“The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich and “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin both have the common theme of death; however, in “The Red Convertible”, the death of Henry ends the very close relationship that he has with his brother Lyman while in “Story of an Hour”, the death of Mr. Mallard marks an opportunity of independence and freedom for Mrs. Mallard which shows that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Mallard was unsatisfactory. “The Red Convertible” shows the literary conflict of person versus person through the good relationship between Henry and Lyman and has the prevalent theme of death. The brotherly relationship between Henry and Lyman starts off very close and friendly, however after Henry comes back from being drafted into the …show more content…
Mallard processes her husband's death and the theme of death. Once Mrs. Mallard learns of the passing of Mr. Mallard, she has a brief period of indescribable grief. She soon realizes the benefits of her husband passing and she is feeling conflicted. She has an internal debate thinking that she should be grieving and upset but she is actually finding the benefits and positives of it. Chopin writes, “And yet she had loved him - sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!” (2). Mrs. Mallard’s relationship with her husband seems to not be happy and upon his death, she has a shift of mentality and starts to experience joy and hope instead of grief. She soon realizes all of the potential freedom and the many things that she can do without her husband. Mrs. Mallard has a sense of empowerment and independence to have a new start to her life where she can live for herself. The theme of death in “Story of a Hour” presents itself with the death of Mr. Mallard. His death results in Mrs. Mallard being optimistic and looking forward to her life. This is different than what she felt the previous day when she may have thought that life was not good and she did not look forward to her future. When she learns the news of her husband’s death, she was sad and shocked by it yet it gave her a sense of freedom and feeling of opportunity of what was to come of her day to day life without her
When Lyman was looking at the picture it dawned on him, unlike the car, Henry cannot be repaired. The dark truth behind the mental image of Henry’s brother shows that his soul did not return back from Vietnam. Lyman’s avoidance of the photograph shows the murkiness behind the photograph. His detail of the photograph creates a mental image of Henry’s suffering and distance from reality he could never overcome. He hides this photograph in his closet because he would never get to understand what his brother went through while being imprisoned.
In the story, "The Red Convertible," Louise gives knowledge into the Native American lifestyle and a percentage of the hardships that can occur for the casualties of war. Before Henry Jr. went to Vietnam, he and Lyman (his more youthful sibling) purchased a red convertible. It was an Olds. Henry and Lyman were indivisible, going around their local area. Lyman constantly considered that the auto had a place with Henry.
In this short story by Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible”, the plot which is the changes that Henry undergoes during his time at war. Henrry changes so that Lyman cannot recognize him. From Henry’s smile to his laugh to Henry being social, everything has changed and to the disappointment of Lyman it is for the worse. War is not only a place in which soldiers are deployed, it becomes a state of mind which is so intense that it interupts their daily lives. It becomes so intense that the solider’s family no longer recognize that person.
Louise Erdrich’s short story, The Red Convertible, shows that the corruption of war dehumanizes man by exposing the harsh reality of the world. Henry’s inability to mentally recuperate from the war results from a shocking evil that he has unveiled in humanity. After experiencing war, a world centered around orders and commands, torture and pain, programmatic violence and mindless murder, where free will does not exist and men turn against each other, he perceives the world he once blindly admired as a deceitful illusion to mask the underlying cruelty of the world (50 words). Shattering the illusion subjects the individual to a bleak and meaningless life. Experiencing war bereaves man of his ability to interact with and enjoy the presence
The conflict is probably the most important of what we have discussed so far. In “The Story of an Hour” the conflict is based on Mrs. Mallard and herself. She is fighting against the fact to be joyful about her husband’s death because she can be free; she is trying to mourn for her husband, “She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.” (Chopin, paragraph 10, sentences 1-3). Despite that, her joy eventually consumes her, when Mr. Mallard comes home, she dies for lack of joy, or more accurately, she dies of shock, her heart is just too weak to sustain so much excitement at once.
In conclusion, the image that the character of Mrs. Mallard left me is not a repugnant woman, but a instead she was a tired women who lived only by
After being told that her husband had died Mrs. Mallard believed she was free at last. In the end, the readers came to find out that Mr. Mallard was alive. The quote. “... He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one…”
" she kept whispering. The diction that is being used by Mrs.Mallard shows how she is actually feeling about the death of her husband. Mrs. Mallard feels as if she will be free now, freer than she was before since her husband’s death. This provides evidence of male dominance in a patriarchy through diction by Mrs.Mallard stating that she is ready to start a new life right after her husband passes away and the fact she states her body and soul are
“The Story of an Hour” was composed by American author Kate Chopin in 1894. The short story depicts a period in time, specifically an hour, when Mrs. Mallard experiences a plethora of emotions after receiving the news of her husband’s death, which was assumed that he had died in a railroad disaster. Considering Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition, Mrs. Mallard’s sister strives to inform her of her husband’s death in a gentle manner to prevent the risk of heart failure. To cope with the devastating news, Mrs. Mallard locks herself in her room and ironically becomes overjoyed to be “free.” However, her joy subsides as she discovers Mr. Mallard is alive after all and she dies of heart disease.
“Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death,” or so it was thought. In the short story, The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, Brently Mallard’s wife was told that he had died in a railroad accident from newspaper sources. Overall, it was the plot of the story that primarily connected to the stories other elements such as point of view, characterization, along with the conflict. Firstly, the plot of the story was correspondent to the story’s point of view, which was told though his wife.
Mrs. Mallard freedom is does not last long because her husband’s suddenly arrives home alive, and at that time she feels pain. Mrs.
The Story of an Hour In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, a friend of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, Richards was accompanied by Josephine Mrs. Mallard’s sister to tell her that her husband Brently Mallard had passed away during a train accident. At first Mrs. Mallard was very upset and she locked herself in her room crying and thinking. After thinking she became conscious of how how much happier she could be without her husband. You never know how unhappy you are until you get a taste of happiness.
There are two important symbols in Kate Chopin’s “The story of an hour.” This story’s main character is Mrs. Mallard. She had a heart trouble and Josephine and Richards told her that her husband died indirectly and they considered Mallard’s heart trouble. However, this news was not true. Her husband was alive.
Instead, she began to feel this sense of happiness and freedom. At the end of the story when she saw her husband was alive and she dies. In response to the story when she felt "physical exhaustion that haunted
She started to feel joy; even though, “she knew she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death”. However, she saw beyond her husband’s death. Instead she was thinking of how she is going to have “possession of self-assertion, which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of being!”