Owen Marshall's short stories have many qualities which make them entertaining and , . interesting to read. The strengths in his writing include the use of familiar New Zealand childhood settings, his evocation of the painful transition from childhood to adolescence, a theme of many of his stories, and also his use of potent symbols which resonate through the stories.
The stories I studied were all set in the small-town New Zealand landscape of the 1950s. Marshall manages to bring back the innocence of that pre-television time, when children played outside for their entertainment and the house was a place occupied mainly by the adults. In the story, "The Master of Big Jingles", the action is set only in the 'waxy profusion' of the fennel which is "pressing in on the town" and the fennel hut which the boys have built.
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