Kate Chopin — The Awakening and The Story of an Hour

While reading the excerpt from "The Awakening," I was struck at how similar the writing seemed to be to romanticism, instead of realism. I mean, I could tell the author was using some naturalism as well as realism, because the character was acting quite human. It was just that the excerpt had an Edgar Allan Poe feel to it, instead of a typical realism style. What I mean to provide for an example is when Kate Chopin says, "It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour. It broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night" (Chopin 491). That short passage right there shows that although romanticism is no longer being used as a writing style, the way of writing occasionally pops up again every once in a while, as demonstrated above. Chopin is giving the reader insight through that very short passage, and helps set the tone for the rest of the short little story. I could tell after reading that that what I was about to read was not going to be all that pleasant, but instead sad and dreary. Come to find out, the lady is crying her heart out because of her marriage, and needs to cry by herself. I think that Chopin wrote this partially so that she would be able to get the females of the reading population, and get them to be able to sympathize with the woman, for whatever her reasons for crying might be.

I think Kate Chopin is an author of the realism time period that wanted the sympathy of the women, so she wrote about issues that woman at that time faced a lot, mainly death. In The Story of an Hour, the woman's husband has died, and she must face the grief and pain of not having a husband anymore. Although that displays realism, it more strongly demonstrates naturalism, because death is something natural in the world, same as crying. It is human nature to cry when we are feeling insecure, or upset, or just feel as if there is no other way to express our emotions. Although women tend to cry more often then men, I feel that Chopin was trying to get more of her women readers as opposed to the men. Especially because, many of the women Chopin was trying to get to read her stories had probably lost their husband, or someone close to them, in the war, therefore, they need someone or something to relate to. Here comes Chopin with her sad stories of crying and loss, and the women are happy because they finally have something to be able to relate to.

Although both of these two stories by Chopin were sad and somewhat depressing, they were still interesting to analyze to try and find out why the stories were written, and what message Kate Chopin was trying to get across.

Works Cited:

Chopin, Kate. "from The Awakening." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 491. Print.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 553-555. Print.