Story Of An Hour Literary Analysis

After the American Civil War, a new era of literature emerged called the Realism Era. From 1861 until 1900, the new Realism Literature showed new tragedies and real life situations of everyday Americans. The main characters within Realistic Stories are middle to lower class, dull, and have common, boring takes on life. Parts of Realism Literature include Freudian Psychology and the American Dream that is portrayed through the main character. The American Dream is the idea of having equal opportunity, freedom, and the right to pursue happiness including perfect family, great job, and money. “The Apostate” by Jack London, “The Story of an Hour,” and “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, are Realistic Stories that explain the American Dream’s failure

It was as if the “very spirit of Satan”(Chopin) took control of him when dealing with his slaves. This also helps set up the story more for the main issue within plot. One day, one of the slave’s children stood fanning Desiree’s child. While staring at her child, Desiree suddenly looked at the black boy next to her baby. She cried out when she realized that her child looked like this boy, meaning the baby was part black. She ran to her husband confused and asked him what this meant. Armand sharply answered, “it means that you are not white”(Chopin). Armand assumes that their child is black because of Desiree’s obscure beginning. He orders her to leave with their child immediately. After they leave, Armand sits and goes through Desiree’s belongings and throws them into a fire. He came across a letter that his mother had wrote to his father before she passed. Within the letter it thanks God for creating it so that Armand would never know that his mother “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery”(Chopin). It was never Desiree who had black roots, but Armand himself. This story shows the real life within America during the late 1800’s. Being associated or having black

Chopin grew up in a house with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, of whom were all widowed. At the age of five, her father placed her in a school called Sacred Heart where they taught her to think independently but be submissive to men. Even with her independent way of thinking, Chopin knew that “she would eventually become a housewife”(Tolentino). Soon enough, at twenty five years old, Kate Chopin married Oscar Chopin. At thirty, her husband died from Swamp Fever and left her and their six kids alone. After successfully running her husband’s business for one year, Chopin and her children moved back home with Chopin’s Mother. After the death of her mother, Chopin became severely depressed and her doctor recommended that she wrote to help her depression. Her story, “The Story of an Hour,” she wrote to mirror her mother, Eliza Faris, life. Mrs. Faris’ husband had died in a train accident like Mrs. Mallard’s husband supposedly died. Eliza’s marriage was arranged and could have been the possible reason Chopin incorporated Mrs. Mallard gaining freedom from her husband’s death. She imagined that her mother felt relieved and freed after her husband died because their marriage was arranged and not based on love. Even though Chopin married, she did not act as the traditional housewife. “She would take long walks unaccompanied and smoke in public”(Tolentino) which many