The Cocktail Party Sparknotes

This story was written in the first-person perspective. More specifically, the story is a dramatic monologue in which the narrator is responding to ambiguous questions asked by an ambiguous character. The narrator is a major participant taking part in the story as she is the main character, but she isn’t necessarily a reliable source of information because of her extremely emotional state of mind. She is repressing memories from the night of the incident and from her life in general, and this is shown when she says, “I hate to repeat it, my life” (41), and “I don’t want to talk about her” (43). The narrator is also highly unreliable because she isn’t even certain of the validity of the story she is telling. She says, “What? Did I say that?...Then maybe I do remember it, it’s all so confusing and…” (45). Because this story is first-person, we can know only what the narrator reveals. We don’t know the questions being asked of the narrator or the response of that person, and the narrator doesn’t always finish her sentences or thoughts, either. She drifts off and this is shown by the abundant use of ellipses. This is when the reader starts to speculate what is being left out of the narration. The narrator is repressing memories and refusing to talk about them, like when she says, “I don’t want to talk about it again” (41), so there is some

     The woman’s deepest wound is a self-inflicted one. When her body and place in society crumbled, her mentality followed suite. The war that rages in her mind is far more brutal than the one that defeated her body. To lock away her memories and pretend as if nothing happened, would be a dishonor to the woman she used to be. However, the road of silence and shame is a less lonely one to travel on. The woman now has to ask herself, “if, in the sickening light of the precinct,

New York City is the place where a person can be intimate with thousands of people all at once, without having to talk or interact with them at all. Whether a person is standing in a crowded subway cart or simply walking around Times Squares or Grand Central, it is almost impossible to get around the city without having to see or engage with another person. New York City blends the concepts of privacy and intimacy, creating an environment where one can be immersed and connected, in what E. B. White describes, as a compact arena comprising of gladiators, evangelists, actors, traders and merchants, yet also feel separated, or apathetic, to the city and its inhabitants as well. Whether it is the “eighteen inches” described by White or simply sitting next to a stranger on the subway, what makes New York City iconic and different from other cities is how its residents – a mixture of locals that grew up in the city, the tourists that visit it, and newly arriving residents from across the world – interact with one another in respect to city life. If a person tries, he or she can avoid talking to anyone all day, despite the multitudes of people he or she encounters. On the other extreme, he or she can also get the numbers, or contact information, of hundreds of people as well. In this perspective, New York City has not changed much since White wrote his book Here is New York – New York City still represents and embodies the concept of what White describes as a blend of privacy and

I was in my black Ford car going to Mr. Body´s dinner party . I put my gun in my right coat pocket. When I pulled up to the Mansion, I knew that this night would be Body´s last. I stepped out of the car, I was the second one there. Professor Plum was the first. I walked up the double stone walkway which led me to a large wooden door. I turned the brass door knob, I thought to myself that the knob was closer to the ground but I dismissed that thought. I walked in the large room, and there was a hallway, I walked through the hallway leading to the lounge. When I entered I saw Mr. Body and Prof. Pum. They were sitting and chatting on the white sofa.

The Dinner Party is one of the feminist artwork exhibited in the gallery, celebrating forgotten achievements in the female history. Chicago’s use of subject matter explores the feminist principle inequality; such as the elaborated and organized arrangement in which this artwork was developed. She describes it as, “a reinterpretation of The Last Supper from the point of view of women, who throughout history, have prepared the meals and set the table.” This portrayal of woman is used throughout the history of American Revolution. Also featuring different eras; like the classical Rome and the reformation of Christianity. Chicago’s piece is an icon of feminist art which represents 1,038 women in history and another 999 names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor in which the table rests. The multi-media work comprises of pottery, china painting, sewing, embroidery, weaving and other mediums that is customarily connected with ‘women’s work’, and as such, not generally considered “high-art” by the art world. Chicago’s aims was to commemorate traditional female accomplishments which have historically been framed as craft or domestic art. Some of the materials used in this work highlights the bold, sensual imagery suggestive of flowers, female genitalia, and butterflies, about which the artist once explained, “My images are about struggling out of containment, reaching out and opening up as opposed to masking or veiling.” This emphasizes that although Chicago is the theorist behind of

This literary work is started out with a setting of New York on a rainy, gloomy day. New York is known to be an exciting city that never sleeps, full of successful people such as Blake, the main character, or people struggling just to get by, like Miss Dent. The city being so crowded and loud makes it hard for people to really think and calm themselves down. “He noticed now how much louder the rain made the noises of the street… horns were blowing urgently… The sidewalk was crowded… he wondered if she was following him.” (Cheever 2) Even on these rainy days the streets are still full of sounds and people. These many noises give Blake a serious case of paranoia. Blake saw Miss Dent earlier and now the many distractions around

