How Does Katherine Brush Use Literary Devices In The Birthday Party

First, Brush starts off the story by describing the couple that were at the restaurant. “They were a couple in their late thirties, and they looked unmistakably married.” “The man had a round, self-satisfied face, with glasses on it; the woman was fadingly pretty in a big hat.” Brush has now provided us with an image of the main characters in this short story. Furthermore, he became “hotly embarrassed” when he realizes what is going on. Towards the end of the story the wife was “crying quietly, and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself, under the gay big brim of her best hat>” When her husband did not appreciate

a bigot and a loner, insensitive and intolerant, and that their marriage is a strained one"

With each American taking their own view on how our culture pursues materialistic self-interest wither positively or negatively we see this contrast in Morris Berman’s book Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline, Frank Capra’s movie It’s a Wonderful Life and in Chuck Palahniuk’s movie Fight Club. Each of them giving us a different perspective on how they portray American‘s view on how we feel a need of materialistic items in our lives. Each piece we have looked at wither its Capra’s conflict of David vs. Goliath as his story shows us the conflict between Baily and Potter, Berman’s conflict between corporate America and its people or Palahniuk’s in your face view on how Americans due to

In America the repercussions of World War 1 resulted in, the roaring twenties, a time period characterized as an era of economic prosperity. The stock market sky-rocketed, advances in technology were distinct and demands were shifting, but what value prominently elevated above everything else? Wealth. The widespread wealth was desired and people valued social class with such high regard that to attain these two fixations became the standard “American Dream” of the 1920’s. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction exposes an era of poor social and moral values, and it was a miserable desire for wealth that progressed this. Fitzgerald utilizes the setting, a combination of the time period and geography, to reveal the message that it became

In a way, the popular culture of the 1980s reflected the era’s political conservatism. For many people, the symbol of the decade was the yuppie, which was a baby boomer with a college education, a well-paying job, and expensive taste. These new moneymakers were young, ambitious, and hardworking. Yuppies were more materialistic than their parents and grandparents had been and rewarded themselves with luxury cars and designer

Similarly, the materialistic nature of the Christian festival of Christmas in the 21st Century has replaced most, if not all, of its religious meaning. Furthermore, consumerism is just as common in today’s society as it was in the Roaring Twenties, thus Fitzgerald’s picture of 1920s American society is relevant to modern capitalist readers.

In the beginning the narrator is un-named, we read the story as thoughts within his mind. His actions gives-off a sense of jealousy. He’s bothered by the former relationship the blind-man and his wife has had in the past. He is blunt and honest with (us) in telling how he feels about the situation. “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me.” “A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” The narrator gives us the introduction to the life event. He tells us about his wife and how she met the blind-man. In short, she formally worked for him, reading him things when she lived in Seattle for a summer. The narrator mentioned when the blind-man touched around his wife face and her current marriage with her childhood sweetheart. Her husband at the time was in the military –industry, which caused her to have to move a lot. She and the blind-man kept in touch by sending voice recorded

Fitzgerald is writing a satire that comments on American ideal by showing the desire for wealth, the carelessness of the wealthy during the 1920s, and the attainment of a dream.

At the beginning of the story the husband is telling of a blind man coming to visit him and his wife. The narrator?s wife had worked for the blind man at one point. Since then they have maintained a strong friendship and keep in touch with tapes. The narrator talks about not looking forward to the blind

“Birthday Party” by Katherine Brush uses literary devices such as tone, point of view, diction, and sensory details to achieve her purpose.

As Austrian writer Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach wrote,“To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible.” History and literature have established that the ideal goal every American has wanted is for his thirst for material possessions to be reached, but even then, the individual isn’t truly happy. Money, and the things it can get you, have long been a part of American culture and the materialist culture of society have been examined in numerous ways from novels to the art of those like Andy Warhol. A life free from the economic woes that plague almost everyone seems like the quintessential existence, but material wealth is not a way to mend issues.

Since commerce systems have replaced the days of bartering and trade, proverbs about money, wealth, and status have gained some popularity. Why is that so? Perhaps it’s the idea that money is “inherently evil”. The old saying, “Money can’t buy you happiness” is heard by all individuals at some point in their lives. This aphorism warns the dangers that happiness doesn’t stem from money, but by different avenues of life or that happiness comes from within. In the story Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it chronicles the life of Dexter Green as he rises through the American societal hierarchy of being middle-class to the wealthy

Since the wife still cares about her husband, she goes out trying to find him, but her husband’s kinsmen try to keep them apart. Meanwhile, the wife feels her life passing her by, longing for her husband to come home. She mentions

In “The Semplica-Girl Diaries”, George Saunders makes an important statement about the role of materialism in the American Dream, and how this materialism may not be the key to happiness many believe it to be. Saunders tells of a middle class family that strives to meet the standards of their peers and find a happier life. The father, who acts as the narrator, believes that acquiring and spending money on material objects, specifically the Semplica Girls, will improve the family’s life by improving how the family’s financial situation appears to others. The father’s primary values are that wealth and social standing are crucial to attaining the good life, and he believes the purchase of the Semplica Girls will fulfill these values. However, it is clear from the family’s ultimate situation and the disapproval of the mother’s successful father, that the narrator’s beliefs are misguided and potentially damaging to the family.

What does the novel say about materialism? What, if any, are the similarities between the 1920s American society and the 21st Century American society with regard to materialism?