The Stolen Party
Liliana Heker uses the character of the protagonist’s mother in the narrative “The Stolen Party” to develop an understanding of the nature of class and money in the world of Rosaura. In the first scene, the author introduces the reader to the protagonist Rosaura, a young girl who aspires to be rich like her friend Luciana. After being invited to Luciana’s birthday party, Rosaura’s mother and Luciana’s family maid doubt that the invitation is real hence revealing the complicated relationships that develop throughout the narrative. As the story unfolds and Rosaura attends the party that she believes she belongs in, the author gradually reveals to the readers that the protagonist’s mother may have been right after all.
From the beginning of the narrative, Liliana Heker introduces the tension between the protagonist and her mother. Rosaura’s mother tells her daughter,
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Through this outburst, the mom lets Rosaura and the readers know that she is suspicious of wealthy people. Since she does not see as friends with Luciana’s family, she dictates the same for her daughter. On the other hand, Rosaura really wants to attend the party. When her mother tells her that Luciana is not a real friend, she yells “Shut up! You don’t know anything about being friends! The author reveals her apprehensiveness that her mother could be correct and hence yelling to convince herself of this fact. In the same scene, the author reveals some of Rosaura’s reflective thinking. Heker narrates,
“Rosaura too wanted to be rich of course. If one day she managed to reside in a beautiful palace, would her mother stop loving her? She felt very sad. She wanted to go to that party more than anything else in the world.”
‘It 's a rich people 's party.’ ‘Rich people go to Heaven too,’ said the girl, who studied religion at school. ‘Get away with Heaven,’ said the mother. ‘I’m going because I’ve been invited,’ she said. ‘And I’ve been invited because Luciana is my friend. So there.’ ‘Ah yes, your friend," her mother grumbled. She paused. "Listen, Rosaura," she said at last. ‘That one’s not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maid’s daughter, that’s what.’” (Heker 1)
She returns to discussing the match with Francesco’s daughter and states that she likes the fact that Francesco has participated in government, even if his positions have not been important ones. This statement conveys how much of a factor status and power were when considering a spouse and the spouse’s family.
Because of the life that Christine leads, the role of mother and daughter are switched and Rayona often finds herself watching out for her mom. When Ray comes home from school, she would often learn that her mother had gone out to party. Times like
In “The Stolen Party,” author Liliana Heker uses third person limited point of view to hide the thoughts and what other characters are thinking to create surprises in the story. One reason for using third person limited point of view is to hide from the reader that Rosaura is being used by Senora Ines when she helped handing out hot dogs or carrying lemonade. For example when the story says,”Senora Ines asked rosaura if she wouldn’t mind helping serve out the hot-dogs, as she knew the house way better than the others”. To the reader when Rosaura helps hand out the hot dogs it seems like everything is fine she is just helping out, but Senora Ines knows she is using Rosaura.
When one looks up the definition for family it says a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household. Well August is the parent and June, Rosaleen, May, and Lily are all the children. We have a family right here. Motherhood was a motif that helped play into the theme of family in this book. Lily considers Rosaleen as a mother, yet Rosaleen is not as sophisticated as she wants a mother to be. Rosaleen is the person to help Lily when she is hurt, who defends Lily against her father, has the courage and strength to go and vote and is a motherly figure to Lily. August can be looked at as a mother too. She gives Lily wise wisdom, she is there for Lily through the pain about her mother, she teaches her about beekeeping, something her mother enjoyed too, she teaches her about religion, and the courage to be a leader. Lastly, her mother, Deborah is her real mother. She helps Lily realize that nobody is perfect and even mothers who love their kids need the courage to carry on. Lily learns from all these important figures that she just needs to be the best person she can be from all the wisdom and courage all these mothers help Lily understand. “I accidently killed her,” I said staring straight into her eyes. “Listen to me now,” said August, tilting my chin to her face. “That’s a terrible, terrible thing for you to live with. But you’re not unlovable. Even if you did accidently kill
