The Stolen Party by Liliana Hecker is a short story that shows the perspective of a little girl that isn't aware of the way ascribed status works. Rosaura is a little girl who is the daughter of a woman who is the help of a high end family. When the high end family's daughter, Luciana has a birthday party at the house, Rosaura takes her invite very seriously and thinks she is going as a guest. Rosaura's mother tries to talk her out of wanting to attend the party but Rosara is extremely dead set on going to the party because she had been told monkey and magician would be there as well. Her mother had given in and allowed her to go to the party. At the party, Rosaura was having the time of her life. She was the only one allowed into the kitchen to see the monkey and she felt very special. When the magician brought the monkey out for his magic tricks, Roaura was asked to help the magician out with the trick and she felt so special. By the end of the party, Rosaura decided she had an amazing time. She watched as every boy leaving the party got a yo-yo and all the girls leaving received a bracelet. She stood waiting for her gift when the mother of the birthday girl, Senora Ines, came over to Rosaura and her mother and instead of giving her a bracelet, she gave her two bills and said, " You really and truely earned this." Rosaura stood in shock. It turns out that Rosaura had been invited to the party as help. Senora Ines invited her to entertain all the real party guests. The monkey in the story represented the help stuck in their ascribed status position, including Rosaura and her mother. At the end of the party, Rosaura was paid instead of given a gift because she was not a real guest.
The purpose of this text is to show the other point of view to those of the lower or less fortunate class, like Rosaura. That makes this text informative and also entertaining. In the text, it was very ironic for Rosaura to walk into the kitchen to see the monkey stuck in the cage because in reality, the monkey represents Rosaura and her mother, stuck in their class. They cannot progress any higher than where they are now. Rosaura is very unfortunate and hasn't yet learned the full effect of her problem.
I agree strongly. Rosaura is stuck in her class because her mom isn't doing anything to be more than a maid. Its unfortunate that her mom is a maid but that's because shes stuck in lower class too. This story makes it very clear the people are treated differently depending on the amount of money one has.
ReplyDeleteThat is a good point, I totally agree on how when one is brought up in such a class like the lower class it's hard to be looked at as anyone different. People are treated differently being of their "story" and who they are looked out to be.
DeleteI agree, it's really sad to see the sad perspective of a innocent child who hasn't come to the awful realization of being stuck in the lower class. Mary is also right when saying the story has made it clear people are treated differently depending on the amount of money. It just shows it by the way Senora Ines treated Rosaura, like a maid.
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