The Garden Party. Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield was best known for her short stories rather than her reviews, journals, letters or poems. She was regarded as a highly influential Modernist writer, experimental as well as innovative in her style of writing. "The Garden Party" is a linear story " working " on different levels, simply detailing Laura, the protagonist's account of organising the garden party to her first probable encounter with death. The story is multi-layered and leaves the reader with more questions than answers, a deliberate ploy by the writer, challenging conventions. Direct speech is used throughout and in this extract Mr Sheridan speaks metaphorically on one level of a " beastly accident " verging on anthropomorphism in comparing Mr Scott to an animal and on another level, indicating the speaker's social background usin...