In “Birthday Party” by Katharine Brush she uses imagery, symbolism, and irony to explain how relationships work.
Imagery is used throughout the story to depict, and emphasize the wife’s sad emotions: “Crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly, all to herself, under the gay dig brim of her best hat” (Brush 20). The author could have just said that the wife was disappointed and sad, but instead she choose to describe the situation using multiple adjectives. This has more of a lasting effect on the reader. It’s easy to read “she was sad and cry”, and just forget about it. Since she uses those adjectives, and add’s “and” instead of commas the statement has more of a lasting effect on the reader because they’re slowly painting this picture of the woman. Each time Brush adds a new adjective it adds another layer of emotion to imagine.
This example of imagery is also used to show how people react when certain things take place in a relationship. When something sad happens people usually let it be known through their actions, and the same thing goes for is something joyous has occurred. By using this imagery, and word phrasing, Brush is emphasizing the fact that people show their internal feelings through external actions. Some examples would be smiling, laughing, frowning,
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and crying. This is important is a relationship because not all of the time do the people involved in the relationship bluntly let their feelings be known. Often times, it is necessary to read between the line. Certain items are used as symbols to represent general actions that anyone in a relationship can relate to, for example, “The headwaiter brought it [the cake] in and placed it before the husband, and meanwhile the violin-and-piano orchestra played “Happy Birthday to You”” (Brush 9).
The birthday cake and orchestra symbolize how people try their best for the ones they love. The wife is trying to celebrate her husband's birthday. She doesn't do much for him, but she at least tries with the hopes that her husband will appreciate her efforts. This idea relates to real life relationships because like the wife in the story, people who care about their loved one usually at least try to make them
happy. Irony is used to show how ungrateful the husband is: “The Husband was not pleased. Instead, he was hotly embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him” (Brush 12). The scene is described as what is meant to be the joyous moment of a woman surprising her husband for his birthday, but it is quickly shown that the husband is unhappy about what she did. Even the narrator is hoping that this would have been a happy moment: “You looked at him and you saw this and you thought, “Oh, now, don’t be like that!”” (Brush 15). The irony of this situation is meant to help represent the idea that no matter what, you can’t please everyone. The wife is only trying to make him, yet he is still extremely disappointed. This relates to how in a relationship, even though one person can try to make things work that doesn't meant the other person will be receptive of that. The purpose of this story is to show how hard people try to make others happy, and how ungrateful they can be. It matters because people sometimes think that if they do all the right things then they will automatically be loved. This idea matters because it’s untrue. The author is trying to tell us that no matter how much effort is given, not everyone will appreciate it.
Katherine Brush utilizes diction and atmosphere to convey the mood’s shift throughout the story. Her choice of words and the aura they create demonstrate the transition from a seemingly jovial occasion, to a tense and uncomfortable reaction. “The Birthday Party” takes a seemingly normal couple and uncovers the troubles that lay just beneath the surface.
In her short story, "The Birthday Party", Katharine Brush depicts the cruelty that many people in this world so curtly reveal. Through her use of imagery, diction, and point of view she is able to send this message across to her audience.
In "The Birthday Party" by Katherine Brush, the author uses literary devices such as imagery, point of view, and mood/tone in order to get her point across and achieve her purpose. These devices drive the story and control the smooth flow of the changing atmosphere in a way that is understandable and flowing.
In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author Amy Tan, uses figurative language to create an effect on the readers. Tan uses similes, metaphors, and symbolism, to add to the overall message of the relationships between mother and daughter and bond between them that has been inherited. However, Tan also uses language to show the connection between storytelling, memories, and inheritance.
Human; relating to or having characteristics of a person(Merriam-Webster). A human is truly just a soul combined with characteristics of other people, and this is proven by Jenna Fox; the main character in The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson. After finding out what her body is made up of, Jenna along with other characters think she is not human. Despite this Jenna Fox has always had the key elements it takes to be a human been. Jenna for one has a past and memories that make up her life even after the accident. More importantly it is unfair to call her a “monster” when she shows characteristics similar to that of other humans. Needless to say, Jenna just as any other human isn’t perfect, and she later learns that in order to be one hundred percent human she must have the same chances of succeeding in life as any other human would. Jenna Fox is human because she has a soul regardless of her differences.
Imagery consists of descriptive language that can function as a way for the reader to better imagine which draws on the five senses, namely the details of taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound. As the author describes the feelings and emotions about letting go of their son, she uses imagery to describe the way they are feeling and their actions. For example, “Where two weeks ago, / holding a hand, he’d dawdle, dreamy, slow,” (lines 13-14). The example of imagery is the sense of touch when describing her son’s walk to school while holding his hand when he was not alone. This adds the meaning of the poem because he is comfortable walking with his parents but becomes more nervous and anxious when not comforted by them. The imagery adds to the effect of its
Most of us can easily picture a typical child's party, loud and hyper boys running about, noise and fun and screaming kids and chaos, but this party seems to be viewed differently by the mother. It is a more serious and quiet event. She sees the boys as "short men" gathering in the living room, not as children having fun. The children seems subdued to us, with "hands in pockets". It is almost as if they are waiting, as the readers are, for something of imp...
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
The music was simply in my opinion, background noise which helped, especially at the beginning to put the audience in place and time. The main theme I believe that The Learned Ladies encompasses is approval and greed. This play looks at the limits we are willing to go for our own happiness, but not the happiness of others. I particularly enjoy the fact that in the end, we see the true colors of each complex character. Since it is a comedy I think it is funny that it makes light of the arguments between husband and wife.
When a wife surprises her husband on his birthday, an ironic turn of events occurs. Katherine Brush’s “The Birthday Party” is a short story about relationships, told from the perspective of a nearby observer. Brush uses the words and actions of the married couple to assert that a relationship based on selfishness is weak.
many other emotions that the artist is trying to display in his painting. Although we can try and
There are a couple of similes the author uses in the poem to stress the helplessness she felt in childhood. In the lines, “The tears/ running down like mud” (11,12), the reader may notice the words sliding down the page in lines 12-14 like mud and tears that flowed in childhood days. The speaker compares a...
The author uses imagery, contrasting diction, tones, and symbols in the poem to show two very different sides of the parent-child relationship. The poem’s theme is that even though parents and teenagers may have their disagreements, there is still an underlying love that binds the family together and helps them bridge their gap that is between them.
The choice of words of the author also contributes to the development of the theme. For example, the use of words like "drafty," "half-heartedly," and "half-imagined" give the reader the idea of how faintly the dilemma was perceived and understood by the children, thus adding to the idea that the children cannot understand the burden the speaker has upon herself. In addition, referring to a Rembrandt as just a "picture" and to the woman as "old age," we can see that these two symbols, which are very important to the speaker and to the poem, are considered trivial by the children, thus contributing to the concept that the children cannot feel what the speaker is feeling.
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.