"How Pearl Button Was Kidnapped" is a

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

short story by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in ''

Rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular recu ...

'' in September 1912 under the pen name of Lili Heron.Katherine Mansfield, ''Selected Stories'', Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes It was republished in ''

Something Childish ''Something Childish and Other Stories'' is a 1924 collection of short stories by the writer Katherine Mansfield. It was first published in America as ''The Little Girl''. This anthology was published after her death by her husband John Middle ...

and Other Stories'' (1924).

Plot summary

Pearl Button is playing outside whilst her mother is ironing clothes. Two

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

women go up to her and ask her to come with them. After a long walk they arrive at a Māori settlement, where the little girl is given a fruit to eat. Then they drive towards the seaside. Pearl has never seen the sea; they play about. Suddenly, a crowd of policemen runs toward them to take Pearl away again.

Characters

*Pearl Button *two Māori women *more Māori people *family om *police*

Major themes

*Māori culture : the story is written from the child's perspective, who takes to Māori culture right away. However, she is scared by the white men coming to pick her up.

Literary significance

The text is written in the modernist mode, without a set structure, and with many shifts in the narrative.

Footnotes

Modernist short stories 1912 short stories Short stories by Katherine Mansfield Works originally published in Rhythm (literary magazine) Works published under a pseudonym {{1910s-story-stub