Laura’s Struggle for Growth in The Garden Party Essay -- Garden Party

Laura’s Struggle for Growth in The Garden Party  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Through her short story "The Garden Party," Katherine Mansfield portrays a young woman’s struggle through adolescence and her tumultuous entrance into adulthood. Mansfield paints a tale of grievance, bewilderment, enlightenment, and maturation furthered by the complications of class distinctions. Mansfield’s protagonist, Laura, encounters considerable hardship in growing up and must denounce all of the puerile convictions in her chimerical world in order to attain maturity in the real adult world. As does any normal teenager, Laura Sheridan struggles to make sense of her adolescent life. As Don Klein remarks, "The story’s focus—and central dramatic impulse—is the young girl’s secret struggle to grow up" (124). Grappling with excessive inner turmoil, she attempts to erect a unique identity for herself, one set apart from those of her family members. In order to effect such radical transformation, she is first compelled to overcome several major impediments in her life, the most encumbering being her mother. The overbearing presence of Laura’s mother and her mother’s ideals pose an impending hindrance in Laura’s progression to adulthood. As Laura battles with maturity, she begins shedding the skin of her childhood and hence begins transcending the mold created for her by her mother’s upbringing. Laura also begins to denounce the snug, evasive dream world that her mother has suffocated her in. Mrs. Sheridan intentionally raises her children in this dream world in order that she have complete control over their thoughts and actions without their knowledge. She furthers this dream world by letting them believe that they, and not she, are actually in control. For in... ... the daily life struggles of an average teenager, but also, on a more personal level, she gives insight into her own adolescent hardships as well. Works Cited Davis, Robert Murray. "The Unity of ‘The Garden Party.’ "Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 128-30. Klein, Don W. "’The Garden Party’: A Portrait of the Artist." Short Story Criticism 23.(1993): 123-8. Mansfield, Katherine. "The Garden Party." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Ed. M. H. Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2510-20. Taylor, Donald S. "Crashing the Garden Party: A Dream-A Wakening." Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 121-2. Walker, Warren S. "The Unresolved Conflict in ‘The Garden Party.’" Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 119-21. Weiss, Daniel A. "Crashing the Garden Party: The Garden Party of Proserpina." Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 122-1.