Katherine Mansfield wrote the beautiful short story, "The Garden Party." In this story, Mansfield discusses the superficiality of life. The Sheridans are very wealthy and carefree. Their biggest concerns throughout the story involve their garden party and all the small, petty details that go along with it. One of the Sheridan daughters, Laura, is as at ease as the rest of her family, until she is notified of a death of a man she never knew that resided just down the road from their home. This alarms her more than it does the rest of them and she insists the party be canceled. Her family accuses her of being ridiculous and she decides to agree and enjoy herself at the party, instead of feeling the guilt as she and all the guests feel joy while people just a short distance away are mourning. She later goes to the home of the dead man to deliver left-over party food to his family, and ends up seeing the man. It suddenly is clear to her, as she apologizes for her hat and breaks into tears, that the fanciness of her life and the silly little parties do not matter. She understands that life is short and there are much important things than having nice things. As she leaves the small cottage, she runs into her brother and sobs, "Isn't life-," twice, but cannot find the rest of her words. Here she is probably trying to say "Life isn't..." to explain to Laurie that all the things they worry about are unimportant, and their lavish lifestyle is not all that should matter to them.
Mansfield makes several references to flight in this story. She refers to Jose, another Sheridan daughter, as "the butterfly." She also describes the family's movements in bird-like ways frequently, by saying they "skimmed" and "floated" and more. This signifies the carefree attitudes of the rich people. It's as if they simply, happily soar through life with no problems. She also uses the bright colors and details to make the Sheridan's home sound beautiful and bright to accentuate the luxurious and extravagant lifestyle of the rich, which could also be used to describe the spring season, which contrasts from the dark topic of death. Mansfield also employs elements of a quest into this story. Laura goes on a journey simply to deliver a basket of food to Em, the dead man's wife, but instead makes life-altering discoveries by seeing the man, thus ending up completing an unknown journey completely irrelevant to her original intention.
In my response, I did not identify the most obvious and probably the most important subject Mansfield is trying to discuss in "The Garden Party." The separation of the different social classes, the way the rich live carelessly in their own world and ignore the poor that are kept far out of sight deep in the valley is what she wants to show. Laura realizes while visiting the dead man that her world clashes with the world that is, geographically and socially, below her. I feel as though my connection with the mentioning of flight and bird-references is also similar to the essays in the novel.
The connection of Laura and Persephone deepens appreciation of the story because it gives readers a clearer and intense relation to the separation of the rich and poor classes. Foster compares the Sheridan mansion raised high up on a hill to heaven and the dark, dingy area of the poor folks that reside in the valley to hell. This gives the image of Laura entering hell as she goes to see the dead man, which can give readers a deeper understanding of how her life was changed and she became a shallower person after; she became Mrs. Sheridan, like Persephone became Demeter. Connecting stories to mythology, as I have learned from Thomas C. Foster does, indeed, give each reader a better understanding of the story.
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