In the following excerpt, Hanson and Gurr explore issues of class conflict in "The Garden Party."
Into her narrative, Katherine Mansfield weaves a series of contrasts and parallels which unobtrusively carry forward her theme at the same time as they unify the different elements of the story. "The Garden Party" is a great story and a complex one because in it . . . we are presented simultaneously with several distinct yet interlocking levels of meaning. There is the social meaning provided by the real-life framework; the emotional and psychological overtones of the events in which Laura plays a central part; and the broader, philosophical signifi- cance of the total experience Katherine Mansfield lays before us.
The fact that the rich can avoid (or attempt to avoid) the unpleasant realities of human existence, even summon up.....
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