ipl-logo

The Perception Of Life In Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party

1227 Words5 Pages

Children have always had a mystical way of viewing the world in which they see the most genuine beauty in everything around them while the people who have come of age struggled to see that exact same beauty they once saw. The naiveness of children is something envied by those who have been subjected to life’s many trials, but being relieved of the naïve also opened doors for these adults to form a new perception of the world around them. Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” shows that retaining an innocent view of life is impossible once one comes of age. Mansfield does an excellent job of portraying the sheltered life of Laura Sheridan through the relationships she has with her family and the environment around her. Laura’s wistful views of her surroundings are shown in the story when she describes the, “Little faint winds playing chase, in at the topes of the windows, out at the doors. And there were two tiny spots of sun, one on the inkpot, one on the silver photograph frame, playing too (Mansfield).” Mansfield’s use of personification of the wind and the sun rays helps to create the innocent and child-like views of Laura as she lives her sheltered life with her family. A little further on in the story, while the family is still in the prepping stages for the garden party, Laura becomes entranced by the cream puff delicacies that arrive in the kitchen for the party. Laura describes her and her sister Jose as being, “far too grown-up to really care about such things [the cream puffs] …show more content…

While the beauty around Laura was tainted briefly by the outside world’s trials, Laura realized in the end that she could move past the naïve elements of her life and use them to understand the world around her that she was not subjected to. Despite losing the ability to only see things as whimsical as one comes of age, it is possible to remember the wonder one once

Show More
Related

Analysis Of The Monkey Garden By Sandra Cisneros

273 Words | 2 Pages

“The Monkey Garden” is a short story by Sandra Cisneros about a young girl named Esperanza who lives near a fantastic garden. The diction and personification in the story affects how Esperanza breaks free from her childhood and loses her innocence. Esperanza enjoys playing in the garden, but her friend Sally tells her she is too old to play where the children play. Esperanza realizes that “the garden that had been such a good place to play didn’t seem mine either” (Cisneros 2) after her friend Sally plays an unorthodox kissing game with boys at the garden. As a result, Esperanza loses her innocence when they laugh at her for trying to “save” Sally.

Read More

Comparison Of Billy Collins 'Hanging Fire And' On Turning Ten

214 Words | 1 Pages

It is wholly recurrent to blindly skim through a detailed piece of literature and be unconscious to the likeness it shares with other pieces of literature. I am surely guilty of this ignorant practice, however. As I was reading “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, I didn’t truly perceive the connection right away. The obvious was already divulged in my mind; they’re both in the points of views of children. They, however, both have a mutual theme; growing up brings uncertainty and disappointment.

Read More

Literary Techniques Exposed In Maxine Clair's Cherry Bomb

663 Words | 3 Pages

In the passage from Maxine Clair’s “Cherry Bomb,” the adult narrator shares her memories of her fifth-grade summer world. Through the use of literary techniques, Clair clearly depicts the naivety and youthfulness of the adult narrator’s fifth-grade summer. In the first paragraph, the narrator’s feelings of naive and youthfulness about their childhood summer are highlighted through her memories of an expression, and an ice truck. The narrator uses the appeal of the expression “‘I am in this world, but not of it’” to express the youthfulness of her fifth-grade self.

Read More

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Beach Lessons By Zan Smith

914 Words | 4 Pages

This is used to compare the visual from before, in which the children looked as if they weren’t human and detached from one another. Dominating the image are two young children who are laughing and entertaining themselves with a spade and shovel, portraying the immediate shift in behaviour once they are initiating in proper social activities. Thus, readers are enlightened and encouraged to stand up and be apart of the solution. Smith also provides the audience with a range of advantages in taking the kids outsides, from no more “arguments and demands” to “a child’s first ecstatic experience of buoyancy”; they are positioned to prevent further interactions with screens by allowing them to experience the outside world and enhance their “world of senses” and “childhood

Read More

Analysis Of Mary Pipher's Saplings In The Storm

713 Words | 3 Pages

In Mary Pipher’s passage, Saplings in The Storm, Pipher claims that young big-hearted girls are changing as they age. She claims that the nature and source of these problems come from the fairy tales, which capture the essence of change, and approval of others. The elements of language that she uses are tone and rhetorical devices. This passage is made in order to appeal to the audience about the situation and to get them interested in the situation. As adolescent girls grow up they start to lose their inner kid that was once inside them.

Read More

My Daughter At 14 Christmas Dance Analysis

100 Words | 1 Pages

The appeal of adulthood and independence reaches its apex in fervent children. However, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet of My Daughter at 14, Christmas Dance, 1981, conveys the paternal perspective of viewing one’s own kin experiencing the “real” world through her daughter’s first relationship. The Family of Little Feet, written by Sarah Cisneros, illuminates the negativities of young girl’s eagerness to physically develop in hope of acquiring attention from possible suitors. While both pieces of literature possess varying perspectives of epiphanies, Gillan and Cisneros divulge the significance of cherishing one’s youth, as the realities of maturity divest children of their innocence.

