Birthday Party Essay

501 Words3 Pages
Spencer Newhouse Mrs. Olsen A.P. Lit 24 October 2012 Birthday Party “Birthday Party” was written by Katharine Brush in the year of 1946. Brush's short story "Birthday Party" reveals how depressing a marriage can be when spouses are too dull to abandon the middle-class notions of how a man-woman relationship should function. One of the many literacy devices Katharine Brush uses in her short story is symbolism. The burning candle of the small but glossy birthday cake is a symbol of hope. For the reason that the hope of the woman is that perhaps this year her husband will appreciate one of her several gestures that she has done over the course of their relationship. But as the story moves on the celebrating is complete, and the mood changes with it. Once the candle is burnt out, the gesture the woman organized has now revolved into a disaster. The man ignores the cake and his wife efforts and criticizes her for even trying. He takes control of the situation and in the end makes her “cry quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly.” Imagery is also offered in “Birthday Party.” At the beginning of the story, Brush sets the stage as being “a little narrow restaurant that sat on the banquette opposite us” She also describes the man and woman. “The man had a round, self-satisfied face with glasses on it; the woman was fadingly pretty, in a big hat.” Also shown in the short story is characterization. Lines 9 through 10 display characterization “and the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise”. It makes it seem that the woman is happy with the result of her objective, which was to bring out the cake to the man and sing to him. She has done many good deeds for this particular man but he doesn’t seem to appreciate it the way she wants him to. This woman is a thoughtful person and wants to do upright things for people but the same people don’t seem to
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