Analysis of Katharine Brush’s Story Birthday Party

Katharine Brush’s story “Birthday Party” reveals peculiar features of negative sides of

human nature. It’s quite a touching work which makes the reader think about how

shallow and rude people can be from time to time. The story is quite short and does

not contain prehistory neither about the married couple, nor about the observer of the

events. Katharine managed to present images of the main characters using precise

literary devices. The word selection used in the story creates a solid idea about the

married couple: presenting a husband she put an accent on his “round and self-

satisfied face”. The reader doesn’t know anything about him, but using “self-satisfied”

makes the first impression negative. The woman was presented as “fadingly pretty

with big hat”. It’s obvious that the couple is not jut married, they are not that young.

The fact that she was wearing a big hat does not seem to be important, but at the

end of the story Katherine clarifies that it was her best hat. The surprise she prepared

for her husband was quite banal, though the author let us know that it was thoroughly

prepared: after the musicians played “happy birthday” the woman “beamed with shy

pride over her little surprise”. Now it’s clear that she tried her best to please her

husband, while his negative reaction on that surprise made her cry. Though we don’t

know what exactly he said to his wife, Katharine characterized his words as “quick

and curt and unkind”.

Brush used bright adjectives which might seem to be a little bit exaggerative, but

that’s exactly what is needed in a short story to emphasize the ideas conveyed.