As I was completing my portfolio and polishing everything, I realized that I could learn a lesson or more for my own life out of every single book that I read, whether it related to my friendships, future legal career, romantic relationships, past mistakes, view on life, and more. For instance, in my reading journals, I focused on coming of age and how we realize the consequences of short versus long term benefits, life’s uncertainty and how we need to learn how to embrace it’s own “floating bridge,” or how the fervent quest for prestige and social status can lead to losing one’s value and happiness. For my research paper, I focused on Chopin’s “Story of an Hour,” which I consider to be my showcase piece. For this longer paper, I was able to dedicate a lot of time towards finding out more about the author’s life and how it relates to the story. What intrigued me most is that women were so dominated and conditioned in those times, that they did not even consider themselves as a separate entity, capable of being productive and happy on their own (fact shown by Mrs. Mallard’s realization of her individual self only when she thought her husband had died and she had been freed). This research process gave me the opportunity to see, among others, how helpful it is to delve into the author’s biography and see what could have inspired them to write what they did, directly or indirectly. I believe that this research paper is a reflection of my best work because of the following reasons: I managed to effectively intertwine many critics’ opinions with my own to create an interesting thesis regarding Mrs. Mallard’s discovery of her individual self and the life changing effects of it; I used lots of evidence and important quotes from the boo... ... middle of paper ... ... I enjoyed Alice Munro’s and Tolstoy’s short stories the most as they taught me about certain things regarding life’s negative and positive shifts and the choices we make in this life regarding money versus happiness that I could have only understood through experience in dozens of years. I plan to read more Tolstoy, Chopin, Munro, and dystopian novels such as Divergence to deepen my understanding more about women’s issues, alternative societies, choices regarding happiness versus occupational prestige, and life’s ups and down. I want to be able to live as many lives as possible, and I know that one of the key venues for that is through reading more and more each day. This class was only the beginning of an amazing journey in my life that I will never give up in law school or beyond. Thank you so much for instilling such passion and knowledge in us Dr. Ballenger!
I am elated to celebrate Texas Independence Day by preparing my response to your call for the Project Director who will help make your beautiful dream a tangible reality, here in the heart of Texas. With broad and deep experience in bringing visions to life through my unique ability to direct the path of projects, I am confident that my record of delivering award-winning results will be well worth your time to review. After spending the last year patiently watching for a visionary project to appear that matches my own discerning criteria, I believe it has finally appeared in the form of the Pecan Street Project.
These two stories both only a few pages long, describe an extremely important theme within many of Kate Chopin’s writings. “The Storm,” and “The Story of an Hour,” focus on women’s revolt against conformity and the norms of their title. Kate shows how her woman can take their gender confining roles and flip them around to live in peace and freedom. The stories both coincide with the central impression of women challenging and altering their lives from a set view, either ending up with a death or ending with a secret affair. All of the women in Chopin’s stories wanted something to happen to change their lives. They found that change through by being unorthodox, by fighting the flow, and by differing from the mold.
In conclusion, “The story of an hour” is a clear depiction that women status in the society determines the choices they make about their lives. In this work, Chopin depicts a woman as a lesser being without identity or voices of their own. They are expected to remain in oppressive marriages and submit to their husbands without question.
A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman has actually been elevated above that of the man, suggesting a much more radically feminist reading than Howard cares to persue.
Mallard realizes that her husband has died, she realizes that she is free, something which was unusual for women in the mid 1800’s. She said it over and over under her breath: “`free, free, free! `” (151). Her husband’s death represents a new life for Mrs. Mallard. Mark, Cunningham notes, “Mary E. Papke has noted that the reader learns Louise’s first name only after Louise accepts her `new consciousness` of freedom; before that Louise is Mrs. Mallard” (1).
Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.
Kate Chopin provides her reader with an enormous amount of information in just a few short pages through her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” The protagonist, Louise Mallard, realizes the many faults in romantic relationships and marriages in her epiphany. “Great care [is] taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death” (Chopin 168). Little do Josephine and Richards know, the news will have a profoundly positive effect on Louise, rather than a negative one. “When she abandoned herself,” Mrs. Mallard opened her mind to a new way of life.
Kate Chopin wrote a short piece called “The Story of an Hour” about a woman’s dynamic emotional shift who believes she has just learned her husband has died. The theme of Chopin’s piece is essentially a longing for more freedom for women.
