The Stolen Party

The book The Stolen Party is about a girl of a lower social class system that struggles with where she stands to others based on her class and background.

As I looked closer at the text, I realized many things. Rosaura feels the need to resist her mother’s power while her mother just wants to do what’s best for her daughter. Her mother wants to both shelter Rosaura but also feels that the best way for her to learn is through her own experience even if it means her getting hurt.

Looking closer at the word choice shows that Rosaura feels confident in her (using words like admired herself, terribly pretty, and firm step) but other words made me contradict my original thoughts. Is Rosaura completely confident or does she have some self doubt that her mother awakened in her? Or does part or her think her mother is right she just doesn’t want to admit it? Words like slight toss provoked these thoughts. Looking closely at these words made me think more deeply about the characters and see them more complexly than I would have before.

There is also a very interesting dynamic of power vs. resistance. Rosaura has power because she is confident. This helps her hold her ground when the girl with the white bow belittles her. Also I think that her confidence and power comes from her resisting her mother’s power over her. Rosaura does not want to let her mom talk her into thinking that she is not a real guest at the party so she resists and has confidence in herself and her friendship with Luciana. Another interesting thing I found was the power and resistance between the magician and the fat boy. The magician has power over the fat boy but the fat boy does not resist. Some people let others push them around and don’t speak up for themselves. And the last big thing I noticed was the power Rosaura has in the last scene of the book. Rosaura has the power to accept the money or not. If she accepts the money it would be giving in to what her mother said all along- that she was indeed invited to serve others and not as a guest. The delicate balance, I think, is the balance of power vs. resistance between Rosaura and her mother.

The balance of power vs. resistance if very delicate but also match together. In the book, Roasuara is shielded from darkness but this just made everything come crashing down at her at once. It is important for there to be balance between good and bad, light and dark. Kind of like yin yang. We all have good and bad in our lives but it is important to have both. If we are not exposed to the bad, we end up more hurt all at once than gradually getting used to the balance. This is an important concept that may be hard to thing of as a good thing but can overall benefit us.