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Katherine Brush's The Birthday Party

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In the short story "The Birthday Party", author Katherine Brush conveys the idea of negligence towards small details. Through utilizing imagery, symbols and foreshadowing a turn of events, Brush successfully reaches the audience.

Brush utilizes the hat as a symbol. At the beginning, Brush depicts the wife as “fadingly pretty, in a big hat”, however at the end of the story the author mentions that she is hopeless and hiding under her best hat. The hat is a symbol for dissatisfaction and a possible transition in her life.

Throughout the short story, Brush foreshadows a turn of events. Brush says, "There was nothing particularly conspicuous about them, nothing particularly noticeable... the husband's birthday, and the wife had planned a little

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