How does the author support the main idea in this paragraph? turning to the tales of the first edition, a reader might notice that many of the stories such as "the hand with the knife,” "how some children played at slaughtering,” and "the children of famine,” have nothing to do with fairies or happy endings. instead, these are stark narratives about brutal living conditions in the nineteenth century. for instance, "the children of famine” begins this way: once upon a time there was a woman with two daughters, and they had become so poor that they no longer had even a piece of bread to put in their mouths. their hunger became so great that their mother became unhinged and desperate. indeed, she said to her children, "i’ve got to kill you so that i can get something to eat.”

The author supports the main idea of the paragraph with an example. He / She gives a detailed description of one of the stories : "The Children of Famine”.

The main idea of the paragraph is  focussed on the fact that some  stories from 19th century ,which are being mentioned, are not fairy stories but cruel stories. These reflect the brutal conditions of the time. To support this idea, the author  gives a detailed example of the brutal conditions children lived in during the XIX century through "The Children of Famine” . The example given is far from telling a fairy -story. The story is about a mother who decides to kill her children because they are all starving.

arah orne jewett first published "a white heron" in her 1886 collection, "a white heron and other stories." this short story tells the tale of what happens when sylvia, a 9-year-old girl living deep in the forest with her grandmother, meets a young hunter looking to capture, and kill, the white heron living in sylvia's woods. the climax occurs when sylvia must decide whether to him or protect the bird.

rising action

leading up to the climax of the story, the nameless young hunter befriends sylvia and her grandmother, mrs. tilly. he explains to mrs. tilly that he is bent on "stuffing and preserving" a little white heron that he believes lives near their cottage. mrs. tilly offers up that "[t]here ain't a foot o' ground" that sylvia doesn't know and suggests that she may be able to him find the bird.

climax

after following, but not really , the young hunter on his search for the heron, sylvia slips out of bed alone in the middle of the night to find the heron for herself. perched at the top of a gigantic pine tree, sylvia spots the heron, and its nest, in a dead hemlock tree across the way. the following morning she returns home to find her grandmother and the hunter waiting for her at the door. in the moment when she plans to tell the hunter where to find the heron, she suddenly decides to protect the heron and remain silent; even the promise of much needed money does not sway her.

explanation:

the answer f probably