An Analysis of The Convent Girl Grace King's The Convent Girl is an excellent example of post-Civil War realism incorporating a clever ending. In this locally colored short story, King methodically tricks the reader into mistakenly believing that his story is about an insignificant and anonymous young girl who, after twelve years of seclusion in a convent, is exposed to fervor and excitement of a steamboat trip on the river. Mississippi River. The success of Ms. King's ending turns on three basic elements: 1) downplaying the main character, 2) snippets of information followed by wordy directions, and 3) a false climax. King masterfully downplays the importance of the little girl from the convent by not giving her a name, even the steamboat captain and crew members call her "the little girl from the convent." As a result, the reader is led to believe that the story is not really about the little girl in the convent. It is only the instrument chosen by the author through which the reader will experience a steamboat adventure. King further misleads the reader by offering paragraphs of information about the complexities of navigating the river, the habits of crew members, and the skills of steamboat pilots. In cases where the reader is given information about the little girl in the convent, King immediately brings him back to the overt theme of a steamboat adventure. King, in introducing the little girl from the convent to the reader, strives to present her as a dull and uninteresting creature. She wore dark clothes, stood up straight, locked herself in her room and showed little joy in life. This is why when King uses the work "black ... middle of paper ... it is up to each reader to draw their own conclusions and search for their own feelings. At the false climax, the reader was surprised from Learn that the well-liked and polite little girl from the convent was colored The reader now had to evaluate how the forces within their society could have driven such an innocent person to commit suicide In analyzing this story, there is. several other interesting facts that deserve further exploration For example, throughout the story, all references to the little girl in the convent use black or dark references. The author describes the little girl from the convent as a “floating white petticoats, a spectacle of white stockings”. What is the significance of the sudden color change? Furthermore, since the reader must assume that the little girl in the convent is Catholic, what can be concluded about a true Catholic committing suicide??