Swaddling Clothes
“Swaddling Clothes”
Author: Yokio Mashima
Theme is the building block to the development of any well-written story. If a story lacks theme, it may become underdeveloped, and thus the story may not make much sense. In the short story “Swaddling Clothes” by Yokio Mashima, theme is developed mostly through three major groups. Plot, character, and symbolism, are how the author decided to display theme throughout the story.
The first main group that theme is established in is plot. The theme of the story is social differences; this is shown through the plot when the baby is born. The baby is born an orphan and so it is wrapped in cheap newspapers, and pretty much cast aside. This shows social differences because when Toshiko looks at the orphan baby, and then looks at her son, she realizes the differences between them. They could be so much the same, and yet at the same time be so different. They could both have the potential to be brilliant millionaires, but because of the orphan babys class, he may never even know the feeling of having someone to love him, much less have someone to motivate him to use his potential. This shows that the theme,
social, differences, theme, people, story, orphan, one, through, just, because, baby, toshiko, son, plot, developed, character, symbolism, newspapers, much, help, group, feel, class, always, wrapped, world, two, toshikos, time, things, shown, rich, potential, meat, looks
