A Lesson About Life in The Stolen Party
In Liliana Heker’s story, "The Stolen Party," the young child Rosaura is hurt because she is a victim of a class structure which keeps the rich on the top and people like her and her mother at the bottom of society. By the end of the story Rosaura will have learned a very important lesson in class structure which, because it is so traumatic for her, she will carry with her for the rest of her life.
The first evidence we see which supports the claim that this is a story of class structure comes when Rosaura’s mother says to her, "I don’t like you going, it’s a rich people’s party" (Heker 1133). This lets the reader know that the mother is aware of the ways of the world. She knows that she and Rosaura are the help in the eyes of Senora Ines, so naturally the mother knows that there is a good chance Rosaura will be treated as such. Unfortunately, the mother was right. At the sane time the reader is also shown that Rosaura has not learned about discrimination in our society. This is proven when Rosaura says, "Rich people go to heaven too" (Heker 1133). It is too bad that this innocent child, or for that matter any child, must learn the painful truth of upper class/lower class relations at such a young age. In actuality, no one should ever learn this lesson, it is a flaw in our culture that we put people into classes at all.
Next, the fact that Rosaura thinks she will be just another guest at Luciana’s party proves again that she is unaware of class structure. Rosaura’s mother tells her that Luciana is not her friend, and that in her eyes Rosaura is just the maid’s daughter. At first this may seem harsh, but as Kevin Elliott says in his essay "The Stolen Future," the mother kn...
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...ura because at this time she realizes she had been the help at the party. Unfortunately, Rosaura was not prepared for what she was taught that day. By the time we reach the end of the story it is evident that the child, Rosaura, has learned a painful lesson in class structure which she will take with her throughout the rest of her life.
Works Cited
Elliott, Kevin. "The Stolen Future." Ode to Friendship & Other Essays. VWC. Virginia Beach: Connie Bellamy, 1996. 84-86.
Hatcher, Nathan. "The Deception of Senora Ines." Ode to Friendship & Other Essays. VWC. Virginia Beach; Connie Bellamy, 1996. 87.
Heker, Liliana. "The Stolen Party." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1133-1137.
Spontak, Brandon. "Parents Know Best." Ode to Friendship & Other Essays. VWC. Virginia Beach: Connie Bellamy, 1996. 89-91.
World War II was a war that took many lives from civilians that deserved to have a life of their own. They were ordinary people who were victims from a horrible and lengthy war that brought out the worst in some people. In Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, Levi gives a detailed account of his life in a concentration camp. Primo Levi was a young Italian chemist who was only twenty-four years old when he was captured by the Nazis in 1943. He spent two long and torturous years at Auschwitz before the Russian army freed the remaining prisoners of the camp. He tells about life inside the camp and how tough it was to be held like an animal for so long. He says they were treated as inhumanly as possible while many others in the camp would end up dying from either starvation or being killed. They had to do work that was very strenuous while they had no energy and had to sleep in quarters that resembled packed rat cages. With all of this, Levi describes the complex social system that develops and what it takes to survive. The soc...
This novel is about the horrific events that took place towards Levi and other captive jewish members over a ten month period at Ka-Be in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Throughout the autobiography, Levi states graphic accounts on everything that happen to him. In the beginning, Levi was captured by the Fascist Militia on December 13, 1943, at the age of 24. Shortly after being captured, Levi starts to endure all the hardships of being a jewish prisoner at a nazi concentration camp. He writes about the poor living conditions, the painful, back breaking work he was forced to do, and the people he encounters. As he becomes wiser to the system, Levi realizes intelligence is the key to his freedom. Levi says he was "too civilized" and "thinks too much," (103) to work in the fields and will eventually end in selections. Because Levi was intellectual, he thought before he acted as oppose to acting before he thinks like most of the other prisoners he was with. For this reason, he got a specialty job working in a laboratory as oppose to working on the fields. It is for his brilliance and his...
Concentration camps, such as the one in which Levi lived, were tools of national socialist ideology. It further empowered the Nazi?s to treat the Jews as subhuman (an ?inferior race?). Within in a short time after arriving at the camp, men were stripped of everything they had known throughout life. Families were immediately separated after the transport trains were unloaded, dividing the ?healthy? from the ?ill?. Levi learns that he is now called a ?Haftling? and is given a number (174517), which is tattooed on his forearm, replacing his actual name. ?The whole process of introduction to what was f...
