TOW #5: "A Cupboard of My Own" by Catherine O'Flynn

     Catherine O'Flynn's short story, "A Cupboard of My Own" is about a young girl who had always felt as if she was on the other side of everything. In the middle of the story, the narrator even muses, "...Some children grow up feeling themselves to be the center of the universe, but...even in my own house, I was a very tiny, late-arriving drop in the vast ocean of other people’s lives and their shoes. She starts out the story by saying she was an accidental sixth child, and by the time she was 9 years old all of her older siblings lived elsewhere, leaving their childhood memories in the form of toys and stuffed animals behind. The girl is then excited to find a cupboard of her own—somewhere where she can preserve all of the memories she will one day leave behind, the most popular being a rag doll that was given the name "Marsha." To her surprise, she comes home one day to see that her cupboard and all that it held is gone. Catherine O'Flynn wrote this story in order to epitomize the innocence and fragility of childhood.
     O'Flynn establishes credibility in this story because she wrote it about her own childhood, so she can properly identify and illustrate the thoughts that were going through the young girl's head. The nostalgic tone she uses throughout the story supports her purpose; it points out the sense of defeat the narrator had when she realized all of her treasured items were gone. O'Flynn also emphasizes how valuable the toys were to the little girl, who acted like the toys were people: "In years to come I'd sit on my stool in the corner, eat my fish fingers and try to lose myself in Cheeky Weekly, but my thoughts would often turn to Marsha and the others entombed just a few inches behind me. I imagined them lying in the dark, hearing muffled voices from the other side." Anyone who reads The New York Times would be able to come across this story, but O'Flynn's intended audience is any adult who understands and misses the true essence of childhood.

A Doll's Sanctuary

(Picture source/article: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/a-cupboard-of-my-own/?ref=opinion)