The final scene of the short story can be considered a moment of revelation. A moment when Miranda remembers that moment from her past. When she discovered a new aspect of life, she changed from an innocent child to a person aware about what was happening around her, and also twenty years later she could understand better the meanings of death, the relationship with her brother and face the thoughts that tormented her for so long.
During childhood Miranda and her brother Paul used to hunt small animals such as doves and rabbits It was a common situation for them, a moment of enjoyment. She did not realize that their moment of enjoyment was also a moment of killing, until that day, when the “rabbit” was killed. Miranda even said that what she really liked about shooting was “pulling the trigger and hearing the noise”. The fact that she was not aware of what she was doing shows how innocent and naive she was. She was only nine years old at that time, and her brother was 12. The narrative shows that her brother maybe had some knowledge about what he was doing, and how dangerous it could become, but for them it was a kind a natural habit to killing animals. It seems that child at that age, on that part of US were used to haunt with guns, for them the fact that she wore male clothes instead of girl’s dresses could be considered a bigger sin than kill small animals. The third person omniscient narrator described many times that her brother was more efficient on hunting, that he was more precise, more skilled, and that “he may have seen all that before”. Paul “killed it (animals) with one shot” can mean that he was good with guns, but also indicates that she may also had shot her brother when is said that “they fired at the same moment” and “He did it very cleanly and quickly least of what he knew”. Those sentences confirm not only that he was more experienced on hunting; but also that he knew exactly what he was doing.
The final scene, when the smells are described reveals how omniscient the narrator is. He knew Miranda more hidden thoughts. Although the narrator uses third person it seems that is Miranda the one who is telling the story. All the details are more related to her than to him. Also, it makes the reader very close to the scene, twenty years before, and also after when she remember all that feelings she had. She felt the same smell of dead roses, the sweet smelling, like vanilla, smell of death. Every time that senses of smell is described, is a moment of death, and rebirth – a moment of change and awareness. At the begging describing her grandfather grave opened, also when her brother was shot and at the end when she herself was dying. The evidence that he was shot is the sentence “His voice dropped on the last word”, as if he had shot the rabbit and she had shot him at the same time. He made her promise that she would never tell anybody about what had happened that day. But that secret was in her mind for the rest of her life. She remembered not only the hotness of the day, but also the smell of raw flesh and wilting flowers. “The corruption she had smelled” is based not only in the fact that her childhood was corrupted, that she had changed forever. Before it was corruption the fact that she knew her treasure had a small value compared to the Gold ring her brother had found, but after was the fact that she knew she had killed her brother, but she could not tell anybody. Miranda was, at first, very interested and not afraid to see her brother with the tiny rabbits, she wanted to see. But when she realized that the blood running was not only from the rabbit, but also from Paul, she “began to tremble”. That was the moment when she changed, when her innocence had finished. The sentence “(…) they were just about ready to be born” describes a moment when the tiny rabbits are dead. Miranda faced death of her innocence and birth of her knowledge about real life. She then, goes home to have a shower, to change her clothes, wear a dress and the ring which represents also death and a moment of transformation from a child to a grown up girl.
Because the chronological time is not linear, is hard at the first reading realize all that. But, when reading carefully again, we can perceive the events. The paragraphs starting with Then, Now, When give the impression that the time is no linear but full of flashbacks. In the first paragraph it seems that the story is been told many years after, from someone who belong to the family, a granddaughter of Miranda, maybe. But after, it seems that Miranda is the one telling the story, because she describes her thoughts, which are unfamiliar to her daughter. How could she know that? Symbolism is very strongly represented through the senses – smell, vision, taste and touch. When she sees her brother at the end, “Instantly upon this thought the dreadful vision faded, and she saw her brother, whose childhood face she had forgotten” is a confirmation that she had not seen him since that day and that he was shot. The senses and smell of death were there again. Miranda had maybe been hit by a car, or maybe because the city “was strange” she had been murdered by that Indian vendor, it is not very clear for me. But the same feeling and smell of “Dyed”, sweet and raw flesh indicates that she was dying too. The word Dyed sweet can be also read as dead of her innocence, a moment when she gets into the adulthood. When she dressed that dress and let the clothes of boys behind, she realizes that from that moment she is no longer the same. The events had changed her somehow she can never be an innocent child anymore. Even though she tried she never forget what her conscious accumulated, “those thousand impressions” that tormented her mind for twenty years. The thoughts tormented her so much, that she moved from place to place, by she could not take the remembrances out from her own. In her last attempt to find a new place to live she found also death and why not peace, represented from the dove in her brother’s hand. She was finally freed from the feelings of guilty.
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