The Garden Party Symbolism Essay

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Katherine Mansfield states that “One must go everywhere, one must see everything” (The Garden Party 75). The aforementioned quote states that an individual must try to see the world differently in order to realize the difference between illusions and reality. In Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”, Mansfield develops a notion of how an individual discovers their true self, when exposed to the reality of life. The protagonist’s, Laura, who has been living in an illusionary world, demonstrates this idea. When she becomes exposed to two distinct environments, she goes through some transformations, which makes her discover her own identity.
The protagonist, Laura belongs to a wealthy family where her is life is perfect. She carries on with an ideal life that most people desire to live. The narrator creates some images of paradise to demonstrate how impeccable Laura’s life is. However, Laura has been trapped from the reality. She has not been exposed to the lives of the destitute. This is demonstrated when the …show more content…

The hat symbolizes the life of the upper class family. The mother is indirectly telling the protagonist that worrying about the lower class people is not their job, and the protagonist should not waste her time on that. When Laura tells her mother to cancel the party, her mother draws her attention to the hat she gave her. The hat symbolizes the life of the upper class family. The mother is indirectly telling the protagonist that worrying about the lower class people is not their job, and the protagonist should not waste her time on that. When the protagonist wears the hat, she sees a new different world, a world where she feels young and sophisticated. Laura lives an illusionary live again, she goes back to her idealize life and draws back from the reality. This is her mother’s trick to distract Laura and keeping her away from the lower class

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