Compare and contrast Laura and Rose, the two main characters in ‘The Garden Party’ and ‘Half a Grapefruit.’
Despite their differences, Laura and Rose have a lot in common. In both stories they are young girls who are faced with the reality of death at an early age. The way Mansfield and Munro write the stories is also similar: first person narrative is not used, but each story is clearly told from the central character’s point of view: in ‘The Garden Party’ we see everything through Laura’s eyes; in ‘Half a Grapefruit’ Rose’s consciousness filters what we hear and see as readers.
‘The Garden Party’, we assume, is set in New Zealand; ‘Half a Grapefruit’ in Canada. The two girls come from very different class backgrounds, but they are both aware of class and both Mansfield and Munro seem interested in it as a theme. Laura’s natural compassion for the neighbour who has died leads her to want to postpone the garden party – out of natural human sympathy – and she is terrified at the end of the story when she takes the food to the bereaved household – terrified because she is coming into contact with the lower classes. Rose is from a very humble background herself, bit is very aware of class – a fact that is revealed in her thoughts on having to read Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Garden Party’ as part of her school work and her reflections on what her relatives are like compared with the fictional Laura’s relatives. Despite her poor background, Rose’s thoughts and perceptions throughout the story show her intelligence and her father is obviously well-read, despite their economic circumstances.
The stories end in very different ways: ‘The Garden Party’ with Laurie’s “Isn’t it [life], darling?” perhaps being an affirmation of the power and delight of life over death; ‘Half a Grapefruit’ ends with Rose as a successful adult returning to her childhood town: Munro suggests that brilliantly and succinctly in the last half page of the story. People who Rose meets have seen her photograph in a magazine which suggests she has used her talent and ability to rise above the poverty of her childhood and the early death of her father, and the story ends on a sardonic note as we are told what has happened to the three young men who had taken advantage of Ruby Carruthers in an earlier anecdote in the story. Ruby herself has died of cancer. The story ends with the bleakness of death and the hypocritical remarks of Horse Nicholson who has gone into politics and maintains that what they needed was “a lot more God in the classroom and a lot less French.”
Both stories display modernist traits because neither author tells us how we should feel about the events described in each story. We are left to construct a meaning and detect a tone for ourselves. For example, Laurie answers his sister’s question with the last words of ‘The Garden Party,’ but we cannot be certain that he accurately sums up what Laura is trying to articulate; similarly, at the end of ‘Half a Grapefruit’ we have to deduce Rose’s attitude to what has happened to her peers from school.
Works Cited
Mansfield, Katherine. ‘The Garden Party’. 83 – 100 in Sedaris, David. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. 2005. New York: Simon & Schuster. Print.
Munro, Alice. ‘Half a Grapefruit.’ 101 – 120 in Sedaris, David. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. 2005. New York: Simon & Schuster. Print.
