The Trout

The story “The Trout” by Sean O’Faolain is about a young girl named Julia and her brother finding a trout in a well. The story takes place in Ireland in their home in a place they call the dark walk. The story represents the coming of age, but also portrays different things through the characters and other devices. Through Julia and different situations, we see a caring yet arrogant person, and we see her thoughtfulness.

Julia shows us the twelve-year-old girl she was when it came to talking to people. When Julia was told about the well “she held up her long neck suspiciously and decided to be incredulous” to the fact that there could be a well and responds to the person, “nonsense”. The words incredulous tell us how she was not believing what was being told to her, and how she was denying what could really be. Although she was being told, she acted like an adolescent going against the statement until she saw the well with her own eyes. When Julia was answering questions her brother was asking about the trout being gone, she was described as “supercilious”. She talks to people feeling superior because she knows what happened to the trout. When she could have told him she saved it she decided to keep it mysterious and another story to be told.

Julia was being thoughtful when it came about the fish in the well. When thinking about the fish her mindfulness shows, “She wondered what he ate, …she thought of his hunger”. She would think about him and be worried for the fish. She showed compassion and care for the fish trying to take it food. Later after she had heard someone’s fishing reel she got scared and “she gripped him and shoved him into the ewer and raced, …to the river’s edge”. She was worried for the trout to get captured and killed so she got up in the middle of the night to take it out to the river. She shows her compassionate and thoughtfulness by saving the fish who had no fault of ending up in a well.

Through different situations and words...