Use of contrasts

Part of your assignment requires you to focus on the use of contrasts in Jackie Kay's short story “Owl”. Contrasts are the opposite of similes. If similes show similarity, contrasts show opposition.

In “Owl”, the author conveys the story’s themes using three main contrasts: between reality and imagination, between being young and being old, and between the perspectives of the two main characters.

Reality and imagination

First of all, the story begins with a contrast between what Barn and Tawny assume about their families and the reality. Before the holiday on the farm, the two girls probably assumed their parents were happy. But during the holiday they discover that they were cheating on each other: “…we actually noticed that Tawny’s father seemed happy chatting to my mother and that my father seemed to laugh in a different way with Tawny’s mother.” (ll. 10-12); “We actually saw Tawny’s father kiss my mum one night when we’d crept out late to watch the night flights of our barn owl.” (ll. 22-23)

Then, the story explores the contrast between imagination and reality as we find out that Barn is inventing stories about feeding the owl to make their experience at the farm seem more special and make Sandra jealous. Furthermore, Barn chooses to refuse to accept the difference between reality and imagination:

‘But she’s not to know that!” I said. “Anyway, we did really because we did it in our hea...