In Katherine Mansfield's "The Garden-Party", the socioeconomically derived false consciousness discussed by Michael Bell in "The Metaphysics of Modernism" initially prevents the protagonist Laura from see the world in any context outside of his family. While the story's crucial actions do not change Laura's physical existence and setting, they dramatically alter her metaphysical social awareness such that the depth of her "awakening" highlights the extent to which her social context initially hid her his perception of the world. no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Immediately, Katherine Mansfield paints an almost painfully idealized picture of a garden party: the weather is impeccable, the lawn is cut to perfection, the flowers and plants bloom with an almost divine beauty. The extrapolation sets the story in a kind of socially advanced family, where the scope of the children's concerns goes no further than the problem of identifying an optimal setting for a tent. The almost absurd nature of this idealized setting gives the reader the impression that this modernist story is, in fact, accentuating the ignorance of the family in question. This is a point that Bell makes in his discussion of Marxist appearances in modernism: "Marx had analyzed the external realm of social and economic process and laid bare the 'false consciousness' by which the advantaged classes unintentionally rationalized their condition." (Bell 9 ). Indeed, Laura initially appears to regard social class as a prerequisite for informal conversation, as her reaction to the bourgeois worker's informal conversation would suggest: "Laura's upbringing made her wonder for a moment whether he was respectful enough towards of a worker talking to her about bangs is a slap in the eye" (Mansfield 853). As the conversation continues, Mansfield maintains the socioeconomic distinction between Laura and the workers, but at the same time allows Laura's regard for the workers and their alien nature to slowly elevate her perception of the world outside of her social class. The subsequent change in Laura's social perception seems to exemplify Bell's thesis regarding the Marxist hermeneutic of human life: it is not just that external appearances and the rational or common sense means of understanding them are limited and fallible. The fact is that such appearances and reasoning may actively mask contrary truths to which, by definition, there is no other access. (Bell 10) An important aspect of Laura's experience with the workers is that her contact with their informality leaves her carefree; his only frustration comes from the fact that he "has no workmen for friends rather than the silly boys he danced with and who came to dinner on Sunday nights" (Mansfield 854). Bell's comment suggests that Laura's interactions may have challenged the paradigm inherent to her social class: "modernist literature is often concerned with the question of how to live in a new context of thought, or in a new worldview" (Bell 10). Shortly thereafter, Mansfield juxtaposes a new situation that forces Laura to defend her burgeoning social perceptions. While Laura's family is somewhat numb to the news that a man from the infamous alley across the street has died, evidence of Laura's interaction with workers from earlier that day quickly unfolds. He sees something as serious as death as a legitimate reason to cancel the party, out of sensitivity towards family. Note that its.