The Stolen Party

Recently in class we read and analyzed The Stolen Party by Liliana Heker. The story is about a young girl Rosaura that is exposed to class system and how it affects the roles of people in society.  It is a hard slap in the face to her when she realizes that she was invited to a “friends” party only to be a helper- to serve cake, pour juice, and carry out other similar tasks. Rosaura’s mother had tried to warn her about the ways the upper class could hurt her daughter- she tried to protect her, but Rosaura resisted this power, and got herself into the situation. So, because of these points, I would say The Stolen Party has strong elements of power, resistance, and the effects of class system on society.

Throughout the story, I noticed that Rosaura’s overall mood went from bitter and resentful in the beginning when her mother expressed that she didn’t want Rosaura going to the party. Then it went to excited, joyful, and superior when she was at the party and was asked by Señora Ines to help out. Lastly, her mood drastically switched to confused and distraught when she was offered money instead of a party favor at the end of the party.

Honestly, I got the feeling that because Luciana, (the girl having the party,) was right off the bat portrayed as a wealthy girl, and Rosaura was portrayed as a poor girl- (the daughter of the maid of Luciana’s family) class system would play an important role in the story. I think this became very clear at the end. When Rosaura was thinking in her head about what party favor she would prefer, and how she was just so happy about how the party had went, she and her mother walked up to Señora Ines and she dug into her bag saying “you deserve this,” as she revealed some money. Rosaura was confused by this- and then it all hit her- and this confusion obviously showed on her face. The fact, to me, that Señora Ines couldn’t even draw back her hand with the money, and just give the poor child a party favor- this made a statement. Reading this part of the story portrayed that class system sticks. It can’t be taken away- there can not be acceptations to it because that is the way things are kept nice and neat and tidy- there need to be people bellow the wealthy to do jobs for them, and there need to be wealthy people to give the poor people jobs. It’s a cycle that never really ends.

This brings me to focus a little more on Rosaura’s mother who works for Luciana’s family. I think that her mother was so much wiser then she let on… I think she really had a sense that because she works for Luciana’s family, Rosaura was already set up in their minds as “lower”, and “less than” them- after all, the only reason Rosaura knew Luciana was because she hung out with her when her mother was working for Luciana’s family… I think Rosaura’s mother did clearly express her views on the party situation, but when she sensed her daughters resistance , she stopped persisting the whole thing, and probably thought it would e best if Rosaura learned the hard way about class system in society and how it affected them.

In conclusion I would say that the ideas and messages portrayed in The Stolen Party were pretty accurate for the way the world generally works today. Besides this though, I hope that these things start to change!