"Story of an Hour"

I had mixed reactions to the “Story of an Hour”. The begging started out slow as the writer set the plot. I felt a strong connection to Mrs. Mallard. This was not a usual depiction of grief which I very much appreciated. I was heart broken as she slowing came to realize that, “There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself.” I was not heartbroken for her loss but in the life unlived. To be married to man that she never felt love from, “And yet she had loved him-sometimes.” I found myself drifting off thinking of women of the past that were so limited by the rules of society. As I kept reading and as foreshadowed in the beginning I knew that Mr. Mallard would not be dead. I guess this is what made her realization even more tragic. The part that I did not like was the fact of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition and death at the end. It was so jarring and did not supply any closer. To me it diminished the power of the story. Overall I really enjoyed the story and felt like I was given a window into the past.

Story of an hour

The story of an hour is about an old woman who's husband was said to have died. The woman went up to her room and was looking out her window and was watching the people outside where she saw a man playing music and a woman that was singing to it. The woman was dreaming about herself as a younger woman and she was doing may different things. She dreamt that there was no one to live for because her husband was dead. When she was dreaming she was happy. Then her sister came to the door and said that she was going to make herself ill and the old woman who's name was Louise said that she was not. They went downstairs together to go somewhere then the door opened up and there was her husband. The woman the was said to have died from heart disease that joy had killed her.
I think that the story is about how you loose someone so close to you that there is nothing to live for. The women was dreaming of the days when she was happy. She made herself happy from hearing that her husband died, and then when she saw that he was not really dead it brought more joy to her then anything else that it caused her to pass away.

The Story of an Hour

After reading “The Story of an Hour” I didn’t feel that Louise would have wished her husband dead, but I think after she learned of his death, she felt a sense of independence and new found perspective on her life. She wouldn’t have felt the joy or wonder if she didn’t experience the full impact of loss. If he hadn’t died she would have gone on with her life never knowing the feelings she was harboring. In paragraph 19 she is thinking about the long days ahead she will have all to her own, to do whatever she wants and it was only the day before she dreaded the thought of the long days in front of her. She didn’t want to live a long life as her husband’s wife. Then, suddenly she is, “Free! Body and soul free!”

When she discovers that her husband is not actually dead she is in such shock that she collapses and dies. Her previously euphoric feeling was squashed as if someone threw water on a fire. In a short period of time she experienced grief and then delight and finally fright. Her life as she briefly lived it without him was over while he was alive.

I enjoyed this story and the unforeseen ending. It captures a bit of feminism and irony.

Story of an Hour (not graded as a journal)

In “Story of an Hour,” by Kate Choplin, I think that Mrs. Mallard is sad about the news of her husband’s death, but I also feel that she is relieved that he is gone and she has time to herself now. The two people that were there to tell her the bad news, was her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richard. These two people wanted to be there to tell her because they knew of her heart trouble and wanted to break it to her as gently as possible. But little did they know that she wasn’t all that sad that her husband was dead.
I believe in paragraph five, Mrs. Mallard is sensing everything new to her life. Life was freshened up to a point for her. The sentence, “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life,” was meaning that she could finally breath fresh air with her new life as a widow.
In paragraph seven, the “suspension of intelligent thought,” meant that she was planning her future without her husband. Although her sister was worried for her as she was laying their motionless, Mrs. Mallard was planning the life of hers to come without her husband. She would be alone for years to come, making her open her arms and spread them out to welcome these years to come. While Mrs. Mallard was in her room she kept saying to herself, “Free! Body and Soul Free!” She was stating that she was free from her husband and that she was ready for her new life to begin.
When Richard and Josephine are morning the death of Mr. Brently Mallard, he was opening the front door with a latch key. By the shocking surprise of her husband walking through the door, she dies of a marriage that had no love. She was going to be stuck with him the rest of her life that killed her instantly, with “joy that kills.”

