What Laura Didn't learn in The Garden Party Essay

Over the period of a day, Laura Brown gradually succumbs to her overwhelming desire to liberate herself from her mundane life. Her life has taken a very different direction from what she ever thought it would, and she finds herself completing commonplace household

This can be seen in the poem “Brothers and Sisters” in which the literal and figurative levels of reality are joined. Wright does this through the use of pathetic fallacy, ensuring that she moves beyond simple description, to show that every aspect of the siblings’ lives is reflective of the environment that they live in. This is represented in the metaphor ‘the road turned out to be a cul-de sac, stopped like a lost intention”. Wright implies that the dead end of the street is reflective of the lack of fertility both in and outside the house, there is no movement forwards as the lives of those within it have ceased, the siblings are unmarried with no children, thus there is no new life being created. Wright has done this to ensure that that audience is aware of this process, rather than providing simple descriptions which can often be misleading. Neither the surrounding environment or the siblings are taking part in the evolutionary process of creating life, this sense of fruitless passing of time is furthered through the employment of the simile “years grew like grass and leaves” suggesting, although hindered there is an emotional connection present. By representing their lives as slow- growing and little- moving it continues to showcase the similarities between the landscape and its inhabitants, demonstrating that the environment grows old just as they do. Yet another representation of the landscape within the characters is seen in the inevitability of death, for the landscape and its inhabitants. This can be seen through the use of direct speech “There is nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all”. This repetitive reassurance demonstrates their fear of death and the destructive nature of it, as witnessed in the landscape. The irony here is that with each

Ain't no man ought to eat his women's food year in and year out, and see his children running wild. Ain't nothing right about that.” Maybelle responds, “Honey, you took good care of us when you had it. Ain't nobody got nothing nowadays.” This conversation between the mother and father contrasts the differences between the parents personalities and displays, just like the differences between childhood Lizabeth and women Lizabeth. Similarly to how Lizabeth's mother finds happiness in her family, Lizabeth found happiness in destroying other people's happiness. This consequently led to her loss of innocence by destroying Miss Lottie's yard, but because of this she gained compassion in others and through poverty. Marigolds represent happiness that sometimes have to be destroyed in order to lose innocence and gain compassion, but also the small feeling of hope and joy when the whole world around you is dark and sinister. The author uses the technique of symbolism of the marigolds to display how when people are so deep in depression and poverty, they look for something hopeful and happy to put or “plant” in their

The two housewives have a passionate love for gardening and bestow their love and appreciation towards their gardens. In the twentieth century, gardening was advocated as beneficial to one’s life and family. In the New England Quarterly, the journal, “Gardening as ‘Women’s Culture’ in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s Short Fiction,” states,“The time women spent in

The garden is the vehicle in which the narrator reveals her reluctance to leave behind the imaginary world of childhood and see the realities of the adult world. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of hiding. The narrator uses the garden to hide from reality and the

The condition of Miss Lottie’s house represents how the Great Depression affects the nation because of the major downfalls of the economy. The Great Depression makes Miss Lottie’s house look like it is about to crumble, but even so Miss Lottie still at least has something to keep her and her house together--her marigolds. Moreover, though the Great Depression brings in negativity, the marigolds Miss Lottie plants are described as ”...strangest part of the picture... Beyond the dusty brown yard, in front of the sorry gray house, rose suddenly and shockingly a dazzling strip of bright blossoms, clumped together in enormous mounds, warm and passionate and sun-golden.” (258-259). Miss Lottie and the town lives in a world where hope is limited, but the marigolds are the things that are beautiful in the town and in Miss Lottie’s eyes because they were hope. The marigolds certainly don’t fit in with the ugliness of the town because they shine brightly and bring hope to the town. The marigolds brings hope to the people in town and to Miss Lottie because the marigolds were the only things in the town which were warm, beautiful, and bright, unlike their gloomy town’s

In “Incident in a Rose Garden” we are cast into a garden on a bright summers day where the frightened gardener seeks to flee death to be with his living family. It is hard to come up with two more different settings. Consider the bleak and dreary winter night versus the walk in the sunny summer flower garden. There are also two completely different moods, one glum and morose and the other excited and frantic.

