Analysis Of Katherine Brush's Birthday Party

335 Words2 Pages
In unhealthy relationships, many people start to feel agitated, depressed, anxious, and even hopeless. Katherine Brush’s “Birthday Party” shows a couple clearly stuck in an unhealthy situation. The husband makes the wife cry after she plans a nice surprise for his birthday. Brush uses characterization to showcase the detrimental effects of an unhealthy relationship through the actions and words of the husband and wife. The wife plans a nice surprise for her husband, and while the initial response of a person in a healthy relationship is a feeling of gratitude, the husband “...was not pleased. Instead, he was hotly embarrassed and indignant…”( Brush lines 13-14). Brush characterizes the husband as ungrateful and unwilling to communicate in