Sun and Moon (Mansfield)


"Sun and Moon" is a 1920 short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in the Athenaeum on 1 October 1920, and later reprinted in Bliss and Other Stories.

Plot summary

The children, Sun and Moon, are hanging around the house while a party is being prepared. They play games, then are sent off to bed. The party wakes them up; their parents find them out of their beds and instead of scolding them, they let them go downstairs for a bite - but Sun starts sobbing because Moon has eaten the nut from the centerpiece, and they are sent off to bed again.

Characters

  • Sun
  • Moon
  • Nurse
  • Annie
  • Mother
  • Father
  • the pianist
  • Minnie, the new cook.
  • Nellie, the housemaid.

Major themes

  • The gap between children and adults

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.