In "The Garden Party", Katherine Mansfield tells a sharp social satire set in the first decade of the 20th century. The story is set in Mansfield's childhood home on Tinakori Road in Wellington, New Zealand and conveys his strong interest in class distinctions. Being the daughter of a successful businessman, Harold Beauchamp, Mansfield is thought to have written the story as a reflection of her own views or as an account of an event that may have occurred during her childhood or adolescence. Written in 1922, "The Garden Party" was contextually influenced by the political problems surrounding Europe. When Mansfield lost his brother – Leslie Heron Beauchamp – who was a soldier in France during World War I, he reflected fondly on his memory. As Laura deals with her internal conflict over class differences, she seeks comfort through her brother Laurie. «But he couldn't explain what life was. It does not matter. She understood very well.'The protagonist of the story is Laura, who is the youngest daughter of the Sheridan family. Through Laura's naivety and confusion, Mansfield explores the conventional views that arise from Victorian socio-moral values. This is because Laura has been protected from poverty and death outside of her privileged social class. Through multiple shifts in narration by a subjective, omniscient third-person narrator, the reader learns that Laura shows compassion and kindness without having been taught to do so. It is “a story of the growth and maturity of an idealistic young character” (Rich 2013). Although the story is set in a short period of time, the reader is able to understand Laura's realization of reality outside of her wealthy family. This ranges from social injustice to life and death. The first time the r...... middle of paper ......rden Party' reflects the ruthlessness of bourgeois society and Laura is a means of exploiting this and pushing the boundaries that she considers absurd. To conclude, Mansfield presents the main theme of Laura's awakening from adolescent confusion regarding the rest of the Sheridan family's social values. The reader empathizes with his remorse for the young man's death, since the women of his family did not reciprocate his sensitivity. However, he did not fight for his ideals and, instead, obeyed his mother. She saw the young man's death for what it was and did not let her social class distract her from what she believed was right. Yet he complied with his mother's wish to forget about it. Although the reader may be disheartened that she may grow up according to her mother's conformist values, the ending reveals that she noticed that her life was priceless..