Katharine Brush's The Birthday Party

What is it about milkshakes, burger joints, Buick Specials, letter sweaters, long skirts and knit sweaters that make entire generations want that old kind of love? As a nation, America has romanticized the jocks, shy girls greasers, and glamour girls from the mid-twentieth century. However, love and marriage was not entirely serene and picturesque as the Hollywood black and white films portray them. In her short story, “Birthday Party” (1946) Katharine Brush paints the harsh reality facing women in marriages of the time by using symbolism, creating her story from a bystander’s point of view, and carefully choosing which details to include. Looking at marriage the way someone from the 1950s would, the wife is subservient. She she must be

Hinting at the husband’s arrogance, Brush characterizes the husband as “self-satisfied” (line 3) and the wife’s glamour as “fadingly pretty” (line 3), suggesting the marriage is taking a toll of the woman’s youth. This sets the framing foundation to believe Brush is, indeed, writing of wed couples of the time. Meanwhile, in lines 7 and 8 the “small but glossy, with one pink candle burning in the center” represents the wife’s struggles within the marriage. Like the cake being prepared for its best, the wife brings forth her best to appease and please her husband. The cake, no matter how wonderful, like the woman’s effort, would have caused the same reaction from her husband. The candle itself may symbolize the way the wife surrounds and preoccupies herself with her husband. Therefore, these symbols are essential to the reader’s understanding as they give the reader deeper insight to the unhappiness Brush is trying to

Because the narrator mentions there “was nothing conspicuous about them [wed couple]” the audience can assume the narrator is not surprised to see a husband’s “self-satisfied” (line 3) countenance or the woman’s beauty “fading” (line 4) as it is the norm. Our narrator’s point of view is also important to create sympathy for the woman. For example, the narrator expresses that he/she cannot “bear to look at the woman” (line 18), causing for a wave of concern from Bush’s audience. However, the narrator’s staying as a bystander is most important, because the narrator’s inaction to not confront the husband or comfort the woman despite his/her noticing is the cherry to top the societal standards of the time. By not having our narrator act, Brush is conveying that the wife is to deal alone, comforted only by her husband if he chooses to comfort her at