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Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party

799 Words4 Pages

The story “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield, a prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer, is about the psychology growth of the main character, Laura, who lived in a rich family and understood the difference between the rich and the poor after knowing the death of a poor man; who died before the party that were holding by Laura and her family. In the story, author leads readers into a mood about the woeful and irreparable fact of the distinct difference between the poor and the rich. Instead of using direct characters’ speaking to differentiate the gap between the rich and the poor, Mansfield uses the story’s settings in order to contrast and stand out the woeful gap.
In “The Garden Party”, the location settings of the party holding area and the scene of death are both in Laura’s home. In the story “The Garden Party”, it shows:
They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it…
But Meg could not possibly go and supervise the men. She had washed her hair before breakfast, and she sat drinking her coffee in a green turban, with a dark wet curl stamped on each cheek.” (Mansfield 1),
Laura and her family members hold the party in their garden. A party means people group together in a place to spend leisure time, according to the publish date of “The Garden Party”, this party is for the rich because party is only for upper-class at that time. What is more, the description of Meg, the sister of Laura, also defines that Laura’s

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