Story of an Hour

In “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, I sense sadness in Mrs. Mallard at the news of her husbands’ death but I also sense excitement. Josephine, her sister, and her husbands friend Richard, are there to deliver the news that her husband has passed away. These two people thought she needed to be told gently due to the love they thought she had for her husband and her existing heart condition she suffered.
In reality, Mrs. Mallard is although sad; she is exited about her future without her husband. “Free, free, free” and again later, “Free! Body and soul free”, are the words she speaks when alone in her room. She thinks of the years to come without her husband. She is overwhelmed with excitement at the though of independence “she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome”.
In the first moments alone in her room, she is opening herself up to the thought of life moving on after the passing of her husband. She hears “the notes of a distant song” and the “countless sparrows were twittering in the eves”.
As Josephine peeks through the keyhole, she sees her sister lying there with a blank stare. Her sister says “open the door- you will make yourself ill”, in fear that she is not handling the news well. In reality, she is in a “suspension of intelligent thought” meaning she is planning her future with out her husband. She knows she will grieve the loss of her husband and will spend years alone before she is ready to move on again. “There will be no one to live for during those coming years”.
Josephine and Richard think she is mourning the death of her husband and future. She is sad that he has died but is excited that she will begin to live for herself in the time to come.
The epitome of the story begins when the door opens and her husband walks in. Mrs. Mallard sees it is him and he is still alive. She dies right there on the floor said to have died of heart disease. In reality, she dies at the thought of having to spend more time in her loveless marriage.

A Rose for Emily

For my first journal entry, I decided to read A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner. In this story, the author tells us about the tragic life of Emily Grierson. she was a woman alone in the world, except for two cousins who visited occasionally. Her father died when she was a young woman, and her beau deserted her soon after. Subsequently, she stayed in her house and the townspeople hardly saw her at all. A Negro manservant lived with her and did her shopping. Eventually we are introduced to a man named Homer Barron. Mr. Homer and Ms. Grierson began to spend time together, and occasionally the townspeople would see them driving around in Mr. Homer's buggy. one day, he went into Ms. Grierson's house, and the townspeople never saw him again. Ms. Grierson died when she was 74, alone - save the Negro manservant who had continued to serve her faithfully to the day of her death. After she died, women from the town came to help prepare for the funeral, and the manservant walked out the back door and wasn't ever seen again. The whole town came to the funeral. A few days later, the townspeople broke into one of Ms. Grierson's upstairs rooms, and found, to their shock and dismay, Mr. Homer, stretched out upon the bed gripped in deaths cold hands - this quote stood out to me; "For a long while we [the townspeople] just stood there, looking down at the profound and fleshless grin." Mr. Homer was lovingly laid out, and there was an indention in the pillow next to his with a long strand of iron-gray hair [Ms. Grierson's].

To me this chort story was about an unrequited love, and a woman who tried to keep her love with her for the rest of her life by committing a crime of passion. The author does not come right out and say it, but it is implied that Ms. Grierson murdered Mr. Homer. By murdering him, Ms. Grierson was able to keep him "forever." I could see how a person could read through the story and dismiss Ms. Grierson as being crazy or insane, but the more I thought about it, the more I could kind of understand what she might have been thinking (not that I condone killing of course.)

My thoughts were this: everyone in Ms. Grierson's life either died, deserted her or pretty much ignored her. This man, Mr. Homer, apparently showed an intrest in her for a time, then (for whatever reason) didn't want to be with her naymore. Ms. Grierson apparently loathed the thought of yet another person leaving her. She must have decided the only way to keep Mr. Homer was to kill him and create a shrine with him so she could keep him forever.

I do think this was a good text. It really made me think critically about what I was reading, not just read the story passively to be done with it. The author wrote the story in a confusing sequence, which was a little hard to follow.

There was one sentence that struck me the most powerfully in the whole story; "Thus she passed from generation to generation - dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse." I think this sentence sums up the poingnant story and life of Emily Grierson.

The Story of an Hour

In “The Story of An Hour” Mrs. Mallard didn’t quite know how to take the news of her husband’s death. It was very sudden, thus she had a lot of thoughts running through her head. She wasn’t sure what the future years would bring without her husband there by her side. She wasn’t even sure whether she had ever actually loved the man. Although she was both curious and surprised, also somewhat disturbed of his death, that wasn’t actually the case. “When the storm of grief had spent itself” she isolated herself alone in her room and wondered what would become of her now, that she is alone. She wondered what it would be like to be free, since she only loved him sometimes. She also needed to be alone to sort out her feelings. Soon her wild thoughts diminished as her loved ones wondered if she was okay. Finally they managed to extract her from the room. Then her husband walked through the door. Her heart failure was something that could have made them closer, but in fact only drove them further apart.