19. This quote is referring to “the Garden” often mentioned throughout the text, whereby it was set up by Wills’ mother in order to fulfil the previous aspirations of creating a veggie patch created by Will’s Deceased Father and herself. However, this initial idea gradually transforms into a setting which serves as a connection between Will and his Mother. In correlation strengthening their relationship and also creating a source of relief when dealing with grief, in order to better bond with their selves. Therefore, the Author symbolises “the Garden” as a place of healing and growth which can also be correlated to the idea of growth in a plants life seen in the Veggie

In the beginning of the short story, as Brother reflects on Doodle’s life, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to create a mood of remorse. As he gazes out of the window into his backyard, Brother states that “the graveyard flowers were blooming. ...speaking softly the names of our dead” (Hurst 1). The flowers provide flashbacks of the past, and foreshadow a loss of life. The loneliness felt by Brother causes readers to consider how they would feel if their loved one was gone. As Brother observes the seasons, it is noted that “summer was dead but autumn had not yet been born” (Hurst 1). The personifications of the seasons as stages in the cycle of life and death creates an unsure and uncertain mood. The shift between seasons creates an idea of change and uncertainty of events to come. Hurst creates a mood of remorse through

Alice begins her story with Dee’s mother describing her precious yard. The way the narrator describes this bond shows that the yard is something that she keeps very close to her house and that she’s proud. To Dee’s mother the yard, sort of represents a little quite place that she can think and put her thoughts together. She treats it like a child and makes sure

“ Dr. Flint, a physician in the neighborhood, had married the sister of my mistress, and I was now the property of their little daughter” So after Linda’s mistress die, she goes to live with this new family. She relate, when she got to this new home as “ When we entered our new home we encountered cold looks, cold words, and cold treatment”, meaning, she could feel, that things are not going to be as they were before with her last mistress, and that she had nobody “I felt so desolate and alone”. When her father die, she didn't have the opportunity of say a proper goodbye to his body, instead she was ordered to go for flowers for her mistress’s house might be decorated for an evening party. “ I spent the day gathering flowers and weaving them

The garden was something she built with her own hands just like her home that she cherishes and accomplished something that only men were viewed in the society as being able to complete such a feat. Her building and taking care of the garden shows her passion and determination in life, as it is something she crafted and learned on her own with no ones

Over the period of a day, Laura Brown gradually succumbs to her overwhelming desire to liberate herself from her mundane life. Her life has taken a very different direction from what she ever thought it would, and she finds herself completing commonplace household

"The Chrysanthemums" introduces us to Elisa Allen, a woman who knows she has a gift for growing things, but it seems to be limited to her garden. Diligently working in her garden, Elisa watches as men come and go, living their lives unconfined, wondering what it must feel like to have that freedom. That emotion is revealed as Elisa gases at her husband and acquaintances talking, "she looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then." As she tills the soil for her chrysanthemums Elisa tills the thoughts in her head. The garden she so desperately maintained represents her world. A world that will only flourish if nourished. Emotional nourishment and stimulation is what Elisa lacked and longed for. The garden is limited in space to grow and so is her marriage. The garden is safe, non-threatening and so is her world. The garden contains many different elements that make it what it is, although unseen, and if the proper nourishment is not given it will die, as with Elisa.

"The budding rose above the rose full blown," writes William Henry Wordsworth, elevating the process of emerging, changing and evolving over those already developed, established and matured. While Wordsworth’s remark regards a rose, the statement also accurately describes Katherine Mansfield’s protagonist in The Garden Party. The narrative focuses on a wealthy family from New Zealand, jaded by elite lifestyle and prominent social standing. The youngest daughter, Laura, "the budding rose" of the story, seeks to break the constraints of upper class society, causing her to be both more mature and compassionate than other members of her well to do family.