Materialism In The Stolen Party

The way one interacts with others is commonly determined by their social class, when one’s class is higher than the other it becomes more acceptable to treat them a certain way and the opposite applies too. The Stolen Party follows a young girl Rosaura who despite her low social standing is friends with a rich girl Luciana. Rosaura was invited to Luciana’s birthday party and despite her mother’s protests she decides to go. Despite appearing to integrate herself into the richer population, her dreams of equality were ultimately shattered at the conclusion of the party. Heker’s use of symbolism and characters criticizes the effects of classism on children of lower class. She argues for the decrease in economic stratification to create equality

The injustices these characters face aim to convince readers of the benefits for the destratification of wealth. Rosaura is a character that believes in equality and that despite not having as much money she can still be friends with Luciana. She sees that it is “unfair of her mother to accuse other people of being liars simply because they were rich”(1), which demonstrates her belief in equality. She criticizes the effects of classism by trying to break free of the status quo by being friends with Luciana, and despite failing, she leaves an impression on the reader of the injustices classism perpetrates on children. Rosaura's mother takes the form of the voice of realism. She claims that Rosaura likes to “fart higher than [her] ass”(1), meaning that she is arrogant or has unreasonably high aspirations of being equal with the upper class. Rosaura's mother acts as the antithesis of Rosaura, as she views staunchly that the rich and poor will always be separated. Rosaura's mother creates the initial criticism of classism by presenting the possibility of Rosaura being regarded in a lower light compared to her peers. She mentions how they will view her as nothing but the maid’s daughter, this perspective instills a sense of outrage in the reader as they realize that even as a child, one is being separated into