Mansfields The Garden Party - Essay Example

The gap between the rich and the poor is emphasized through a rich family’s garden party. In “The Garden Party,” Katherine Mansfield depicts the quaint life of the rich, and how their lives sharply diverge from the poor. The rich are fond of giving lunch or dinner parties as a way of socializing and entertaining themselves. The Sheridans are the typical rich family, but Laura is learning something beyond what her class often learns in their circle. The death of a young, poor man pushes her to discover something important about life. Through the setting and main characters of the story, “The Garden Party” is a Bildungsroman because Laura realizes that social class can only divide people superficially, but the reality is that they are overwhelmingly similar in one important trait- the certainty of mortality, which undercuts the notion that life is a garden party.
To explore how Laura gained her maturity, the setting must be analyzed, where it proves the wide gap between the rich and the poor and the discrimination that acts as a gulf between them. Mansfield describes that a “broad road” ran between the communities of the upper and lower class (9). The road that divides the two neighborhoods emphasizes the gap between the rich and the poor, where the gap ensures their lack of interaction and understanding of one another. Indeed, Laura and her siblings are not allowed to go to the other side, as if they will be afflicted with immorality and stupidity. Aside from the road, the garden party stands for the superficial activities of the rich that has transformed the Sheridans into cold people with no feelings for people from the lower class. The Sheridans are more concerned about the marquee and the flags on their sandwiches, while the poor are focused on their basic needs. Finally, Sheridan’s house seems open to all intrusions, but it ironically shows that the rich are close to the issues of the poor. They can only appear to be open, though they are close-minded.

Laura’s mother and siblings are not aware of the deeper issues of human existence because of the comforts that their class provides them. Meg knows that the party calls for her participation, but she is more engaged with her hair than the activities outside herself. The morning begins with the washing of her hair and ends with her fixing herself. Jose thinks that life is a theater, where drama is essential to feel its intensity. Laura believes that the household helpers “loved obeying [Jose]” (Mansfield 6), but she cannot possibly know that. The poor do not choose who to obey. Mrs. Sheridan cares more for flowers than the feelings of the dead family, who are beyond her social status. When Laura informs her that someone died, she feels relieved that the man did not die in her garden. Thus, these people care for their own petty needs only.

By going to the slum area and visiting a dead young man, Laura rises from the sleeping illusion that life is perfect and eternal and opens her eyes to the reality that in death, social class does not matter. While walking in the slums, Laura becomes painfully aware of her “frock” that “shone” because it meant nothing to the poor (Mansfield 14). Not all that glitters is gold. The trip to the slums becomes a voyage to the truth, where Laura understands her class and how frivolous they are. In addition, Laura, by partaking in the sorrow of the dead, poor family, realizes the truth that life is not a garden party, but a path to certain death. For her, the dead man’s face is “happy” and “content” (Mansfield 16), which she does not feel in her own life. Through this voyage, Laura connects with her inner humanity and finds compassion for the poor, who have more because they have less. She understands what life is not. It is not about celebrating extravagant garden parties, but having a meaningful life. Read More