The Storyteller

In "The Storyteller," a large contrast is drawn between children and adults. The adults seem to have a responsibility to raise the children in a certain way, but they do not agree on what this role is or what the children should be learning. The children are shown to be full of natural energy and curiosity, but are also shown to be shaped by the adults they interact with. This can be seen in the children and aunt being described as behaving similarly in the beginning of the story ("Both the aunt and the children were conversational in a limited, persistent way" [1]), Bertha (the little girl in the bachelor's story) behaving the way adults have instructed her to and rewarded her for, and the children changing their behavior after the bachelor's story. Saki, who grew up in Burma with his parents and then was sent to England to live with his siblings and aunt after the sudden death of his mother, believed that one's childhood has a large impact on one's adult life, and shows this both through the children in the story and the adults' differing view on how best to raise children.