English Essay

MLA formatting please.

Please read the short story that you can access by going to this link: 

http://www.archive.org/stream/gardenparty00mansuoft#page/58/mode/2up

Please see attachement for more details and topic to write on.

Short Essay Assignment Guidelines

1) “Essay assignments are designed to allow you to come to terms with the concepts you

have studied, the literature you have read, or the data you have collected.” (Stewart and

Allen, Essay Writing for Canadian Students, 6th ed., 12). All material summarized,

paraphrased, or quoted FROM THE SHORT STORY AS WELL AS FROM ANY

RESEARCH YOU HAVE DONE must be documented using MLA FORMAT to

avoid the charge of plagiarism. Access the MLA format documentation guide under

“Web Links” on the toolbar to the left in the course itself.

2) Your short essay must be approximately 1000 words, with appropriate academic structure as outlined briefly in the Welcome Assignment.

3) Please note that your instructor reserves the right to assign a zero (0) to an essay submitted without a Works Cited page and appropriate in-text citations. If you are uncertain about correct documentation practices for MLA format, please consult Writing and Learning Services, the “Cite on Site” desk in the MacEwan City Centre library, or contact me during my office hours.

Topic

1. Analyze Laura from “The Garden Party” by providing three or four important characteristics of her. Consider whether or not she changes throughout the short story, and make certain to comment on the ending itself. Be specific and provide evidence from the text to support your analysis.

http://www.archive.org/stream/gardenparty00mansuoft#page/58/mode/2up

The Garden Party, Page 59 – 82

Below are some study notes I made about this reading please try to incorporate some of them:

• Q: Do you think Mansfield is critiquing the ways of the upper social class in this story? Explain.
A: I believe she is critiquing the way people of the upper class show emotion and interest toward lower class people. Laura is a wealthy girl and rose with upscale rules giving her the understanding she was better then anyone below her. Throughout the story Laura is able to communicate and interact with the work men and lower class easier and more enjoyable then she does with any of their own upper class friends. Mansfield shows the selfishness of Laura’s mother and her garden party. Even though their neighbours of the lower class just experienced a tragic death of a father the Mother is vulgar and shows no sympathy to that family. She wishes to ignore the incident and continue with her Garden Party that more then likely she is only holding for a popularity purpose to all their other upper class friends. This illustrates how the stereotype upper-class people only care about their own well being and reputation.

• Q: What do you think about the character of Laura’s father? Is he sympathetic toward the dead man’s family? Is he elitist? How would you compare his character with Mrs. Sheridan, Laura’s mother?

A: The Father comes in toward the end of the story as Laura is explaining to her mother that they should not continue the party, the father steps in and shows his sympathy for the family by being informative about the man who died and his wife and children he left behind, he tells Laura and her mother how he lived just down the road as well. The fact the father was actually educated about one of his lower class neighbours and their family shows he has no judgement and sees them as a normal family just as his own. The mother is the quite opposite she did not once describe the man who died or his family and she tries to brush off this tragedy to keep all the attention on her garden party. Death is a horrible thing and Laura’s mother decides to send them a gift basket with all the left over goods from their party thinking it would make that family feel better. Laura’s mother is very materialistic in the sense that concrete things can fix any problems in your life.
• Q: What do you think about the end of the story? Why does Laura think that her visit to her neighbours was “marvellous”?

A: Many emotions come from Laura at the end of the story when she visits the victims family with her gift basket. She feels welcomed but also ashamed that she was dressed so well and had anything she wanted where everyone at this house down the road had next to nothing but all had each other to support. Laura’s visit was marvelous because they were all focused on each other to give love and attention to one another not spending all their time and effort on garden parties or any materialistic matter. It was a real family.