Use of Subtle Details in The Storm
Effectively describing the relationships between characters is one vital component to a great piece of literature. Without a fundamental understanding of what the characters are feeling and a sense of where they are coming from, a literary work is a puzzle with missing pieces. A variety of tools exist for authors to accomplish this goal. Such information can be provided outright, as in a flashback, or an author may chose to rely more heavily on subtle tactics. In Kate Chopin’s The Storm the preferred forms of relationship development are subtle. By making good use of tone, small details like dialect and an overarching metaphor, Chopin skillfully incorporates a great deal of emotional depth.
The first device with which Chopin subtly builds the characters' relationships is tone. Chopin uses tone as a tool to shape the
reader's attitude. By addressing the actions of Calixta and Alcee with a favorable tone, both characters seem to have done something natural and inevitable. In fact, Calixta and Alcee both commit adultery, yet it is presented to the reader in such a way that both characters escape any kind of negative judgment. If Chopin had merely written down the course of events in The Storm one might expect a likely response of disapproval from the reader.
Evidence of this use of tone is not hard to find in the text. One clear example is found as the love scene develops. Chopin describes
Calixta?s flesh as ?knowing for the first time its birthright.? The word ?birthright? suggests that Calixta is entitled to this affair. At the same time th...
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...nbsp; Finally, the storm ends restoring peace and calm to the countryside just as Alcee and Calixta leave each other with smiles and Bobinot and Bibi return none the wiser.
It is through this metaphor that the reader can best relate to the path the story takes. This descriptive tool can be overlooked and the story can continue on its own. However, when the reader recognizes and considers this metaphor?s meaning, a much more complete and vivid descriptionis present.
In conclusion, it can be seen that Chopin?s use of subtle hints and small suggestive details add considerable meaning to the work as a whole. Without these small pieces such a vivid picture could not be painted and a narrative with the potential to be a classic would have remained a puzzle with missing pieces.
The Underground Railroad was an extremely complex organization whose mission was to free slaves from southern states in the mid-19th century. It was a collaborative organization comprised of white homeowners, freed blacks, captive slaves, or anyone else who would help. This vast network was fragile because it was entirely dependent on the absolute discretion of everyone involved. A slave was the legal property of his owner, so attempting escape or aiding a fugitive slave was illegal and dangerous, for both the slave and the abolitionist. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass understands that he can only reveal so many details about his escape from servitude, saying, “I deeply regret the necessity that impels
The Underground Railroad was large group of people who secretly worked together to help slaves escape slavery in the south. Despite the name, the Underground Railroad had nothing to do with actual railroads and was not located underground (www.freedomcenter.org). The Underground Railroad helped move hundreds of slaves to the north each year. It’s estimated that the south lost 100,000 slaves during 1810-1850 (www.pbs.org).
Leading towards the end of the story, Armand builds a bonfire on the pyre. The bonfire symbolized Armand getting rid of all his memories of his wife and child. Throughout this paper I have shared Chopin’s use of symbolic elements by discussing symbols of racism, social class distinction, and the symbolic elements involving the difference between the gender roles. At the end of the story Armand reads a letter from his mom to his father. Armand finds out that his mother is from the African descent after; he has lost his marriage and family.
The underground railroad was a network of northerners that helped slaves reached the north and Canada for safety from their plantation. It was secret and railway terms were used to describe system as a way to hide the real nature of the operation. The underground railroad extended from Maine to Nebraska but was most concentrated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indian, New York, and The New England States. More of the more specific spots were Detroit, Michigan, Erie, Pennsylvania, Buffalo and New York.
Effectively using foreshadowing in a piece of literature enhances the reader's curiosity. One clear example of such usage is seen in Kate Chopin's writing. Her use of foreshadowing in the short story "The Storm" adds an element of intrigue, holding the reader's interest throughout. In this story a father and son, Bobinôt and Bibi, are forced to remain in the store where they were shopping, waiting for an approaching storm to pass. Meanwhile, the wife and mother, Calixta, remaining at home, receives an unexpected visit from a former lover of hers, Alcée. The two lovers ultimately consummate their relationship. Alcée then departs once the storm subsides, at which time the father and son return home. No repercussions of the extramarital affair take place within the story.
Hiding under wooden floors, in attics, in basements, and hidden doorways. The Underground Railroad wasn't a actual railroad but a system of abolitionist helping escaped slaves. Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave, she started the railway. Helping starving wanted ex-slaves and risking her life for theirs. Harriet Tubman has helped so many African Americans escaped before slavery was outlawed.
