What does the story signify?
In The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield explores class distinction, and the insolence between the social classes. She shows how a girl from a wealthy class has almost no knowledge of the lower classes.
How does it signify?
Katherine Mansfield uses multiple underlying elements in her story in order to support the theme of the story. One such element is her subtle references to Japan. Mansfield uses diction like "turban," "silk petticoat," and "kimono jacket." This reference to Japan supports the theme because of the strictly set social classes that used to be in place in Japan. Another aspect of the short story that supports the theme is use of aviary diction to describe the high class characters. Mansfield uses words that allude to flight and birds. This is symbolic of how the higher class people are above the rest of the people, and how they "fly" higher than the others.
After reading the three responses from the book, I think that I did pretty good. I got the bird reference that the third student recognized, and I also came up with one that none of the students got. After reading the essay that compares Laura to Persephone, I was astonished by how many connections there were. Once the connection was made, I began to see more similarities, even some that weren't in the essay.
In The Garden Party, Katherine Mansfield explores class distinction, and the insolence between the social classes. She shows how a girl from a wealthy class has almost no knowledge of the lower classes.
How does it signify?
Katherine Mansfield uses multiple underlying elements in her story in order to support the theme of the story. One such element is her subtle references to Japan. Mansfield uses diction like "turban," "silk petticoat," and "kimono jacket." This reference to Japan supports the theme because of the strictly set social classes that used to be in place in Japan. Another aspect of the short story that supports the theme is use of aviary diction to describe the high class characters. Mansfield uses words that allude to flight and birds. This is symbolic of how the higher class people are above the rest of the people, and how they "fly" higher than the others.
After reading the three responses from the book, I think that I did pretty good. I got the bird reference that the third student recognized, and I also came up with one that none of the students got. After reading the essay that compares Laura to Persephone, I was astonished by how many connections there were. Once the connection was made, I began to see more similarities, even some that weren't in the essay.