Class Examination: Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party”
There are many things that separate people. Some divisions come from obvious characteristics, including age, race, and gender. However, others have less to do with appearance and more to do with history and status. Class divisions have been an issue throughout history and continue to isolate groups today. Although the class differences change throughout time, their presence has a defining influence on society as a whole. This idea is examined in a variety of ways throughout a multitude of literary works spanning history. In “The Garden Party,” Katherine Mansfield uses irony, symbolism, and diction to critique the class system in post-WWI New Zealand using the initiation journey
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Roses are present in the garden, as they are “the only flowers that impress people” (Mansfield 2581). Mrs. Sheridan orders so many lilies that Laura think it must be a mistake, saying “nobody ever ordered so many” (Mansfield 2584). Satterfield says, “the flower imagery throughout the story serves to keep the reader reminded of the delicacy of Laura’s world. The flowers are splendid, beautiful, and-what is not stated- short-lived.” He goes on to say that Laura “can see only the beauty and not the dying of the flower, and she cannot see that, in many ways, she is very much like a flower herself.” The delicate life of the Sheridan’s is one that must come to an end. It is beautiful like the flowers, but also like the flowers, it will eventually die. As Darrohn puts it, “the Sheridans operate under the illusion that their easy life is natural… rather than produced through others’ labor.” This idea too can be illustrated by the flowers in the story. The roses that fill the gardens are the work of the gardeners who have “been up since dawn” (Mansfield 2581). It seems to Laura that “hundreds, yes, literally hundreds [of roses] had come out in a single night… as though visited by archangels” (Mansfield 2581). The reader can see through the flowers that the Sheridans have a rose-colored view of how their lifestyle
For millennia, there have been constant conflicts between the upper class and the lower class, characterized by the upper class’s sense of superiority towards those less economically prosperous. Mansfield, Gordimer, and Orwell describe these conflicts between the upper and lower classes to propose that completely transcending class prejudices is impossible and suggest that societal values have greater impact than individual values as they degrade both a person’s behavior and morality.
In “The Flowers,” by Alice Walker, the flowers are used throughout the story to symbolize the beauty and naivety of childhood. In the beginning of the story the author shows the main character Myop walking down a path along the fence of her farm. Myop sees “an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges…” The flowers are bright and colorful, reminding the reader of an innocent type of beauty often associated with them. This suggests the flowers were inserted in the story by Walker to reveal how young and innocent Myop appears to be. Later in the story, after Myop had discovered the dead body of a man who seemed to have been hung “Myop laid down her flowers,”. As Myop put down the flowers she was also putting down the last of her innocence.
I will explore how social classes frankly appear and build up the story of the book by comparing and contrast with a modern social hierarchy. Today, we’re living in a society with social classes existing. We can be classified in different classes and so do I. I wish I could designate my social status, but unfortunately, our social classes are usually determined by wealth (income), occupation, education and prestige. Social class can be shown in a pyramid structure and it usually comprises with upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class and lower class.
Social immobility has been a problem for many people, whether they are citizens of United States of America or immigrants from another country, this is something people confront from time to time in their lives. Janie from Under the Feet of Jesus by Zora Neale Hurston, and Estrella from Their Eyes were Watching God by Helena Maria Viramontes are both examples of characters restricted by the intersectionalism of their gender or social and racial class. Through the two class texts mentioned above, social immobility will be further expounded in the context of characters such as Estella and Janie, and it will also be explored as a force that leads to the restriction and/or the loss of innocence for the characters.
Social classes are a dividing system for people of a nation or country, and have existed for as long as history can date back. In the past, it has designated people to certain categories that determined the opportunities and privileges that they could receive. In the past, the social class a person belonged to was determined by which one he or she was born into, and this label generally stuck to someone for life. In more recent history, broadened opportunity has opened up an escape for those stuck in the lower classes. The social class a person is born into has become a starting point in life, and where somebody ends up is decided by his or her determination. In Toni Cade Bambara's “The Lesson,” the theme is about learning that a person can break free of the inequality of a social class, which is shown by the use of plot, characters, and symbols.
Social class has always been a controversial issue in America. This idea, that individuals are defined by their wealth, is explored by Jeannette Walls in her memoir, The Glass Castle. Walls shows, through a manifold of personal anecdotes, how growing up in a dysfunctional household with financially inept parents affected her and her siblings. Growing up in this environment, Jeannette was exposed to a very different perception of the world around her than those of higher social status. However, despite the constant hardships she faced, Walls makes it clear that a lower social status does not define an individual as inferior to those in a higher class.
