FREE ESSAY ON WHAT LAURA AND MRS. SHERIDAN LEARNED ABOUT LIFE AND PEOPLE IN THE GARDEN PARTY

WHAT LAURA AND MRS. SHERIDAN LEARNED ABOUT LIFE AND PEOPLE IN THE GARDEN PARTY

What Laura and Mrs. Sheridan Learned
About Life and People
The Garden Party is a wonderful and enlightening story with several life lessons
intertwined behind the fictional characters. Deeply studying and analyzing the text can
produce a great deal of thought and from that thought - inspiration. We learn that people
can learn from people. Be it by their mistakes or their triumphs. It does not matter the
position or role in the family; wisdom can come from anyone.
In the story, a poor man from the village in which the Sheridans live dies. Laura wishes
to stop the party and help the newly widowed woman. The guests of the party, including
her parents, think she is out of her mind for even thinking such things. Laura is shocked
by the actions of her friends and is appalled by their selfishness.
At the same time, Laura's mother, Mrs. Sheridan, thinks Laura is foolish. She believes it
to be degrading to the self-image of Laura herself, and the rest of her family. Showing
kindness to someone of a lower social class is strictly forbidden, especially to stop a
party midway to go visit a poor widow. More importantly than the degrading factor was
what other people would think of her and them. When Laura suggested they cancel the
garden party Jose said,  'Stop the garden-party? My dear Laura, don't be so absurd. Of
course we can't do anything of the kind. Nobody expects us to. Don't be so extravagant.' 
Laura could not believe what she had heard from her sister, so she went to speak to her
mom,
 To Laura's astonishment her mother behaved just like Jose, it was harder to bear because
she seemed amused. She refused to take Laura seriously. 'But, my dear child, use your
common sense. It's only by accident we've heard of it. If some one had died there
normally--and I can't understand how they keep alive in those poky little holes--we
should still be having our party, shouldn't we?' 
She fell victim to one of the terrible mindsets of pleasing the public. The mindset of
needing to fulfill the expectations of the social order.
Mrs. Sheridan, did however, show some sympathy after a while. She agreed to let Laura
take a basket of food down to the widow. Although she did seem to be showing a caring
side she added a comment that changed anyone's mind that might have been thinking that.
She said,  'Take it yourself, darling. Run down just as you are. No, wait, take the arum
lilies too. People of that class are so impressed by arum lilies.'  As if they were so
poor that they had never seen flowers before. Then as she thought about it a little more,
she decided that instead of taking a chance of letting Laura getting her clothes dirty,
she should only take the food, 
 'The stems will ruin her lace frock,' said practical Jose. 
So they would. Just in time. 'Only the basket, then. And Laura!'--her mother followed her
out of the marquee--'don't on any account--' 
'What, mother?' 
No, better not put such ideas into the child's head! 'Nothing! Run along.' 
By doing this, Laura taught her mother that it is not important to look at wealth to
determine the quality of a person and kindness is deserved by everyone. From everyone.
When Jose said they could not stop the party she replied with, But we can't possibly have
a garden-party with a man dead just outside the front gate. Mrs. Sheridan also learned
something about her daughter. She learned that her daughter, unlike her, cares about
other people regardless of their social standing. Mrs. Sheridan is one of those people
that feel superior to anyone with less money. Her daughter is a third kind of people. She
doesn't feel that anyone is better or worthier than anyone else. To her, everyone is
equal. Without people like her, the world would split apart.
Laura learned that people in different social classes treat eachother differently to a
point where neither of them care about the other at all. The people in the higher classes
give themselves the mentality that anyone with less money and/or class is inferior to
them and they feel so much greater than they that they turn their backs to them. On the
same token, the lower class feels they aren't worthy of conversing with anyone above
them. They just stick with the people around them and try to maneuver around the higher
class. Both sides treat the other as a different race. They totally forget that without
wealth, they are all the same.