Name: _____________________________
The Dinner Party
Retold by Mona Gardner Class: ____________ Date: ____________
Step 1: What is Irony?
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Tell me what is ironic about the situations below?
After realizing you forgot about your upcoming exam on Monday, you stay up all night studying
for a test. When you go to class, you discover the test is not until the next Monday.
The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000.
At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the
wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer
whale.
A fat man called slim.
An airbag being the cause of death in an auto accident.
Step 2: Come up some examples of irony on your own:
1. _______________________________________________________________________________
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2. _______________________________________________________________________________
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Step 2: Before reading the story, record your thoughts about the differences between how men and
women react to frightening situations. Record your observations in the top box.
How does Mrs. Wynnes react to How does the American react to
the crisis at the party? the crisis at the party?
What do you think about how men and women handle a frightening crisis?
What is the colonel’s argument? What is the girl’s argument?
Step 3: What irony emerges from this story?
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Step 4: What message can clearly be seen from the ending of this story? Consider all of the points of
view that are exposed in this reading experience (including your own).
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SWBS Statement: Fill in the boxes below with the information for each of the given characters.
Somebody Wanted… But… So…
(character) (plot) (conflict) (resolution)
The Colonel
The American
Mrs. Wynnes
You may find this helpful when you attempt to show how each character in this story is used by the author to make her point.
The Dinner Party
By Mona Gardner
The country is India. A colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party. They are seated
with their guests—army officers and government attachés and their wives, and a visiting American
naturalist—in their spacious dining room, which has a bare marble floor, open rafters, and wide glass
doors opening onto a veranda.
A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl who insists that women have outgrown the
jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era and a colonel who says that they haven’t.
“A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” the colonel says, “is to scream. And while a man may
feel like it, he has that ounce more of nerve control than a woman has. And that last ounce is what
counts.”
The American does not join in the argument but watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a
strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is staring straight ahead, her muscles
contracting slightly. With a slight gesture she summons the native boy standing behind her chair and
whispers to him. The boy’s eyes widen; he quickly leaves the room.
Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a bowl of milk on the
veranda just outside the open doors.
The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thing—bait for a snake.
He realizes there must be a cobra in the room. He looks up at the rafters—the likeliest place—but
they are bare. Three corners of the room are empty, and in the fourth the servants are waiting to serve
the next course. There is only one place left—under the table.
His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others, but he knows the commotion would frighten
the cobra into striking. He speaks quickly, the tone of his voice so arresting that it sobers everyone.
“I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count to three hundred—that’s five
minutes—and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those who move will forfeit fifty rupees. Ready!”
The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying “. . . two hundred and
eighty . . .” when, out of the corner of his eye, he sees the cobra emerge and make for the bowl of
milk. Screams ring out as he jumps to slam the veranda doors safely shut.
“You were right, Colonel!” the host exclaims. “A man has just shown us an example of perfect
control.”
“Just a minute,” the American says, turning to his hostess. “Mrs. Wynnes, how did you know that
cobra was in the room?”
A faint smile lights up the woman’s face as she replies: “Because it was crawling across my foot.”