These two themes are built upon two main characters. Even the smallest details of these characters bring out the themes in a way that can only give the story a happy ending. Calixta still has a place in her heart for Alce, her prince charming, which gives the affair a chance to happen. The overall story is symbolized through the color white and the passing storm which intensifies all of the emotions in the story. “The Storm” was a controversial story that many did not approve of when it was first written. Today it is appreciated, along with most of Chopin’s work, as an important part of the feminine
When people hear about the Underground Railroad for the first time they perceive the picture that it’s a railroad that is literally underground, but that isn’t the case with the Underground Railroad. This railroad was not underground or even a railroad. The name was derived from the activities being conducted in secret, and “using darkness or disguise” (history.com). This was the means of African Americans escapes; if they would have been caught they would get a harsh punishment, that punishment could consist of being “sold to someone who lived much further south than Maryland, where it would be harder to run away because the distance to the North was so much greater” (thinkport.org). Other punishments for slaves when they escape were that they would get “beaten and forced to do exceptionally hard work”. One of the most famous known conductors of the Underground Railroad is Harriet Tubman.
...use of imagery in her writing gives it a more natural feel, blending the emotions of the story as a chameleon does itself in the trees. Many authors do not use such techniques in their writing, leading to a lack of substance in some cases. Without the images of nature that Chopin incorporates into her stories, they would not be as enjoyable to read as they are.
Kate Chopin's "The Storm", is a short story about a brief love affair that takes place during a storm that has separated Calixta with her husband and son. The title "The Storm" is an obvious reference to the storm outside, but more importantly to the love affair that takes place. The title refers to nature, which is symbolically used again and again in the story. Chopin uses words like "somber clouds", "threatening roar", and "sinister intentions" to describe the approaching storm. Later in the story those same words in reference to the storm outside, will also be represented symbolically to the storm brewing inside with the love affair. In the beginning of the story Bobinot and his son Bibi stay at a store to let the storm pass by. Calixta, the wife , is at home by herself doing some chores around the house. As the storm starts to approach, Alcee rides in and asks Calixta if he could come in until the storm passes. It starts to rain immediately after he arrives. It's important to know that Alcee and Calixta had past together which he brings up to her later in the story. It is also stated that she has never seen him alone. The storm starts to increase outside, reflecting the sexual tension inside. The storm's sinister intention appears when "The rain beat upon the shingled roof that threatened to break an entrance...". It seems that the storm knows what is going on between the two and is threatening to break in and ruin their chances. They move through out the house and end up in the bedroom "with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious. The bed being white symbolizes purity. The two then make their way to the window to watch the storm outside when lightning strikes nearby, falling back into his arms. The storm in a sense seems to be forcing them together now. They then embrace each other in the peek of the storm where things really start to get stormy in the love affair. The two then start making out yahda, yahda, yahda. The thunder is now distant and passing away. The storm outside turns into a soft, lighter rain, being symbolic that the storm is ending.
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
Calixta and Alce, the two main characters in the short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, are sexual, mature, and knowing adults. By having them discover amazing sex outside their marriages, they return to their own marriages renewed. Chopin openly condones adultery due to the fact that the characters are not punished and in the end “everyone was happy” (paragraph 40) . A common theme of fresh sexuality and desire is seen in this story though symbols and other literary elements. Kate Chopin is an American author that wrote short stories and novels in the 20th century.
...way that the story is being interpreted and how the storm influences the story as a whole. Sometimes people need a wakeup call or a 'storm' to make them aware of how good they have things. In this short story Alcee and Calixta both come to realization of how good they have things with their spouses and how that they already found the ones that they love, which weren't each other. This made me aware of how we as people can take things for granted or believing we know what’s best for us. In reality we don't always know what’s best until something occurs and shows us that what we already have is the best.
Kate Chopin was a woman and a writer far ahead of her time. She was a realistic fiction writer and one of the leaders and inspirational people in feminism. Her life was tragic and full of irregular events. In fact, this unusual life had an enormous effect on her writings and career. She depicted the lifestyle of her time in her works. In most of her stories, people would find an expansion of her life’s events. In her two stories “The Storm” and “The Story of One Hour” and some of her other works she denoted a lot of her life’s events. Kate Chopin is one of those writers who were influenced by their life and surrounded environment in their fiction writing, and this was very clear in most of her works.
In The Storm, the character of Calixta is unable to fulfill society's standards of virtue, despite her perceived purity by her lover Alcee. When Alcee professes, "If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate" (p. 34), he is basically saying that just because a woman is not chaste, does not mean she is not pure of heart. After all, it was Calixta's marriage which had stripped her of her chastity status. So why should her morality be called into question? Of course the morality i...