The Iron Barred Door Analysis

The Iron-Barred Door by author Monica Hughes is a short story about a girl named Rebecca who has been confined in a house her whole life with only the company of her caretaker, George. One night, four tiles clatter from the roof and smash to pieces on the courtyard, in the process of repairing the roof George slips and falls down. Rebecca falls into a state of panic, calling his name and frantically pulling at his tunic; revealing the metallic mesh inside his chest. George is a robot. This appalling news left Rebecca shocked and in disbelief for a couple days until finally she decided to step out of the huge iron door and explore the outside dystopian world.

I found the plot quite slow-moving but simultaneously suspenseful and it completely …show more content…
This story takes place in a dystopian society also, there is a robotic caretaker, George. Yes, we do have robots in the present day, but none that can function for thirteen years or can act as human-like as George did. The theme in the story “The Iron-Barred Door” is freedom. Like many other things in life, freedom is not valued until it’s lost. Rebecca spent so many years without it, craving it without even knowing what it was or what it felt …show more content…
The iron-barred door itself is a symbol, representing confinement. Rebecca had been trapped in that space of twenty-eight rooms for the past thirteen years and was desperately craving to leave but couldn’t. The house symbolizes emptiness. Although the castle-like building was over all lavish with twenty-eight rooms, marble stairs, a grand piano and a giant library—despite that, it was emotionally void. I believe the kite symbolizes freedom. After years and years of fantasizing about one day being freed from the house, Rebecca finally achieved liberation. She no longer paced around in the same rooms, encountering a wall every few steps, she could roam around freely just like the red and yellow kite drifting through the