Summary

"Old Ground" is written in the past tense. It centers around a day in the narrator's childhood when her mother is at home calling her and her brother in from the backyard. The narrator is busy buying papers in the ground, thinking that "Love is a surprise" (194) while her brother is throwing snails at an apple that fell on the ground. Their mother calls them in to wash their hands, but the narrator does not come inside right away. She is busy imagining herself throwing that apple against the wall. She dreams of the sound it would make and how it would look exploding against the wall of her home.

Analysis

Bennett’s decision to take readers back to a time in the narrator’s childhood when she was hopeful abut finding love provides evidence that the narrator’s development in Pond is...