In the short stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “Wildwood” by Junot Diaz, there are a similar type of theme and main character. Both short stories utilize a theme of freedom and a main character that goes along with the theme. The main character is one that is “held back” and wants to have freedom, but there is an antagonist that is preventing that from happening. However, towards the end of the story, there is a plot twist and change in the mindset of the main character. Both stories end very differently, but with the same sort of idea. In “The Story of an Hour,” the main character is told that her husband was killed in an accident. She immediately starts crying, which is expected of one after finding out the loss of their …show more content…
Instead of the conflict of the story being between a husband and wife, the conflict is between a mother and a daughter. In the beginning of the story, we can see the obvious conflict between the two. The mother is what one might consider to be strict or abusive or maybe even just tough love. Many times, throughout the story, the mother is said to have hit or choked her daughter. Because of this, the daughter has turned into a disobedient girl and will do anything to go against the wishes of her mother. This disobedience only adds to the conflict which is not good for either of the two. The mother then finds out that she has breast cancer. Lola, the daughter, has no sense of empathy towards the mother. They still fight like crazy. And after more time has gone by, the daughter finally decides that it is time for her to run away and literally get out of the hands of her mother. After doing so and being gone for some time, the daughter realizes that she misses and loves her mother very much. However, when they meet up again, the same sort of physical fight happens. The daughter is then sent to stay with her grandmother. After more time spent apart, both parties realize their love for one another. Lola also realizes, after talking to her grandmother, that she is so much alike her mother. One may call this a plot twist as well. The two go from hating each other to realizing that maybe they do love and need one
Without a theme, a story is just a story with little meaning. To test whether a theme is worthy, the reader should ask whether it teaches a lesson, whether it's revealed through characters and whether it applies to the entire work. Several themes in the novel Night by Elie Wiesel and in the movie The Book Thief pass this test. In Night, Elie writes a memoir about how he and his family are sent to Aushwits, a concentration camp, for being Jewish during the holocaust.
However, her mother has no rights or abilities to teach her daughter why things are right or wrong. They all live in the house where her father is in charge of everything. Things are right when her father agrees with, and things are wrong when her father disagrees with. Also, Lucia chastises by her father too. Lucia did not voluntary wants to chaperone her sister, but her father forces her to go after her sister and report everything.
Lola takes advantage of her deteriorating mother whose illness represents the declining hold of the norms over Lola. Since her mom “will have trouble lifting her arms over her head for the rest of her life,” Lola is no longer afraid of the “hitting” and grabbing “by the throat” (415,419). As a child of a “Old World Dominican Mother” Lola must be surrounded by traditional values and beliefs that she does not want to claim, so “as soon as she became sick” Lola says, “I saw my chance and I’m not going to pretend or apologize; I saw my chance and I eventually took it” (416). When taking the opportunity to distinguish herself from the typical “Dominican daughter” or ‘Dominican slave,” she takes a cultural norm like long hair and decides to impulsively change it (416). Lola enjoyed the “feeling in [her] blood, the rattle” that she got when she told Karen to “cut my hair” (418).
Jeannette Walls depicted an epoch of misfortune and adversity in her memoir, The Glass Castle. Jeannette and her 3 other siblings were all in a constant struggle to survive. Rex and Mary, the parents of Jeannette and her 3 siblings, were often in a constant dichotomy between submitting to self-interest and supporting the family. Having misfit parents, Jeannette and her 3 siblings were often independent and left to fend for themselves and for the family as a whole. In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls evolved the theme of ideal versus reality throughout her memoir though her countless anecdotes of her father and his unattainable plans to find gold and to build a home, named The Glass Castle, for his family and her mother’s dream to become a professional and well redound artist.
Because they are married, conflict arises, adding to the plot of the novel as well as the underlying
Leguin opens up the story with the wife saying that she doesn’t understand it and that she doesn’t believe it happened and although she saw what happened she refuses to believe it. She refused to believe it even though she saw it her own eyes because he was a gentle and kind-hearted man. The facts were shown to her and there was no denying the event that occurred yet she refused to believe it because her perception of her husband wouldn 't allow her to accept it. Throughout the story, the wife describes he character of the husband and his traits.
The story has a conflict that is related to opposition. The narrator disagrees with what her mother wants her to be, since the narrator felt that her mother was controlling her for years. For instance, the mother in the story suggests that her daughter would become the perfect girl and she would become famous. The traditional daughter relates to the American icon, “Shirley Temple”. Furthermore, the narrator goes through a rough time during the story because her mother feels like she can be good at something and stick to it.
Today, most people would assume that the reaction to a loved one’s death would be immediate grief; however, that would not be the case in the late 1800s. In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of An Hour” women were expected to grieve differently than men. The story conveys the main character Mrs. Mallard’s distress and joy after she discovered the supposed death of her husband. The story does not demonstrate Mrs. Mallard following the stages of grief that would be expected when grieving over her husband. In spite of the fact that Mrs. Mallard was grieving she was likewise encountering joy and satisfaction since she then realizes that she is currently free.
In the story, we don’t see the youngest niece being rebellious until towards the end. It ends on a mysterious note and it seems like the youngest has exacted revenge for the mistreatment of her Aunt and herself. At first when she was married, she didn’t fight with her husband and did as she was told. She wasn't happy with her life, but she still she accepted her fate as not being the best. There are certain clues hidden throughout the story that ties together some missing plot points.
Louise’s victory in accepting her husband’s death is a feeling that she now cannot live without. The ultimate death of Louise Mallard is one that represents physical and emotional defeat. In this dramatic short story, Chopin uses imagery to sew together a tapestry of emotions all encompassed in an ill-stricken widow. Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour.”
Every person has the right to be and feel free. They have the right to be independent and live happily. Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” focuses on sixty minutes in the life of a young Mrs. Mallard. Upon learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard experiences a revelation about her future without a husband. Her life, due to heart problems, suddenly ends after she unexpectedly finds out her husband is actually alive.
The Short Story The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin explores the emotions of Louise Mallard a woman with a heart disease. In the hour that the story is told, it ranges from showing Mrs. Mallard different reactions to learning of her husbands death to him surprisingly showing up alive and eventually her untimely death from a heart disease. Although only a brief period of time is shown, many emotions are revealed through the third person omniscient point of view. This point of view shows more than just the protagonists thoughts and is not limited to one person. It allows the readers to know something about Mrs. Mallard that she does not as the story ends after Mrs. Mallard has already died.
Growing up as a woman has been quite difficult in this generation, however, growing up around thirty years ago must have been more difficult. Back in the 1900’s, women had different social norms to deal with in society. Women had to stay at home, be housewives, do the laundry, and cook while men went out and worked to obtain money for their family. In Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, she tells the struggles that women went through back in the 1990 's and the social norms that women had to go through. Chopin addresses many instances of symbolism to portray the feeling Mrs. Mallard has about her own thoughts and experiences with or without a man in her life.
Both of these women felt trapped within their marriage and simply wanted a way out. “Story of an Hour” begins as a tale about a woman who is struck with the devastating news that her husband has died in a train accident. However, this was not so crippling to the wife, Mrs. Mallard. Her emotions overwhelmed her. When she looked out her window while sitting in her chair,
(Chopin, the Story of an Hour)” It would be prudent to believe by the way Mrs. Mallard was crying that indeed she was devastated about her husband’s tragic death.