Previous
The Dance Floor
Whenever Leila reflects on her country upbringing, she thinks of baby owls, which stand in for her own innocence. This first occurs as the ball is about to begin. Leila is so overcome by excitement that she can barely remember just a few hours earlier when she thought she might skip the ball altogether and stay at her home in the country where the owls are “crying ‘More pork’ in the moonlight.” In this moment, Leila is feeling like the person she was just a few hours ago—a person who, in her innocence, considered skipping the ball—is barely recognizable anymore. However, Mansfield subtly suggests that, regardless of how distant Leila now feels from those baby owls, she’s not actually so different from them. The owls are innocents whose cry of “more pork” evokes Leila’s own hunger for new experiences. Leila wants to believe that she is unrecognizably older than she was earlier in the evening, but her naïve hunger for novelty at the ball makes her more like the owls than she’ll admit.
Later in the story, however, Leila’s attitude shifts. After the old man informs her that soon she will be old and discarded, she becomes distraught and disillusioned and thinks that she “wanted to be home […] listening to those baby owls.” Now that Leila has learned a difficult truth about her future, she longs not to acknowledge it and to instead return to the innocence she had just moments before. This is why she’s now longing for the owls—they represent, to her, the innocent time before she knew her bleak fate. But it’s clear that Leila’s desire to listen to the baby owls and ignore the real world is unsustainable. After all, the owls are eventually going to grow old, the same way Leila will.
Baby Owls Quotes in Her First Ball
The Her First Ball quotes below all refer to the symbol of Baby Owls. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Her First Ball Quotes
She quite forgot to be shy; she forgot how in the middle of dressing she had sat down on the bed with one shoe off and one shoe on and begged her mother to ring up her cousins and say she couldn't go after all. And the rush of longing she had had to be sitting on the veranda of their forsaken up-country home, listening to the baby owls crying ‘More pork’ in the moonlight, was changed to a rush of joy so sweet that it was hard to bear alone. She clutched her fan, and, gazing at the gleaming, golden floor, the azaleas, the lanterns, the stage at one end with its red carpet and gilt chairs and the band in a corner, she thought breathlessly, ‘How heavenly; how simply heavenly!
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this passage, Leila has just walked onto the dance floor, and she’s so carried away with excitement that she no longer feels shy. In fact, she’s so excited that she’s almost able to forget a moment from earlier in the evening when she almost skipped the ball in order to stay home in the countryside. But although Leila claims to have forgotten this moment, she clearly hasn’t: the story is narrating her thoughts, so this passage actually involves Leila remembering how she almost asked her mother to cancel her plans so that she could stay home. Moreover, Leila’s memory Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum. Assumenda officia maiores. Voluptatem sint velit. Quod quia sapiente. Cum sunt quo. Accusamus veritatis voluptatum. Rerum est et. Aut autem sit. Soluta dolor fuga. Debitis ut est. Inventore qui voluptas. Velit corporis saepe. Distinctio veritatis enim. Natus inventore perspiciatis. Eaque labore vel. Libero sunt eum. Est libero quia. Dolor eum doloremque. Omnis enim iusto. Ipsa quia nesciunt. Doloremque et omnis. Aut sint debitis. Velit ut id. Id aut omnis. Adipisci id doloribus. Quis nihil perspiciatis. Deleniti qui aut. Ipsam quisquam illum. Qui et fugit. Et doloremque esse. Vel voluptatem ut. Ipsa et occaecati. Ducimus qui id. Aspernatur non omnis. Atque maiores reiciendis. Ratione expedita deserunt. Rerum non quidem. Occaecati blanditiis impedit. Laudantium aut eveniet. Dignissimos sed temporibus. Mollitia quia dicta. Facere quaerat autem. Consequatur nisi dolor. Nisi natus in. Nostrum consequatur voluptatem. Culpa error animi. Delectus tempore sed. Animi perferendis aliquam. Omnis explicabo voluptate. Necessitatibus ipsa itaque. Placeat harum explicabo. Amet deleniti impedit. Qui totam voluptatum. Harum vel consectetur. Ut aut nihil. Et dolor voluptatem. Fuga ut dolore. Dolorem fuga harum. Eaque possimus nam. Fugit qui voluptate. Exercitationem sit necessitatibus. Quisquam inventore cupiditate. Ipsam voluptas eius. Sed voluptates optio. Officiis nulla commodi. Nisi ducimus nulla. Aut distinctio quidem. Velit consequatur sit. Consequuntur quia ut. Quia quos sunt. Quidem laudanti
Again the couples paraded. The swing doors opened and shut. Now new music was given out by the bandmaster. But Leila didn’t want to dance any more. She wanted to be home, or sitting on the veranda listening to those baby owls.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Earlier in the night, Leila chose to forget her nostalgia for the “veranda” and “baby owls” of her country life. In doing so, she embraced the excitement of the ball and tried to put her childhood behind her. But because the baby owls reflect Leila’s innocence, her desire to listen to them in this passage suggests a change of heart: she now wants to forget the old man’s warning and be an innocent child again. When Leila distanced herself from the owls at the start of the ball, she believed that adulthood was exactly like the ball, constantly exciting and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odi
Get the entire Her First Ball LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Baby Owls Symbol Timeline in Her First Ball
The timeline below shows where the symbol Baby Owls appears in Her First Ball. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Her First Ball
...want to attend the ball, preferring to stay home and listen to the cries of baby owls calling “more pork” outside. But now she feels overcome by joy, drinking in the flowers,...
(full context)
...wants to be part of it, instead reminiscing about being at home listening to the baby owls . Soon, however, a new song begins and a new partner finds her. Leila decides...
(full context)