Read More

Childhood In The Glass Castle By Jeannette Walls

103 Words | 1 Pages

When society thinks of the word “childhood,” they imagine it as a precious time for children to be in school and freely play, to grow and learn with the love and support from people dear to their hearts. It is also known to be a cherished period where children are to be innocent and live carefree from fear. However, in the context of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, childhood is viewed as a tough hardship that Jeannette and her siblings have overcame, and the memories they carry has greatly impacted their lives that it has molded them to who they are

Read More

Beauty In The Short Story Marigolds By Eugenia Collier

707 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story, “Marigolds,” the author, Eugenia Collier, acknowledges the universal theme that people can create beauty in even the most dreariest of places. The story takes place in Maryland during the Great Depression. Lizabeth, the main character, is an adult looking back to the time when she had transitioned from childhood to womanhood. Miss Lottie, an old woman who lived in a shabby, broken down house, planted marigolds. As a child, Lizabeth had thought Miss Lottie to be a witch and despised the marigolds because it did not match the poverty and sadness that surrounded her.

Read More

A Soldier's Fugue Analysis

810 Words | 4 Pages

In a simile, she compares gardening to “boxing… The wins versus the losses” (Hudes 16). Through this comparison, Hudes conveys Ginny’s deep desire for a sense of control and success in her life. This desire is fed by the memory of her father, who was only bearable when he was gardening. Specifically, the assertion of this desire for control is evident as she recalls that her father “was a mean bastard…” but “became a saint if you put a flower in his hand” (Hudes 15). From those experiences of dealing with her father, a psychological analogy between nature and peace was instilled in Ginny’s mind at a young age, and is what she relies on as an adult to handle her emotional trauma.

Read More

Myop's Innocence In The Flowers By Alice Walker

226 Words | 1 Pages

Summer is often called the peaceful era in childhood. “The flowers”, by Alice Walker shows how a young girl lives in the innocence of a child. Walkers use of colorful imagery and several powerful symbols, describes how the little girl loses her innocence. Myop was once a pure and innocent child.

Read More

Anne Shirley A Modest Woman

164 Words | 1 Pages

When Anne Shirley, a wildly imaginative girl, is adopted by Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert by mistake, the Cuthberts world flips upside down. A once quiet farmland transforms into a bustling, colorful, kingdom. Anne is guided by her imagination and daydreams. But her daydreams often distract her, leading to household disasters, causing conflict for both Anne and Marilla, who is a very modest woman. In Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book, “Anne of Green Gables”, Anne is brought up by Marilla while Matthew works outside on the farm.

Read More

Imagery In Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

1128 Words | 5 Pages

Miss Brill is lonely, has a completely messed up mind, and tries to hide her true self by trying to live other people’s lives. Miss Brill views each person at the garden differently. The people who are mostly like her are the ones she judges the most, “Miss Brill had often noticed-there was something funny about nearly all of them. They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or even-even cupboards!” (Mansfield 185).

Read More

Symbolism In Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

554 Words | 3 Pages

Symbolism in Miss Brill Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities. In the story, “Miss Brill”, Katherine Mansfield frequently uses symbolism to portray the theme. Miss Brill's fur, the young lady in the toque, and the orchestra music are all uses of symbolism. Miss Brill’s fur is kept away in a box, alone, until she takes it out to wear it. This symbolizes Miss Brill leaving her room and walking to the park for her weekly Sunday outing; however, the fur also represents the things that Miss Brill desires.

Read More

The Flowers By Alice Walker Literary Devices

455 Words | 2 Pages

In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior.     At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.

Read More

Imagery And Diction In Alice Walker's 'The Flowers'

524 Words | 3 Pages

The imagery had much light and childishness to it. With images such as “it seemed to Myop as she skipped lightly from her house to pigpen to smokehouse that the days had never been as beautiful as these”. As well as having lines such as “she felt light and good in the warm sun”, and “She struck out at random at chickens she liked” to create the feeling of child hood innocence, using all of this light to mean goodness and being unaffected by the harshness of reality. However she also uses the imagery later to show the loss of innocence when she describes everything as darker, when she starts using lines such as “it seemed gloomy in the little clove she found herself in” and “all his cloths had rotted away”. Alice walker is using this imagery to convey that the innocence has been lost at this point, taken by the harshness of reality and death.

Read More

More about The Perception Of Life In Katherine Mansfield's The Garden Party

Related Topics

Open Document