The Promise of Being: Spiritual Epiphany in The Wide, Wide World

Abstract

Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World (1850) tells the story of a young girl, bereft of her parents, who is sent to live with a mean aunt on a farm. Despite her talent for cooking delicious country meals, the aunt does not know how to relate to her ten-year-old niece, Ellen Montgomery, or how to comfort her for the loss of her mother. She soon subjects Ellen to a life of arbitrary frustration. In her struggles, Ellen finds friends like Alice Humphreys, a young woman who shares Ellen’s love of nature, learning, and religion. Alice and her brother John welcome Ellen as an adoptive sister and teach her how to face her problems, helping her mature into a devout Christian.