“The Story of an Hour” (1894) is a story which can be easily relatable in that era. This age was trying to up bring women’s power and influence the society to change from a traditional mentality to a new phase of women’s life, the people of the U.S.A started to act against women’s suffrage. The movements of these activities led many women to encourage and become an independent female. In “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin was trying to highlight important morals for a female: to be patient, courageous and hopeful for the future life. Whereas some scholar like Daniel P. Deneau solidly misinterprets the silence in the Chopin’s story and the clues to an extremist condition.
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the main character of the story, Mrs. Louise Mallard, is oppressed by her husband. Chopin’s works focus mainly on feminism, the relationships between classes, and the relationships between men and women, specifically between husband and wife in “The Story of an Hour” (“The Story of an Hour” 264). Mrs. Louise Mallard lives under her husband for her whole marriage. Mrs. Mallard gets news through her two best friends that Mr. Mallard was in a railroad accident and did not survive. Mrs. Mallard was hit with waves of guilt, agony, sorrow, fear, and grief. Mr. Mallard later comes back home, as he was mistakenly not involved in the accident. Throughout “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin demonstrates how the repression
Mrs. Mallard is an ill woman who is “afflicted with heart trouble” and had to be told very carefully by her sister and husband’s friend that her husband had died (1609). Her illness can be concluded to have been brought upon her by her marriage. She was under a great amount of stress from her unwillingness to be a part of the relationship. Before her marriage, she had a youthful glow, but now “there was a dull stare in her eyes” (1610). Being married to Mr. Mallard stifled the joy of life that she once had. When she realizes the implications of her husband’s death, she exclaims “Free! Body and soul free!” (1610). She feels as though a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and instead of grieving for him, she rejoices for herself. His death is seen as the beginn...
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is one of my favorite poems for many reasons, but recently it has started to gain new meaning as I face graduation. I have started to wonder how different my life would be if I had only chosen to travel down one road instead of sprinting down both roads at the same time. When I declared my biology major, my dad expressed concern that I was choosing one possible life and career over another possibility. He said he knew how happy writing made me and he wondered if I was doing the right thing in not pursuing that. He spoke the words I had not yet spoken out loud for myself. “You shouldn’t enter college worried about what you will do when you exit,” said David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, at a World Economic Forum panel discussion last week on the state of the humanities. Rubenstein’s words are true now and they were true then: I should not have worried about choosing so soon. After I arrived at Columbia College, I began taking English courses because I could not take biology courses without at least trying to explore my passion for literature and creative writing. Thanks to time at Columbia College, I started to see the value the required courses of the WPDM major more because of what they taught me about myself than what they taught me about the subject matter. Combined with my classes, my internship experiences have confirmed that I am indeed heading in the right direction. I could not become a successful writer and biologist without the valuable set of skills that I have gained through my time at Columbia College. I believe I made the right choice by choosing both roads.
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, the struggle for freedom is dominant. The main character, Mrs. Mallard, stands for a woman who is struggling internally and externally for freedom. After the sudden loss of her husband, Mrs. Mallard gets a taste of the freedom she was lacking in her marriage. Like Mrs. Mallard, women throughout history have struggled to find freedom and success away from their husbands. Chopin herself only became successful after the loss of her husband. In “The Story of an Hour”, Chopin shows women’s struggle for freedom during the Victorian period through Mrs. Mallard’s struggle for her own freedom.
Kate Chopin, author of “The Story of an Hour” written in 1894 was the first author who emphasized strongly on femininity in her work. In the short story, Chopin writes about freedom and confinement Chopin is an atypical author who confronts feminist matter years before it was assumed. The time period that she wrote in women were advertised as a man’s property. The main idea in the short story is to illustrate that marriage confines women. In “The Story of an Hour” the author creates an intricate argument about freedom and confinement Mrs. Louise Mallard longing for freedom, but has been confined for so long freedom seems terrible. Mrs. Mallard wife of Brently Mallard instantly feels free when her husband dies. The reason she feels this way
Xuding Wang writes in her essay, Feminine Self-Assertion in “The Story of an Hour”, a strong defense for Kate Chopin’s classic work, “The Story of an Hour”. Wang provides powerful proof that one of the pioneering feminist writers had a genuine desire to push the issue of feminine inequality. Even decades later, Xuding Wang fights for the same ground as Kate Chopin before her. She focuses on critic Lawrence I. Berkove, who challenges that Louise Mallard is delusional with her personal feelings of freedom once she discovers the news that her husband has passed away. The story opens with the line “Knowing Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin). [1] Chopin uses allegory to describe