Liliana Heker's "The Stolen Party," is a short story about a Hispanic girl named Rosaura. The main idea of this story is to bring awarness to the social gap between the rich and the poor. The author tries to get the reader to see things through Rosaura's eyes, the eyes of a child. Heker shows this with the innocence and purity of childhood and the barriers of social classes in society.
Rosaura is the main character in the "Stolen Party" and came from a poor family. One day she was invited to her rich study partner's birthday party and asked her mother if she could go. Rosaura's mother worked for the rich girls mom, Senora Ines. She didn't think it was a good idea for Rosaura to attend the party because of their social differences but her mom let her go anyway. Rosaura had a blast at the party; she won all the games and even got to see the magician's monkey ahead of time. She also helped out with the magician's tricks and served cake. She felt very special by the end of the party but she was crushed while leaving, when she did not receive a toy like the other kids, Senora Ines paid Rosaura for helping at the party. That is when Rosaura was forced to open her eyes and face reality and she got her first sense of inequality. This theme shows the ideas of destruction of youthful dreams and hopes. This is something looked down upon greatly in our society and makes it easy to sympathize for Rosaura.
The author shows symbolism in the story when the magician was hired for the party. The magician owned a monkey who was kept out of site from the children to make sure of their surprise when he used the animal in his skit. To her surprise, Rosaura was allowed to see the monkey before the magician's skit. She also thought she was special when she was asked to help serve the drinks and cake. Her pride at being selected by Senora Ines is shown with, "Everyone called out to her, shouting 'Me, me!' She had always loved that, having the power of life and death.