Poverty and hardship are shown to create vulnerability in female characters, particularly the female servants, allowing powerful men to manipulate and sexually abuse them. Kent illustrates how poverty perpetuates maltreatment and abuse in a society like Burial Rites using the characters of Agnes’ mother Ingveldur and Agnes. Agnes’ mother is forced to make invidious choices as her children are “lugged along” from farm to farm, where she is sexually exploited by her employers. In spite of these circumstances, Agnes’ mother is commonly referred to as a whore in their society which abhors female promiscuity yet disregards male promiscuity as a harmless character trait; as in the case of Natan, who is merely “indiscreet” despite all his philandering. Born into poverty, Agnes experiences similar sexual coercion and manipulation from her “masters” and yet is labelled “a woman who is loose with her emotions and looser with her morals”. The severe poverty of Agnes is explicitly demonstrated to the reader by Kent through the intertextual reference of her entire belongings - a very dismal, piteous list to be “sold if a decent offer is presented”. Furthermore, Kent contrasts the situation of Agnes, a “landless workmaid raised on a porridge of moss and poverty”, to the comparative security Steina has experienced using a rhetorical question from
The relationship between mother and daughter is very evident in this novel. It is implied by the priest that Maria has duties in the household and duties as a woman. François Paradis also knew that Maria would make a good housewife, one that would give wholly, love of the body and the soul that she would be a devoted spirit that would not waver.[6] These similarities are apparent when the daughter’s first love is represented by a symbolic abduction, (winter storm) that is followed by a return to her mother’s way of life. She generously accepts Gagnon as her husband, thus guaranteeing the continued existence of family,
In addition, the author helps the reader understand the selfishness of the mother when the reader finds out she have stole the Persian Carpet “several months before” (230) the divorce and puts the blame on Ilya, the poor blind man. Furthermore, the visit of the children is supposed to signal a fresh start for the family. The mother even emphasizes she wants the girls to come “live with [them]” (229). Yet again, even if they meet in order to reunite, characterized by a situational irony, they see themselves separated because of her mother selfish decisions.
“The Stolen Party” by Liliana Heker is a short story about a girl’s life experience that changes her point of view on society. One day, she gets an invitation to a rich daughter’s birthday. Her mother is a maid and works for them. Rosaura’s youth and innocence shows that she doesn’t realize the true meaning of the invitation, and firmly believes that there is no social distinction between the rich and the poor. She believes that even if she is the maid’s daughter she is welcomely accepted in the party. Although she is only nine years old, Rosaura feels confident that she knows more about rich people than her mother. Heker uses symbols and figurative language to convey “to always
She also saves her pride and arrogance as the Choragos remarks, “Like father, like daughter: both headstrong, deaf to reason! She has never learned to yield.” She had many chances to prevent her demise but her pride stood in the way. Through the progression of scenes leading to her tragic ‘fall’, she is every bit of the woman she was at the beginning.
To begin with, Rosaura was invited to Luicana’s birthday party and Rosaura’s mother did not want her going. According to Rosaura, Luicana is her friend, but to her mother Luicana is not her friend. In the short story, Heker states, “Listen, Rosaura...that one’s not your friend. You know what you are to them? The maid’s daughter, that’s what” (Heker 1). Why do you think Rosaura’s mother would say this to her daughter? Is she right for telling her own daughter that Luicana is not her friend because of their financial status? Rosaura does not see the difference between them too because in her eyes the rich also go to heaven like everyone else. Rosaura is right to because no matter how much someone
She is disgusted at her mercenary and calculating sisters, who deceive their father. She prefers to “love and be silent.”
Multiple times in Liliana Hecker’s short story, “The Stolen Party”, the main character, Rosaura, is views based on her social class and not her innocence. Rosaura’s best friend is the host’s daughter and her mother is the employee of the host. Rosaura is invited as an employee and not as a guest. This is shown when Rosaura is paid for her help in handing out the cake, bringing out juice, and being the only one allowed into the kitchen. “In her hand appeared two bills. ‘You really and truly earned this,’ she said handing them over. ‘Thank you for all your help, my pet.’ ” The only reason for Rosaura’s invitation was because she was helping tend to guests and not a guest. This is shown as an example of misconception because Rosaura misperceived the rich people’s party thinking she was a guest and Sra. Ines was prejudiced to Rosaura by handing her two bills based on Rosaura’s economy and mother’s job. Senora Ines using Rosaura as a puppet and Rosaura being innocent and open-hearted developed the concept of misconception and incorrect thinking in “The Stolen Party”.
Rosaura finally realizes the truth by Senora Ins at the end of the party by giving her two bills and insisting her as her pet. Rosaura’s happiness was shattered and heart broken by the harsh words by Senora Ins (“Stolen Innocence: A close reading and critical analysis of Liliana Hekers “The Stolen Party”).
The resentment within the young girl’s family is essential to the novel because one can understand the young girl better as she makes her decision.