AS Byatt's gothic short story investigates the human psyche and its ability to cope with the emotions that arise from loss. Byatt organizes his story into three different sections separated by the meetings of the two main characters, Penny and Primrose. The first is the break where the two girls first meet and give each other someone to hold on to. The second is when they find themselves later in their years, in the same place they stayed so many years ago. These encounters are surrounded by a more serious loss for both girls. Byatt examines many types of loss throughout his story. The very first appearance of loss occurs when the two little girls are torn from their homes and everything they know because of the war raging in London. The two little girls in this fragile emotional state cling to the first thing that seems real and true, each other. Keeping their new company, the two girls grab beds next to each other and hope to be placed in the same house. The next day, the two girls go to play in the yard with the other children. They decide to explore the forest beyond the gate of the property. In the forest, they "see" a grotesque worm-like creature, which sends them into a state of silent shock. The young girls leave the forest and the mansion without saying a word to each other. This brings us to the next example of loss, the loss of each other and their only stability in this difficult time. The two girls were first separated by the traumatic "sighting" of the creature in the woods, then sent to different homes to wait out the war. This also brings us to our third form of loss, the loss that results from war. When the war was over, the two girls were sent ...... middle of paper ...... e your eyes and imagine a vast green forest, the smell of deep-rooted plants and the light which shines through the rustling leaves. Imagine the sound of branches snapping under your gentle footsteps as you travel the path less traveled. Imagine a place where anything can be possible. Byatt's opening sentence helps you imagine all the magic a forest can hold. “Once upon a time there were two little girls who saw, or thought they saw, a thing in a forest,” leads the reader to have an open mind to both fiction and non-fiction. She does not say the normal fairy tale beginning “Once upon a time…”, but at the same time her first sentence neither excludes nor admits that her story is in fact not a reality. I think by doing this it gives the reader the opportunity to choose for themselves whether it is real or imaginary, which makes this story perfect for a multi-level argumentative discussion..