Laura's Struggle to Grow Up in the Garden Party Through her short story "The Garden Party," Katherine Mansfield portrays a young woman's struggle through adolescence and its tumultuous entry into adulthood. Mansfield paints a story of resentment, bewilderment, enlightenment, and maturation fostered by the complications of class distinctions. Mansfield's protagonist, Laura, encounters considerable difficulties in growing up and must denounce all the childish beliefs of her chimerical world to reach maturity in the real adult world. Like any normal teenager, Laura Sheridan struggles to make sense of her teenage life. . As Don Klein points out, "the core of the story—and the central dramatic impulse—is the young girl's secret struggle to grow up" (124). Struggling with excessive inner turmoil, she attempts to construct a unique identity for herself, distinct from those of her family members. To make such a radical transformation, she is first forced to overcome several major obstacles in her life, the most cumbersome being her mother. The overbearing presence of Laura's mother and her mother's ideals represent an imminent obstacle in Laura's progress towards adulthood. As Laura struggles with maturity, she begins to shed the skin of her childhood and thus transcend the mold created for her by her mother's upbringing. Laura also begins to denounce the cozy, escapist dream world in which her mother has smothered her. Mrs. Sheridan intentionally raises her children in this dream world so that she has complete control over their thoughts and actions without them knowing. She fosters this dream world by letting them believe that they, and not her, are actually in control. Because in… half of the document… the difficulties of the daily life of an average teenager, but also, on a more personal level, it also provides information about their adolescent difficulties. Works Cited Davis, Robert Murray. “The Unity of 'The Garden Party.'” Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 128-30.Klein, Don W. “'The Garden Party': A Portrait of the Artist.” Short Story Criticism 23.(1993): 123-8.Mansfield, Katherine. "The Garden Party." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Ed. MH Abrams. New York: Norton, 1996. 2510-20.Taylor, Donald S. “Crashing the Garden Party: A Dream-A Wakening.” Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 121-2.Walker, Warren S. "The Unresolved Conflict in 'The Garden Party'." Short Story Criticism 23 (1993): 119-21.Weiss, Daniel A. "Crashing the Garden Festa: Proserpina's Garden Party." Criticism of short stories 23 (1993): 122-1.