Tristan's Essay!

Tristan Yerkes
Mr. Salsich
5 November 2008
Subtle Detail:
An Essay on the Importance of Re-Reading in “The Garden Party”
Why do people re-read stories? Some re-read because they enjoyed the original read so much, some re-read because they missed something the first time they read the text, and yet some re-read just because they have nothing else to read. Regardless of why one re-reads, whenever they do, they find new things. No matter how good someone’s memory may be, they will always miss some detail, detail that can prove very important to the story. This phenomenon is perfectly illustrated in “The Garden Party” by Katherine Mansfield.
Minor details can be evasive to an unwary mind, so sometimes re-reading can recapture those details and apply them to glean new information. One minor detail that I failed to fully grasp the first time I read “The Garden Party” was how perfect the scenario was for a garden party. This is shown in the very first line of text when Ms. Mansfield says, “The weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden party.” (Mansfield, 1) This little detail, though it seems unimportant, actually shows why Jose and Laura’s mother are reluctant to cancel later in the story. Another easily missed minor detail in “The Garden Party”, is the want for Laura to fill her mothers shoes. This is shown when Laura attempts to copy her mothers voice when speaking to the marquee workmen. This little scrap of information, though small can show reason as to why Laura takes heed to her mothers advice so easily, and backs down from cancelling the garden party. One last little detail would be Laura’s desire to befriend the workmen in place of her rich upper class friends. This one sentence on page three, “Couldn’t she have workmen for friends rather than the silly boys she danced with?” (Mansfield, 3) suggests changes in Laura’s attitude toward her own class. This is important because throughout the story, Laura shows want to detach from the rich upper class life she leads.
It is apparent that re-reading can uncover unfound details in the text that can make one rethink parts of a story completely, not just in “The Garden Party”, but in almost all texts. In almost all situations, it is a good idea to re-read a text just to see why people in it did what they did, or thought what they thought. These key details are easily read, picked up, and analyzed to help gain understanding of how a story is put together.