The theme throughout the poetry collection is the emotion of melancholy and the speaker speaking with a wise and philosophical tone. She has also used the repetition of nature and religion-based implications in her poems. Most of the poem titles is named after a specific plant because it fits in the meaning of her entire poem collection. The title of the poems hold symbolism because of the flower language. You can constantly see the cycle of rebirth through the beautiful description of a nonphysical form of a soul and develop into beautiful flowers in her garden. The vivid imagery of the flowers by describing the color and the personification of these living beings. She is also trying to explore the relationship between humans and their god. The poet is a gardener who tends to the flower and she prefer the flowers in her garden over her god, “knowing nothing of the
...ioned “roses after roses”, which would be a metaphor for the dead amidst the beautiful roses, which is quite similar to the incident about the gun and the rose, and how all the hurtful things are beneath the beautiful things.
Much of the class was centered on social class and particularly the working poor. The book Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich should me a perspective I was aware of but not completely educated on. When Barbara went to find housing at almost every place it was too expensive to afford. By reading more into the book I found out many people in America are struggling to find affordable safe housing. This shocked me. By reading about this I gained the knowledge that everyone isn’t as lucky as I am and are working extremely hard to get out of the situation they are. Also there was a strong community connection amongst the workers everywhere people went. This made me realize that connections to people are probably one of the most important things you can have when you have close to nothing. It made me think about how my life would be if I were raised in a different environment. Like the story of The Other Wes Moore, I could have been the other Mackenzie Webber. A quote said by the author Wes Moore, “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine. The tragedy is that my story could have been his.” I was able to learn that surroundings and actions you do truly do influence the way you grow up. By turning this situation on myself, it is amazing how different my life would have been if my parents didn’t make the sacrifices they did or
Although imagery and symbolism does little to help prepare an expected ending in “The Flowers” by Alice Walker, setting is the singular element that clearly reasons out an ending that correlates with the predominant theme of how innocence disappears as a result of facing a grim realism from the cruel world. Despite the joyous atmosphere of an apparently beautiful world of abundant corn and cotton, death and hatred lies on in the woods just beyond the sharecropper cabin. Myop’s flowers are laid down as she blooms into maturity in the face of her fallen kinsman, and the life of summer dies along with her innocence. Grim realism has never been so cruel to the innocent children.
The roses in the garden are something the serving-man remarks on “roses occasionally suffer from black spot . . . It is always advisable to purchase goods with guarantees…” (Aldiss 450) Here Teddy reports directly to the need for replacement of such false reality in order to omit imperfections. The rose is initiated earlier as a symbol for Monica, when she plucks one and shows it to David, and at the end he picks one as a reminder of her. And Teddy senses the importance of the roses for the mother and the child as he tries to bond
In Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party,” the first reason that shows the rich Sheri-dans think they are better than the poor Scotts is that the Sheridans feel as if they can disrespect the family of a dead person. However, the wealthy Sheridans can escape from being respectful to people of the lower class since they are in the middle or upper class in society. No one will bother the Sheridans for that they can treat people slightly different from the people of their same social class status. Yet, the Sheridans are not remorseful for the people who are not in their social class. Therefore, the Sheridans are not empathetic regarding the death of Mr. Scott; how-ever, the Sheridans still continued with their party and listen to music from
In his novella 'The Great Gatsby', F. Scott Fitzgerald presents class as a personal and definite thing, illustrating how attempts to change your class will lead to tragedy. Jane Austen, in her novel 'Pride and Prejudice', uses class as a criticism of society. Her portrayal of class differs from Fitzgerald's as she presents the idea that class restrictions, while rigid, do not determine one's character and can therefore be overcome. Both novels explore their views on the segregation of classes through the circumstances in the time periods they are writing about.
...analysed the ‘master narrative’ in order to come to the conclusion that ‘the terminology of class was not the favoured language of radicals in Thompson’s period and after, rather the construct ‘the people’ predominated and tended towards inclusiveness and harmony between classes.’
Class distinction is one of Jane Austen’s themes in the novel, and the differentiation related to it is evidently depicted. Reading the novel from the first chapter, I realize that the author clearly illustrates that class is what matters most in many of the incidences displayed by the characters. Unless an individual is of a given class, the idea that he or she has money is not valued, since only birth in a certain background is what is of value. When a person openly values money over class, such a person is frowned upon. In general terms, the Novel shows a social world extremely stratified and full of pretension and class struggle.