Literary Elements In Katharine Brush's Birthday Party

Katharine Brush’s short story “Birthday Party” contains many literary elements that make the story unique and memorable. Brush’s purpose for writing this piece is to teach two valuable lessons: things are not always what they seem and every action has its consequence. To achieve her purpose, Brush uses literary devices such as irony, tone, point of view, etc. to make readers feel as though they are living in this captured moment along with the characters.
Situational irony plays a big role in this story’s plot. For example, the wife throws a surprise party, of sorts, for her husband, but instead of being surprised and grateful, he becomes “hotly embarrassed, and indignant at his wife for embarrassing him”. This is ironic because the reader first believes that he will be delighted, but their expectations are not met. The author uses the irony to contradict what the readers expect and create drama and suspense. The irony also serves as a lesson that actions can be misleading and to expect the unexpected.
The tone, along with the foreshadowing used in the beginning of the story, create a mood of anticipation and uncertainty. The purpose of all this is to create suspense and to make the story move along faster. For instance, halfway through the story the reader gets a clear feeling that something bad is going to happen, which helps to build up their expectations and alerts them that the story will take an unexpected turn soon. The line, “It became clear at once that help was needed, because the husband was not pleased” is an example of the foreshadowing in the story, because it is at this moment that the reader realizes that the wife’s good intentions did not have a positive effect on her