Perkins is a professor of American and English literature and film. In this essay, Perkins examines the theme of innocence and experience in the story.

Laurel Smith, in her article in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, notes that the central concerns in Bowen's short stories are "the complex truths of human relationships." In one of her most poignant stories, "A Day in the Dark," Bowen explores the complex truths in the relationships a fifteen year-old Irish girl has with her uncle and a woman in her town. Barbie's interactions with these two influential figures in her young life cause her to discover the darker nature of sexuality and so to be initiated into the realities of the adult world.

Angus Wilson, in his introduction to The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen, concludes that Bowen's best stories focus on the "never changing conflict of youth's hopeful imagination and...