Research Paper on:
Analyzing 'Sun and Moon by Katherine Mansfield

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
time, all of the rigid conventions which controlled much of Western thinking during the long reign of Queen Victoria were replaced by more liberal attitudes and greater freedom of expression.  Like her contemporary, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield delighted in dismissing the traditional literary form, and adopted a more psychological approach to her story-telling. Mansfield was not one to  play by the rules and life, and this is clearly reflected in her art. "Sun and Moon" was one of the tales featured in Mansfields 1920 collection, Bliss,  and Other Stories. It represents Mansfields own "child" side, and her tendency to consider the world from a childs perspective (Gilbert and Gubar 1512). As typical of the  modernist style, the story seems to be nearly devoid of plot (Cornut-Gentille DArcy 244). It is a narrative describing an upper-class familys elaborate dinner party and concert, as observed  primarily by two siblings, named Sun and Moon. The theme is that of a dysfunctional family, which is implied rather than overtly expressed. After all, most families dysfunction  is subtle, and often difficult for the outsider to detect. The narrator is clearly an outsider who is describing events only as he or she sees them. It  is assumed that the narrator is offering a truthful representation, but the readers are expected to often "read between the lines" to discern that beneath this pretty picture of domestic  bliss, there was something quite ugly lurking. The primary characters are Sun and Moon, and Sun, apparently the eldest of the two children, a rather robust young boy, occasionally  shares in the narration. The minor characters include the parents - a pretentious mother who is interested mostly in appearances, and a father who is usually a bit remote,