Joyce
Cary’s story “Growing up” is about ‘generation gap’ between a father and his
two daughters. The story begins with a father coming home from business trip to
his family. He expects joy and excitement at his homecoming from his daughters
but surprised by their indifference. He meets his daughters in the garden and
they begin to behave in an alarmingly violent fashion. He panics but the ‘game’
ceases as abruptly as it had started. Later the girls’ mother arrives with the
welfare committee and to father’s bewilderment; they (the girls) behaved
themselves as well-educated young ladies while distributing tea to the
committee members. Finally, after tea, his youngest daughter positions herself
in superior posture to examine her father’s wound.
At
the beginning of the story Mr. and Mrs. Quick seem to neglect their daughters
with their busy schedules of his business and her social work. There is a clear
divide between daughters and father and they do not fully connect to one
another. The girls are seen in the wild garden reflects the wildness of the
girls. The daughters are presented as untidy and dirty; certainly not the sweet
innocent daughter figures as the father imagines them to be.
Mr.
Robert Quick almost scared of his daughters’ savage manners when Jenny and Kate
do communicate with him. They are violent to the dog, snort, too. The language
they use becomes angry, violent and fragmented to emphasis the horror of the
situation. Robert Quick is shocked, but his remonstration is pathetic and
results in the savage game where his daughters attack him like wild animals.
They talk to him like as if he is an equal and, in fact, inferior to them when
they inspect the plaster they have placed on his wound.
The show changes immediately as
soon as their mother comes home with members of welfare committee in to adult
seriousness and responsibility when handing round the tea. With all these
experiences the father realizes that they have changed, grown up and he is
older too. Thus, the relationship between father and daughters has changed in
the course of time.
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