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
In the short story “River of Names” by Dorothy Allison, violence replaces education. The family in the story, which represents uneducated and poor lower class citizens, continues through a cycle of death and abuse throughout generations. Without proper education, improper actions and thoughts are hard to overcome. For example, the narrator’s sister, Billie, promised herself that she “wasn’t going to be like that” (Allison 170). The narrator and Billie swore they would break away from the pattern of violence within their family; however, their natural instincts leaned toward violent actions. Billie expressed violence towards her child’s cries while the narrator expressed her violence towards Jesse. The narrator of this story had more experience with educated people and therefore had more control over her actions by distinguishing right from wrong. Education aids in the use of moral sense. Although some lower class citizens have access to education, it is not the same quality education the upper class receives. In the short story “The Stolen Party,” Liliana Heker creates a scene of comparison between the education of different classes. Rosaura, the maid’s daughter, and Luciana, the daughter of the high class employer, worked on their homework together every day after school. Rosaura thought she was “a friend of Luciana” because of this; however, Luciana’s friends looked down upon Rosaura because she did not attend the same school as Luciana (150). The lower class faces discrimination due to the elite education of the upper class. The refinement and delicacy of higher class education provides them with knowledge of how to prepare their future generations for greatness instead of violence or
Primo Levi, in his novel Survival in Auschwitz (2008), illustrates the atrocities inflicted upon the prisoners of the concentration camp by the Schutzstaffel, through dehumanization. Levi describes “the denial of humanness” constantly forced upon the prisoners through similes, metaphors, and imagery of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization (“Dehumanization”). He makes his readers aware of the cruel reality in the concentration camp in order to help them examine the psychological effects dehumanization has not only on those dehumanized, but also on those who dehumanize. He establishes an earnest and reflective tone with his audience yearning to grasp the reality of genocide.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. C. 1998
In the story The Stolen Party, Liliana Heker shows symbolism, figurative language, and irony. Rosaura could not understand the differences between the rich and the poor. She was accepted by the rich family and was friends with their daughter, Luciana. Even though her mom told her that they only accepted her as a maid and nothing else. Nevertheless, she was eager to go to the party and decided to go with excitement. Symbolism, figurative language, and irony are expressed in the story and play an important role because it tells us the difference between the upper class and the lower class.
Many rumors of the birth of Prince Hall have arisen. A few records and papers have been found of him in Barbados where it was rumored that he was born in 1748, but no record of birth by church or by state, has been found there, and none in Boston. All 11 countries were searched and churches with baptismal records were examined without finding the name of Prince Hall.
For the young Dulce Rosa Orellano, life is great being the beautiful daughter of Senator Anselmo Orellano. She has people waiting on her hands and feet, and is even crowned jasmines of Carnival Queen for another consecutive year. That is until “rumors of the beauty who was flourishing in the Senator Orellano’s house reaches the ears of Tadeo Cespedes” (Charters 43). Given that he was “only concerned with the Civil War”, everything is a fight for him. So Tadeo made it his mission to seek out the young beauty and have her as his own. This mission consisted of shooting up the home with all of his men, murdering Senator Orellano, and unwillingly raping Dulce Rosa. Before being in he hands of the Tadeo, she says before her father, “let me live so that I can avenge us both” (Charters 44). In doing so, Dulce Rosa grows up to forget about her high fame and beauty, to a woman to live alone and whose only mission on Earth is vengeance (45). Tadeo how ever, gets old and leaves his violent days. He actually comes to his sense and searches for Dulce Rosa to apologize for his past behavior so that he may “attain a certain degree of happiness” (Charters 46). To his own dismay he ends up falling for Dulce Rosa, who in turns kills herself as her revenge for her father to him.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1c. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print. The.
Thousands of people were sent to concentration camps during World War Two, including Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel. Many who were sent to the concentration camps did not survive but those who did tried to either forgot the horrific events that took place or went on to tell their personal experiences to the rest of the world. Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi wrote memoirs on their time spent in the camps of Auschwitz; these memoirs are called ‘Night’ and ‘Survival in Auschwitz’. These memoirs contain similarities of what it was like for a Jew to be in a concentration camp but also portray differences in how each endured the daily atrocities of that around them. Similarities between Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi’s memoirs can be seen in the proceedings that
Chimpanzees (Figure 1) are the closest living relatives to us, and they share 99 percent of our DNA (1). Chimpanzees have distinct group territoriality. Male chimpanzees “patrol” near the boundary between the two ranges, at that time they move very carefully and quietly, and they can cease to listen and observe the range of their neighbors. Patrolling individuals are likely to face cruel and violent attacks, injuries, and even deaths. Intense excitement and aggressive display can occur if the two parties of two communities encounter each other. Usually, the larger group holds its ground, and interaction between different chimpanzees communities may also lead to gang attack. Expanding the community range is necessary to their social organizations, the males cooperation can defend the territory and increase the reproductive rates of the resident females by excluding female and male competitors. Body contact is common in their social life such as grooming (1). Usually, chimpanzees groom each other as a way to show harmony and solidarity in their society (Figure 2). Grooming each other demonstrates the deep bonds and close relationship between them. In addition, they can even hug, hold hands, touch, kiss each other as a way of emotional expression (2).
Baym, Nina. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature.” Rev. 6 ed W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 2003.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.