The Skating Party

Will Singleton

• Maida's Father
• Very protective of life's secrets

"Besides that, he believed that life was something that children should be protected from knowing about for as long as possible." (Summers 187)

Winnie Singleton

• Maida's mother
• Told Maida what she knew about life
• Never kept the truth from her daughter

✳✱

• A few weeks after Maida was told the skating party story, It said in the newspaper that Delia Sykes had died
• Uncle Nathan began to tell Maida the story about how he met Delia Sykes
• Met her at Mr. Knight's farm with her husband Dobson Sykes
• Once he met Delia, he knew she was going to be someone special to him
• Started to talk more and more and Uncle Nathan began to fall for her
• Started to realize that it was a bad idea to fall in love with Delia

Uncle Nathan thought, "If you can fall in love in twenty minutes, you can fall out of love just as fast." (Summers 195)

• Couple months after he met Delia, she held a party at her house for her sister Eunice

• Uncle Nathan and Delia go skating alone
• Eunice is suspicious and confronts Delia
• The two sisters get in a small fight
• Uncle Nathan suggests they go for a skate together to discuss things
• They skate far away from everyone else
• They fall through the ice and scream for help
• Uncle Nathan rushes over with the others but he only has time to save one of the girls before the ice starts breaking
• He pulls out Delia, Eunice dies in the lake
• He could not see their faces, but he did see their hands hanging on to the ice
• He picked the ones without the fur on the cuffs

• Delia invited bachelors so her sister could find a possible husband
• Uncle Nathan was invited and met Eunice for the first time
• Thought Delia was the only girl for him until he met Eunice
• Decided to get married two months after the party
• Neighbors decided to host a skating party to celebrate Uncle Nathan and Eunice's engagement
• The skating party was held at night on the lake, where it was cloudy with no moonlight
• Delia sewed white fur around the cuffs and bottom of Eunice's coat to make it look like a skating dress

Summary

Death of Delia Sykes

• Maida asks Uncle Nathan why he is still a teacher and not a farmer
• Maida wondered why he had never married. He responded with saying that "Maybe it wasn't every girl who took my eye, I'd pity the girl who had to count on me to take care of her." (Summers 189)
• Maida's mother told her a story about a skating party that was in honor of Uncle Nathan and Eunice Lathem's engagement
• Maida's mother explained how Eunice and her sister Delia fell through the ice at the skating party. Then, Uncle Nathan went to save them but he could only save Delia

Uncle Nathan telling the story about the skating party

Maida finds out about the skating party

Uncle Nathan realizing who he really loved

Winnie tells Maida about Uncle Nathan's true love

Uncle Nathan was not living the life he wanted to live

Plot Graph

Antagonist - Uncle Nathan Singleton

• Gentle, kind hearted personality
• Believed that knowledge was power
• Knew what he wanted in life (to quit teaching and to find a wife)
• Engaged to Eunice Lathem
• Had feelings for Delia Sykes as well

"What you don't know can hurt you. Especially what you don't know about yourself." (Summers 187)

Main Characters

The Skating Party

Protagionist - Maida Singleton

• 15 years old
• Uncle Nathan's niece
• Has a curious personality
• Likes being knowledgeable
• Finds out what she wants to know

"Some children are sensitive: an eye and an ear and a taking in of subtleties. I wasn't like that. I wanted to be told. I wanted to know how things really were and how people really acted." (Summers 187)

Supporting Characters

a short story by Merna Summers

Delia Sykes

• Married to Dobson Sykes
• Eunice's sister
• Always involved in other peoples business ex. Sisters relationships

Eunice Lathem

• Delia's sister
• 2 years older than Delia
• Engaged to Uncle Nathan
• Quiet and humble

Mood

Literary Devices

• Eerie - Due to the fact that tension was being built up until the skating party incident
• Romantic - Uncle Nathan was in a love triangle with Eunice and Delia
• Tragic/Shocking - He chose Delia over his fiance
• Betrayal - Uncle Nathan saved Delia over his fiance who he should have been loyal to

Foreshadowing - Uncle Nathan told Maida about how he never got married but he always wanted to. This foreshadowed that something may have happened in the past that set him back on getting what he really wanted out of life.

Situational Irony - Irony is involved in this story because the readers would expect that if Uncle Nathan ended up saving Delia instead of Eunice, it would have been by mistake. The audience would expect that Uncle Nathan's intention would be to save Eunice first and foremost.

Setting

• Willowbunch
• Singleton's farm house
• Lakes, and hills surrounding the area
• Family had lived there for many generations
• Mid 1800's

Narration

• First person narration
• In the perspective of Maida Singleton

Theme

Conflict

• Injustice, betrayal, choices/fate, dishonesty/corruption, jealousy

The emotions above were some of the feelings that Uncle Nathan felt while dealing with the love triangle between the two sisters. He was torn between choosing who he truly loved over what was the best decision for everyone. This story is a good example of how you can't choose who you love. The main theme of the story was displayed at the end when he follows his instincts and saves his true love.

Individual vs. Individual - This type of conflict is between Eunice and Delia. They get into a fight over Uncle Nathan at the skating party. The girls try and sort out the confusion together.

Individual vs. Self - Uncle Nathan is conflicted, and tries to decide who he truly loves. He tries to deal with his personal feelings and doubts his current relationship with Eunice. He was forced to make a decision when he only had time to save one girl or the other.