World War II is the central event in this short story and drives the action from the very first paragraph. The girls, Primrose and Penny, are evacuees because their homes are at risk of being destroyed in the bombing of London. Byatt’s narration alludes to the war with similes and subtle imagery that create context for the psychological trauma that the girls will later experience. “The Thing in the Forest” is not a single portrait of trauma; rather, it stays true to the reality of traumatic experience by showing characters that respond and later attempt to recover in different ways.

First, there are the children on the platform along with Penny and Primrose. The story provides little insight into their experiences, but enough to indicate that these evacuated children are enduring emotional turmoil. Primrose and Penny’s mothers both sent the girls away without explanation, and it is fair to assume that many of the others received the same send-off. This touches on a key question in the psychoanalysis of trauma: how to find the words to explain the unexplainable. For a young child, this trauma of separation is tremendously upsetting, and naturally there is a great deal of fear and crying, especially in the darkness of the mansion.