Suarez 1 Bryan Suarez Professor Jacobs ENC 1102 April 14, 2014 The Thing in the Forest, Jungian

Criticism, Symbolism Annotated Bibliography

Byatt, A.S. The Thing in the Forest. 2000. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Spencer Richardson-Jones. Shorter 11th ed. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 302-317. Print.

The Thing in the Forest by A.S. Byatt is a story of Penny and Primrose. These two little girls encounter a horrible monster inside of a forest and it inevitably scars them for many years. This story reads much like a fairytale or a myth. This is critical to the analysis approach that I will take towards the story. Where it differs a bit is in how dark of a fairytale it really is and you dont really get a happy ending. The story heavily draws upon symbolism to create the world and the journey of these two little girls. In addition, the story uses an allegory in the name of the two main characters, Penny and Primrose. The story itself is without a doubt going to be useful to me. From this story I can pull all the symbolic descriptions that I need to reinforce my arguments. I will also use the story to analyze it through the eyes of a Jungian critic. This shouldnt be very difficult because pretty nobody can deny that The Thing in the Forest ultimately reads much like a fairytale. Especially with the beginning line of the story which highly resembles the famous once upon a time.

Suarez 2 Lethbridge, Lucy. A Way with Words. America 191.9 (2004): 17-18. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Apr. 2014

This source gives a brief overview and review of The Thing in the Forest. Lethbridge explains that the monster in The Thing in the Forest is actually an old ancient English folk legend. She reinforces the fact that The Thing in the Forest is much like a fairytale. In addition this source also talks briefly about how the author is fascinated by words and about the way she cleverly uses symbolism. The way this entry compares to the other sources is that it also gives a brief description of the story but also from a slightly different point of view. These slight differences in the point of view will help tremendously to create a better general understanding of the story. The new insight provided by this source will help my in my paper to compare the beast in the story to the English folk legend of the Loathly Worm. Because its slightly more historical point of view, this source should prove to be helpful.

Margaronis, Maria. Where the Wild Things Are. The Nation. 278.23 (2004): 24-28. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.

This source covers a lot of the metaphors, similes and symbols used in the story in a short overview of the story. It also mentions many times the relation that The Thing in the Forest has with myths and fairytales. In addition, this source gives a different viewpoint on the creation of

Suarez 3 the beast in the story. The main task that this source accomplishes is giving the reader a more in depth view on the story and from a different perspective. This entry will also be another useful resource that will be included in the final paper. The differences between this article and the other entries is that this one, more than the others, tends to talk a little deeper on the topic of metaphors and similes. It also will help me to better establish my point in the paper because it includes descriptions and explanations of the symbols in the story. In addition, just like the other entries, it will also help me in connecting the story with fairytales and with Jungian criticism.

Matthews, Samantha. Monsters, Trolls, and Creative Writers. Times Literary Supplement 5248 (2003): 21-22. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 91. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Apr.

Once again, in this source we see the author mentioning from the beginning that The Thing in the Forest wears its debt to fairytale self-consciously. Also, the topic of war is brought up in this source and how A.S. Byatt explores the emotional scarring left by war. In addition, this source also goes into explaining more about the author and her reputation. Because of this entry speaks a bit more on the topic of war and the emotional scarring left by war, this entry should help me to make better arguments in my paper. More specifically, when comparing the monster created by A.S. Byatt and how it symbolizes war and how its ultimately and allegory. Of course, the bit of author background that is provided should also prove to be useful. Most likely its not something I will be able to implement in the paper but it will help me personally in the overall understanding of The Thing in the Forest.

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Messud, Claire. The Beast in the Jungle. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 2004. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. 2014.

As with the previous source, we get a brief description of the reputation that A.S. Byatt holds and how her works are highly intelligent. Once again the topic of the fairytale arises but this time its described as a childrens story. Besides just focusing on The Thing in the Forest this source also mentions some of the other stories that were included in the book that this fairytale was published in. It compares the main elements of all the stories and relates them to one another giving the reader a more broad point of view. It connects the other stories with The Thing in the Forest and creates an overall theme for them. This entry will probably be a little more difficult to implement in the overall paper. The main way I see the source being useful to me is in the way that the author of this article compares this short story with the other short stories in Byatts book. This can be helpful because most of her stories in the book Little Black Book of Stories have the same dark themes about life and death. Another useful aspect of this source is her comparison with The Thing in the Forest and childrens stories. Her description is spot on and I think this is possibly the one part that will be most useful to me.