I found this as a possible interpretation of that scene hope it helps : "This scene is a point of climax in the story -- it is the point where Laura can't go back to her sweet innocence, and yet she is not scarred or cynical as a result of her moments with the dead man. The narrator, in relating Laura's thoughts, uses all of the language of sleep to talk about the death. The dead man's sister says "'e looks a picture" and that is exactly what Laura sees -- but it is not a negative or morbid picture, it is a picture of sleeping. She notes that he looks fast asleep and far away from the people in this room, and this world for that matter. She imagines he is dreaming and would hate to see him awakened because he in his dream/death he is far from the frivolousness of life and the hardships of life. She says his death is a marvel -- something to be inspire wonder and awe. Her reaction is so unexpected to us as readers that we are left rethinking what think we know about death. Her inability to express a complete statement about the meaning of life when she talks to her brother in the end represents that as well. What words make logical sense to convey what she understands now?"
Interestingly, this story is loosely based on an event which happened when Katherine Mansfield was aged 11. A 'carter' (i.e. a horse-drawn courier driver / goods mover) by the name of Harold Scott (mistakenly printed in the newspapers at the time as Henry Scott) lived in a row of run-down workers cottages very close to her family home in Wellington, New Zealand. Scott died in March 1900 after collapsing suddenly while working (not an accident though) and is buried in Wellington's Karori Cemetery. The event must have had a significant impact on the young 'Kathleen' as she filed the memory away and then brought it to the page when she wrote The Garden Party some 21 years later. Many of her other stories are similarly based on events and people she experienced as a child and as a young woman.
To understand this story well, we must ask ourselves the following question: Would we, in our reality, have postponed the party? We would have offered the best of the banquet or the food that was left over?
In this story, Laura breaks the bubble in which she grew until that moment ... and it is at that moment that she discovers the statement: "Is not life"
@@zarazara514 There is a contrast between what Laura sees as moral in her family and what the family really does about the deceased's case. Something is half preached to pretend interest in others. Laura sees that they only give away leftovers, when it was ethical for her not to have had the party and given everything away. Laura has understood that life is not as simple as it seems in her home. She learns that she lives in a "social" bubble In a distorted bubble because she was never taught to know reality. In the end, something broke in her innocence. Regards, Zara Zara.
Wow! Maybe we've all been ruined by MTV, news bites and a much faster pace of life. It's just so hard for me not to see this as incredibly mundane. Got abouthalf way and quit.
I don't know what you mean by MTV, is that a Hallmark channel for kids? The other things you mention about pace and bites and giving up and not having the attention span we used to I agree with. They make modern life so very dull. A bore. Mundane, if you will...
Stacey Kersting It is incredibly mundane if you stop halfway, not much more than the banal tale of a well-off family's morning. It's until the end that you realize the text's symbolic and allegorical richness, its piquant irony and the depth of its images.
Maybe, just maybe, you're the bore... However, reading and or listening to audiobooks doesn't seem to suit the tastes of every individual, on the contrary, I beg you to think about why you might like this piece. You could think of any of the following questions, how is the narrative structured to draw you in? Why have you sensed boredom? Is it right to blame your lack of attention upon your environment, is it partly your own responsibility to cultivate your attention, especially when interpreting works of art? Why is it that you quit without following through with your initial decision to listen? I am intrigued to know, quite personally, what do you find mundane about the piece? The woman speaking, whoever it may be, has a delightful voice, she brings life to characters by portraying slight inflections of the voice while also holding on to a sense of character, the depiction of M's sister at the end of the piece was superb, a fascinating take upon an old crooked middle-class lady in a dingy home-made kitchen. The stories pace is rather fast, I don't know how you thought it to be on the contrary, listen to crime and punishment and or read it if you think that this narrative is slowly unravelled, you shall be more than shocked. If I could offer any advice, find an aspect of the story that interests you, whether it be the character, setting, time, dialogue, narrative, qualities of character, literary devices used, punctuation, grammar or any other potential aspect and at first observe it, then think of it, afterwards write about it and if you can imagine the aspect of your choice with the use of images, then this makes the piece all the more intriguing, and I wonder, were you by any chance imagining what was occurring while listening? If not then so so next time and I can assure you that your opinions of the work may change, if only ever so slightly. It is a shame to hear you speak of this particular work as mundane and it is even more saddening to think that you blame it upon your lifestyle. I do, however, respect your honesty in speaking your thoughts clearly.
