“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is a great story to discuss for many reasons. It’s especially convenient because it packs so much into just a page and a half. After you read “The Elements of Fiction” and “The Story of an Hour,” re-read “The Story of an Hour” with pen or pencil in hand. Mark it up by identifying different elements of fiction you find in it, as well as anything else that stands out to you. When you take notes on a reading, what techniques do you use? Underlining, circling, bracketing, writing summaries, questions, observations, drawing arrows connecting similar ideas, defining words you didn’t know, among other techniques are great ways to get into a text. Try a combination of these techniques.
When you finish, write a blog post in which you identify a pattern or theme you noticed and noted, and show how it develops from beginning to end. You can judge if you’ve chosen something too big or too small based on how close you come to the goal of approximately 300 words for the post. The word count is indicated at the bottom of the frame of your post as you write it. Adjust accordingly.
Make sure you include a title for your post that reflects what you specifically wrote about–so not the title of the story, or “Homework” or something too general. Then choose the category Kate Chopin, and add any tags you want to your post. You might add a particular element of fiction that you’re writing about, or something else that stands out that you want to identify that will help a reader find your post on our site. If this is confusing, don’t worry about it yet–there’s time to learn this later.
If when you’re done you feel like you’re up for a challenge, try to add an image of your marked up copy of the story. You can take a picture of it, scan it, or use this great app called CamScanner that uses your smartphone’s camera to scan a document. Then on the same page where you’re writing a post, click on the Add Media button near the top. Follow these instructions to help you add the image. It’s not much different than attaching a file to a document. If you add a .jpg, it will appear in the post; if you add a .pdf, it will appear as a link.
If you have questions, please ask them here by leaving a comment on this post. I’m happy to answer questions, and look forward to reading your posts. One last thing: here’s how to write a post: when you’re logged in, a member of our course, and on our site, click the plus (+) at the top of the screen. That will take you to a new post.
Mrs. Mallard
While reading “The Story of an Hour” I noticed a numerous amount of emotions and patterns going on. In the beginning it was clear to see that Mrs. Mallard didn’t need much of an explanation about her husbands death. She just felt it coming and simply went to her room by herself with immense grief inside. I felt as if she was carrying a lot of baggage and stress on her shoulders as Kate Chopin said “Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul”. As I continued to read Kate Chopin described “the tops of the trees that were all quiver with the new spring life and the delicious breath of rain was in the air” which I felt described a final sense of relief and a brand new chapter. Mrs. Mallard then said over and over under her breath “free, free, free!” I believe Mrs. Mallard went through a lot of tough times over the years dealing with Mr. Mallard. I feel as if they had a lot of ups and downs and she was finally feeling a sense of calmness and peace although she was grieving at the same time. She now said that she’d only be living for herself and there’d be no one to live for her during those coming years. I think Kate Chopin made a strong point when she said “And yet she had loved him- sometimes. Often she had not” which she may have meant that she wasn’t always there for him. But didn’t really seem to care because she was finally free as if she was always locked in. She took some deep breaths, said a prayer while taking in everything happening so sudden when the front door opened and saw her husband standing there. After that, she had past way of heart disease. I feel the only reason Mrs. Mallard past so sudden was because of her age and heartache dealing with so many deep and strong emotions all at the same time. And while seeing her husband again and alive whom she finally processed in her head that was dead was just too much of a shock to handle. This was an extremely short story but had so many patterns of emotions going back and forth from sadness, relief, grief, happiness, and death.