or
paper etc that are
not needed.
Hue and Cry (n):
angry protest.

13. Unfamiliar
words: Drgged
(v): pulled
The damned
thing : used to
express anger
at something

14. Value points
• One day grandmother suggested that she should
prepare a pin cushion for her father’s birthday.
• Kezia stitched the three sides of the pin cushion
casing.
• Now she wanted to stuff it with some thing. In her
mother’s room, on the bed table she found many
sheets of fine paper.
• She tore them off into small pieces and filled the pin
cushion and stitched the fourth side.
• By mistake she had used the very papers which
contained her father’s very important speech for the
Port Authority.

15. Unfamiliar
words:
Clung: to attach
yourself to
something

16. Value points
• Though she accepted her mistake and tried to
explain the reasons behind it, her father was too
angry to listen to anything and punished her with a
ruler on her palms.
• She failed to understand the punishment met out to
her when she had already accepted her mistake.
• Bitterly she said,” What did God make fathers for ?”

17. Unfamiliar
words:
Tag (n): a game of
chasing the other
players in an
attempt to "tag"
and mark them
out of play,
usually by
touching with a
hand.

19. Unfamiliar
words:
Nightmare (n):
a bad dream
Butcher(n): a
person who
cuts animals

20. Value points
• One evening she saw Mr. McDonalds, playing with
his 5 children, laughing and enjoying , with them.
• This convinced Kezia that all fathers are not alike.
• Some are loving and caring like Mr.
McDonald and some are cruel like her father.
• But soon her attitude towards her father also
changed.
• One day, her mother had to be taken to the hospital
and her grandmother accompanied her.
• Kezia was left alone in the house with the cook.
• The day was fine..

21. Unfamiliar
words:
tucked up (v):
covered up
nicely in bed
Snuggled (v):
moved into a
warm,
comfortable
position, close
to another
person

22. Unfamiliar
words:
Stirred (v): to
move slightly.
Sighed (v): emit
a long, deep
audible breath
expressing relief
(here)

23. Value points
• He carried her to his bedroom, and made her warm and
comfortable on his bed.
• Father told her to rub her feet with his legs and set them
warm.
• She felt very safe and comfortable with him.
• It was now she realized that her father was not all that of
a-giant.
• That he loved and cared for her in his own way.
• That he had to work the whole day to provide for his
family and was too tired by the evening to play with her.

24. Value points
• But night was a different issue.
• She Woke up in the middle of the night
screaming as she had a horrible nightmare.
• She was weeping out of fear.
• When she opened her eyes, she saw her
father beside her bed.

25. Setting
Setting has been done in a well-furnished house.
Mood
In the starting of the story, mood is shown
gloomy. As we get the end of the story, little
girl’s negative perception about her father has
changed into positive thoughts.

26. Moral
• The moral of the short story 'The Little Girl' by Katherine
Mansfield is that parents should not be indifferent to their
children. They should show their love towards their children
even when too tired from work and do not have time for them

27. Characters
Kezia
Kezia’s
Father
Kezia’s
Mother
Kezia’s
Grandmother

28. Kezia
Kezia was a sweet little girl. She was the person who suffered
most of all . She was afraid of her father, and loved him very
much. She was obedient, stuttered when speaking with her
father, aspired for love on the part of her parents(wanted to
make a present for her father). She had little, pink palms . She
wondered about her neighbour, Mr. MacDonald, who was very
loving and caring for his children when she saw him playing
with his children. But when she had a nightmare and was
taken care by her father , she understood that her father was
also very loving and caring person but too tired and had no
time for her and he had a big heart.

29. Kezia's father
He was a very busy man. He hardly spent any time
with her daughter . He used to be very tired after
working so hard all day long. Although he loved
Kezia but was not able to show his love and pay
attention towards her. He was a figure to be feared
and avoided for Kezia. He always gave her a
perfunctory kiss. He had a loud voice , wore
spectacles . He looked at the little girl in a terrifying
way . He loved his daughter, this being seen at the
end of the story. He is a hard-working man.

30. Kezia's mother
She was a very caring and loving person. She was a kind-
hearted person looking after everything in the household.
Kezia’s mother always made her attend to her father after
he returned from office. Although she knew that the
daughter was afraid of the father, she made Kezia always
remove her father’s shoes when he got back from office.
This made Kezia consider her to be a strict mother like
her father. On Sunday afternoons, her mother took a
break from her regular routine and chores. She used to
stretch out on the sofa and catch up with some reading.

31. Kezia's Grandmother
She was a kind lady. She loved and took care of
Kezia when she was scolded and beaten by her
father or when Kezia was afraid at night. She
wanted Kezia to have good relationship with her
father. She always used to encourage Kezia to talk
to her father and mother and to spend some
quality time with them. She even encourage Kezia
to give the father a surprise gift.

32. THANK YOU