Literary Techniques Used In Katherine Brush's The Birthday Party
The short story "The Birthday Party" by Katherine Brush is a representation of life in the 1940’s, and so through this short story she uses a series of literary devices such as caricature, antecedents, and change in the atmosphere to convey her objective. The beginning of the story has humorous caricature describing the couple, the author keeps her characters ambiguous and vague so to represent a typical married couple in this era, and drama that comes with the atmosphere shift with the rejection at the end make up a brilliant depiction of life in the time of this story. Brush introduces her characters by describing their physical features so as to use caricature to exaggerate the time period the couple is in. She describes the husband as,
"The man [that] had a round, self-satisfied face, with glasses on it..." so that we can see he is the typical hard working business man in the 1940's. Next, Brush goes on to describe the man's wife as a "... fadingly pretty..." represents the typical housewife who had aspirations but didn't accomplish them because she had to follow the norm of getting married and carrying the role of a stay-at-home mom. Furthermore, Brush uses a combination of antecedents as well as ambiguity throughout the text. She never gives the person telling the story a name nor the couple. Instead, through the literary device antecedent, the author keeps her characters and dining location ambiguous and uses vague pronouns. Although there are no names being exchanged, Brush keeps the uplifting atmosphere gliding through the main characters. However,the cheeriness comes to a screeching halt when the man makes it obvious that he is unappreciative of what his wife did for him, and he throws a tantrum. With the man showing disgruntled emotions,"...because the husband was not please," he made it clear that this was not okay for a mid housewife to do. By creating this tension, the husband dramatically changed the atmosphere from cheery lightness to a disdained burden. By using these basic literary devices, Brush was able to set the stage and execute an almost representation of how couples lived their lives in the 1940's.
"The man [that] had a round, self-satisfied face, with glasses on it..." so that we can see he is the typical hard working business man in the 1940's. Next, Brush goes on to describe the man's wife as a "... fadingly pretty..." represents the typical housewife who had aspirations but didn't accomplish them because she had to follow the norm of getting married and carrying the role of a stay-at-home mom. Furthermore, Brush uses a combination of antecedents as well as ambiguity throughout the text. She never gives the person telling the story a name nor the couple. Instead, through the literary device antecedent, the author keeps her characters and dining location ambiguous and uses vague pronouns. Although there are no names being exchanged, Brush keeps the uplifting atmosphere gliding through the main characters. However,the cheeriness comes to a screeching halt when the man makes it obvious that he is unappreciative of what his wife did for him, and he throws a tantrum. With the man showing disgruntled emotions,"...because the husband was not please," he made it clear that this was not okay for a mid housewife to do. By creating this tension, the husband dramatically changed the atmosphere from cheery lightness to a disdained burden. By using these basic literary devices, Brush was able to set the stage and execute an almost representation of how couples lived their lives in the 1940's.