New York City has almost always been a center for people to move up both the social and economic ladder, even in the nineteenth century, where both Stephen Crane and Edith Wharton set their stories for two troubled and worrisome women. Stephen Crane created the beautiful but troubled Maggie Johnson, placed in lower class New York City, having finer sensibilities than those around her, most especially her mother and Pete, her lover. On the other hand is Lily Bart, Edith Wharton’s creation, who is also set in New York City but at the higher end of the social class spectrum, and has finer sensibilities than almost everyone

Prominent cultural figures and references have informed parts of the interior, creating a space which distils the essence of old New York. The poetic landscape of Edgar Allan Poe blends with the celebrity of the Hotel Chelsea and creates something which is truly rooted within New York’s history. This blend is most evident throughout the collection of art work; indeed Edgar Allan Poe’s portrait hangs proudly in the lobby, casting an eye across the entire space.

Set in Manhattan in the 1980’s, Bright Lights, Big City, written by Jay McInerney, tells the somewhat autobiographical story of a twenty-four year old, recently separated, lonely man, hiding from his world, or what’s left of it. His wife, a fashion model, abandoned him and relocated to Paris, his boss fired him from his job as an editor, and his friend ditched him at a club―more than once. He then spent his nights snorting enough cocaine to make Mount Everest seem low, and had a nasty encounter with a rabid ferret that almost resulted in a one-handed narrator. As a reader, following the roller-coaster life of our unnamed narrator definitely kept me on the edge of my desk chair from the cover until the end. Some of the reasons behind my constant attention to the novel were a few aesthetic choices the author made, including the use of second person point of view and the development of the narrator. The author’s decision to use these two style choices—second person point of view and the development of the narrator―helped to create a unique and fun yet timeless and relatable story of a young man, alone in the bright lights, big city of NYC.

Self-control is a restraint on your actions and your feelings. Everyone has some amount of self-control on themself. Within the story, “The Dinner Party”, there are inequalities based on gender and their self-control. Self-discipline isn’t just based on gender though. Readers believe the situation and the environment they were in before also plays a part in it. These injustices are first shown when “a spirited discussion springs up between a young girl and a colonel.”

In India a colonial official and his wife Colonel, are hosting a dinner party for the army officers, government attaches, their wives, and an American naturalist. Many people are arguing about how women always scream when there is a crisis and that men have more nerve control then women. The officials’ wife whispers quietly, so only the Americal naturalist could hear, that there was a snake in the room. He goes and get a bowl of milk to attract the snake, and tells everyone to stay still as a test of everyone’s control. Then the snake comes out and goes tward the bowl of milk where everyone sees it. Many people freak out while the snake is captured. Once the snake is captured, people are arguing

scanned the baby.  The story emphasizes the fright, sadness, and bafflement among the women concerning the child.  Madame

On the evening of Thursday, I had decided to host a dinner party. I invited some of the most amazing authors to my party. I invited Thomas Jefferson, Dalai Lama, C.S. Lewis, Gretchen Rubin and last but not least John Stuart Mill. Thomas Jefferson was the last person to arrive. The first person to arrive was Dalai Lama and after that the rest got there on time. As we sat at the table waiting for Thomas Jefferson, everyone seemed a bit bored. So I asked everyone how there day had gone so far, but everyone stared blankly and then at the same time they all answered “fine, okay, yeah fine.” We ended up sitting in complete silence until Thomas Jefferson finally arrived. When he finally arrived Gretchen said, “finally now we can finally eat.” I wanted everything to go well, and I hated the fact that everyone seemed bored. As they all sat waiting for their food to be served, I announced what we would having for dinner. After my announcement everyone seemed a lot happier and amused.Thomas Jefferson started talking to Dalai Lama, because they were sitting right across from each other. There were six chairs and six people at the table. C.S Lewis was sitting across from Gretchen Rubin, and John Stuart Mill and I were sitting across from each other.

This essay will focus on an analysis of the narrator's error of judgment, the significance of time and place, a characterization of the narrator and the relationship between the narrator and Celia.

The story begins with some vague reflections by the narrator about something that happened in the past: “I suppose there was a talk in our house, afterwards. How sad, how awful. (My mother.) There should have been supervision. Where were the counsellors? (My father.)” (188). The reader is invited to think that something ‘awful’ happended. However, what this something was