THE DINNER PARTY

THE DINNER PARTY by Mona Gardner

History & Setting
India was under British control for nearly 200 years before gaining its independent in 1947. "The dinner Party" takes place in British India, in the part of the country ruled directly by the British government during dinner time, early 1900 ( they had a servant who was a young boy ) . Some colonial of the time seem background today. Most British officials felt superior to the people they ruled and rarely socialized with them. In addition most men felt they were better than women, and that feeling of male superiority becomes an issue in this story.

Character
There are a few character happened in this story. First of all, the colonial officer (Mr Wynnes) British who possibly can afford large dinner parties, the host of the dinner party and opposes the young girl' statement, saying men have more control than women. Secondly, the young girl, who very likely British maybe one of the daughter of guests. Is the one who brought up the conversation of women' control: women now are not as fluttery as their grandmothers were. In the other hand, the american naturalist, possibly more observant than the other guests, is the one who knew that there was a cobra in the room and made up the game to keep the guests from getting bitten by the cobra. Next, Mrs Wynnes; hostess who demonstrated that women can be the same amount of control as men when cobra across her foot. Lastly, the servants and the native boy who came from India, servant at the Wynnes household quietly respectful.

Plot
The Dinner Party is a fictional short story written by Mona Gardner. In India, a colonial officer and his wife host a dinner party and invite army officers and government attaches along with their wives, and an American naturalist. A spirited discussion sparks up between a young girl and the colonel, in which the girl believes that woman have outgrown the fright-from-seeing-a-mouse era, but the colonel denies that and says that men have more control than women in every situation. Then, the American notices that the hostess is very still and summons a native boy over to her, who then leaves the room in a hurry and places a bowl of milk on the veranda outside of the room. Knowing at that point that there is a cobra under the table, he creates a game for the guests to see who has control by staying still for three hundred seconds. When he starts counting down the last twenty seconds to finish the game, the cobra emerges from under the table, going towards the bowl of milk outside, and the American locks it out of the room. After the ordeal, the American asks the hostess, Mrs. Wynnes, how she knew that the cobra was in the room, and she replies with, "because it was crawling across my foot."

Theme
The theme of this story is control in situations of both men and women. When I was reading the story, it was really fascinate which made me very interested it, continued to read. 

Moral
This story tells us that in every situation we are placed in, we must take control of it and make the best of it. I learnt lots of history about British society happened in past.

Evaluation
Within this story, the author used situational irony (When what happens is different from what was expected). She does this by opposing what the colonel said, which was that men have an ounce more of control in any situation than women, so when Mrs. Wynnes told the American that the cobra crawled across her foot, it showed that women can have as much control as men in the same situation, opposing the colonel's statement.