Katharine Brush's Birthday Party

In Katharine Brush’s “Birthday Party,” imagery and diction are used to describe the events of the dinner and how it flew south.

Maher Kara joined Citigroup’s healthcare as an investment banker in 2002, and on numerous occasions discussed mergers and acquisitions by Citigroup clients with his older brother Michael after regularly seeking advice from him. For the next three years, this dialogue continued but Maher soon suspected Michael was using the information they discussed for insider trading. While this was happening, Michael became engaged to Bassam Salman’s sister and began to share the inside information he received from his brother with Salman. Salman then approached his own brother-in-law Karim Bayyouk with his plans and traded on the information through Bayyouk’s accounts instead of his own. Bayyouk’s following trades were nearly identical with Citigroup’s

In the poem, the mother takes her daughter to a pool party composed of boys. The speaker watches the children dive into the pool and imagines her daughter working math problems to calculate the gallons of water. As she watches the young girl climb out of the pool in her hamburger and french fry print swimming suit, she notes that the other young girls are looking at the boys, and as well as her daughter, she is beginning to recognize the appeal of their masculinity. The language of the poem is associated with the childness of the young girl. The description the speaker gives of the girl leads the reader to believe she is a child. She calls her “my girl,” and describes her of having a sweet face and a sleek ponytail. “She will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will see her sweet face” (1115), the diction of Olds word choice demonstrates the innocence of a young child beginning to approach maturity. She provides detailed portrayal of the character to provide the reader with an image of the diminishing childhood innocence of the

“The Girls in Their Summer Dresses” is a short story by Irwin Shaw, which presents readers with a daily basis relationship situation of a young woman and her husband. The story goes through refined changes of tone and mood in the dialogue; the narration is done from a dramatic perspective, which creates suspense and tension. The author lets the story advance through the characters’ conversation. In addition, the writer’s voice comes in to describe the emotional states, reactions, and tone of voice of the characters as this shift during the conversations. The dialogue attains a meaningful colloquial tone, which is mirrored in the dramatic dialogue. This assertion is depicted in the spouse’s point of view, the couple’s trust and love for one another, as well as their discussions. From these expressions, the reader notices jealousy, arrogance, and frustration. Irwin Shaw articulates these illustrations through character, imagery, and tone.

By Liliana Heker demonstrates that people aren't always who they seem to be. In story Rosaura gets invited to a girl name Luciana's birthday party. Rosaura thinks she got invited because she thought they were friends, but, Luciana ends up using her to work the party. Rosaura is devastated when she finds out, and feels betrayed, which shows how people aren’t always who they seem to be. Though, others may say the true theme of the story is Things in life don’t always turn out the way one would expect them to.

Paul Newman once said, “People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked” (74). There is no such thing as the perfect relationship, however, being involved in a healthy relationship is essential for a person to feel valued, safe, and happy. Unfortunately, in the situation of Kelly Sundberg’s personal essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” and Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of An Hour,” include extreme examples of unhealthy relationships. The essay “It Will Look Like a Sunset,” shares painful experiences of Sundberg’s physical and emotional abusive relationship with her husband Caleb, while “The Story of an Hour,” shares a rare reaction of a married woman, Louise Mallard, who explores her emotions cautiously when hearing about the death of her husband. Each woman faces their own prison created by their husbands. The two marriages represent the figurative meaning of doors being locked in a marriage. Both pieces of literature convey the theme of confinement by using the literary devices of foreshadowing, imagery, and conflict.

When two people are tied together by their vows, it is each of their responsibility to fulfill the happiness of one another, and if one cannot then they should not expect the same in return. Sinclair Ross’s short story, “The Painted Door”, reveals the growing unhappiness of a farmer’s wife, Ann, who feels alone as her husband John leaves home to help his father in the harsh conditions of the storm. Ann seeks comfort and companionship with another man after 7 years of feeling neglected and unhappy with her husband. The responsibility for Ann’s infidelity, lays not only on Anne but John himself.

Not everyone appreciates hind gestures, and in “Birthday Party” by Katharine Rush, she depicts the story of a couple who are at a restaurant, planning a surprise for the husband, but the husband is anything but grateful. Rush effectively tells this story to emphasize the oppression women faced in the 1940s, despite doing all they can to be nice by describing the scene in such a way to emphasize the mood shift, using imagery to depict the scene as cruel, and describing the scene through the point of view of someone who was watching in the restaurant.

In the short story “Birthday Party”, Katharine Brush paints the tale of a husband’s birthday surprise from his wife and its unexpected outcome. Through dinner and dessert, Brush explores how quickly life can change from celebration to tragedy. Through the use of literary devices such as point of view and irony, “Birthday Party” conveys that life is not always what it seems and does not always turn out as planned.

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

The theme of the two stories revolves around the feminist issue of marriage. A common notion between the two short stories is that love is a failure and a mere comic when there is the failure to recognize the beloved as a person and not a mere convenience. The stories also deal with the 18th and the 19th century American life?declining in their spiritual and emotional lives.

Women are taught from a young age that marriage is the end all be all in happiness, in the short story “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin and the drama “Poof!” by Lynn Nottage, we learn that it is not always the case. Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” and Loureen from “Poof!” are different characteristically, story-wise, and time-wise, but share a similar plight. Two women tied down to men whom they no longer love and a life they no longer feel is theirs. Unlike widows in happy marriages Loureen and Mrs., Mallard discover newfound freedom in their respective husband’s deaths. Both stories explore stereotypical housewives who serve their husbands with un-stereotypical reactions to their husband’s deaths.

“The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Chrysanthemums”, by John Steinbeck, are two inspirational stories about the limitations and stereotypical roles of a woman in the early 1900’s. The reader can easily conclude that in both of the stories, the women feel like they are underappreciated by their husbands. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the woman keeps describing herself as “one’s self”, as she feels that she is not her own person. The viewers notice this woman has a husband, John, whom is her caretaker and believes he shows his love in a very dysfunctional way. In order for her to remain stable, she relies on writing, which John does not like and has in his head that she is sick. This

Most women in America nowadays are lucky enough to consider themselves to be an independent individual, but females were not always guaranteed their freedoms. Throughout the early 1900’s, authors would characterize husbands to be controlling figures. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Charlotte Perkins demonstrates just how possessive the husband is to his wife in their marriage. This short story shows just how miserable the woman is to be in a marriage with John because John, thinks it would be best that his wife is isolated to get over her postpartum depression.“The Yellow Wallpaper” demonstrates how a male dominated society leads to the woman not being their own individual by using characterization, narrator perspective, and conflict between women and society.

The Story of an Hour is short, yet, contains important examples of gender roles in marriage. They are important because they represent how women felt married in the 19th century due to male dominance that manifested throughout marriages all over the world. In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard is a wife that is, at first, seen as distraught, because of her husband’s death. She starts to cry and run to her room, to soon be lifted with the joy that she is now free. It is clear that she felt trapped in the marriage and is now happy that there is no one controlling her any longer. Mrs. Mallard is a prime example of women in marriages in the 19th century, and even some today. Unfortunately, they have to experience sexism from their husbands. Women are dominated by men in marriage and are expected to acquire the stereotypical gender roles.