SUMMARY&RESPONSE “The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin

KOHEI YOKOMI

Amy Lee

Reading Writing 645

4/20/2013

Summary-Response

“The Story of An Hour”, by Kate Chopin

Summary

  Kate Chopin, in “The Story of An Hour”, describes that feeling of freedom of Mrs. Mallard who is told of her husband`s death, and then, her own death upon seeing her husband who should have died. Mrs. Mallard is afflicted with a heart trouble, so her sister and her husband`s friend tell her as gently as possible that her husband had died in a railroad disaster. At first she can`t accept his death, but she cries at once and shuts herself up in her room. She is crying in her room, but gradually she begins to think that she won`t have to live for him from now and she is free. Although she had loved him at times, often she had not. Her sister worries about her and asks her to open the door. Mallard doesn`t want to open the door but she opens the door to her sister`s importunities. Then she descends the stairs with her sister. But suddenly her husband who should have died enters from the front door. Actually, he had been far the scene of accident, and did not even know there had been one. She sees him and dies with shock.  “When the doctors come, they say she has died of the heart disease—of the joy that kills”.

Response

  In sum, the author creates a picture of her confusing emotion by using description of scenery. With her story, she shows how people feel when their spouse dies. In this story, Mrs. Mallard feels freedom at last when her husband died. I generally agree with the author that people may feel freedom when their spouse dies. No matter how much you love your lover, I`m sure you sometimes feel tired because of him/her, especially wives have to do housework for him and I think it is sometimes an annoying work. So, a wife may feel that she won`t have to live for someone from now when her husband has died. But, some wives never feel like that. She just feels grief and wishes her husband was alive. I wish the author had described how Mrs. Mallard had loved her husband in more detail. Despite this, I generally agree with the author`s idea and this story has a really surprising ending. I didn`t expect this ending. I would recommend this story to others for that reason.

IN class

IN class
vague words
 OK nice great interesting something fine stuff
replacement
adequate satisfactory

Dig Deeper

Excerpt from p. 29, by Pauline Johnson.

Pauline Johnson, in an excerpt of her book, “As It Was in the Beginning,” writes from the perspective of a young Aboriginal woman, Esther, living in a Christian village during the late1800s.  Esther really misses her family even though everyone says it’s degenerate to.  One time she smelled a buckskin, and it smelled relaxing. That’s because it reminded her of her family.  She asked Father Paul to go home, but he said no.  She still felt unpleasant and wanted to go home.

I thought the excerpt from Pauline Johnson’s memoir was really sympathetic.  I live far away from my family, too.  Like Esther, sometimes I miss my family a lot.  Sometimes I feel lonely.  The excerpt didn’t say what Esther did after Father Paul’s refusal.  I’d like to read more of this book because I want to know what happened to her and if she ever went home.

Think

KOHEI YOKOMI

645

April 15

1.great, wonderful, fantastic

    replacement: cool,exciting

2. It was a beautiful day. The sunlight felt pleasant on her legs that had been sheltered under jeans all year. The beach and the ocean smelled relaxing. She let all the comfortable sounds soak into her soul. She was determined to make this superb as  a vacation as her grandmother had ever had.
3. C

4. B

5. A

6. E

7. C

Hi,
Welcome to my blog.