“The Swimmer” opens on a humorous note: it “was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, ‘I drank too much last night,’” the narrator says. It is a beautiful summer day, and a large white cloud “like a city seen from a distance” is on the horizon. Neddy Merrill, a slender and…
Tag: Short Stories
The Story Of An Hour: Analysis
In Donald F. Larsson’s entry on Kate Chopin in Critical Survey of Short Fiction, we learn that “consistently … strong-willed, independent heroines … [who] cast a skeptical eye on the institution of marriage” are very characteristic of her stories. In “The Story of an Hour,” we do not so much see as intuit Mrs. Mallard’s…
The Story Of An Hour: Setting
Social, Cultural Setting “The Story of an Hour” was published in 1894, an era in which many social and cultural questions occupied Americans’ minds. One of these, referred to as the “Woman Question,” involved which roles were acceptable for women to assume in society. Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species (1892) had further incited this…
The Story Of An Hour: Themes
Identity and Selfhood Kate Chopin deals with the issues of female self-discovery and identity in “The Story of an Hour.” After Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband’s death, she is initially overcome with grief. But quickly she begins to feel a previously unknown sense of freedom and relief. At first, she is frightened of her…
The Story Of An Hour: Characters
Josephine Josephine is Mrs. Mallard’s sister. It is Josephine who tells Mrs. Mallard of her husband’s death and who implores Louise to let her into the room after she has shut herself inside. Josephine, a woman who embodies the feminine ideal, assumes that Louise is suffering terribly from the news, not knowing that her sister…
The Story Of An Hour: Summary
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is the story of an hour in the life of Mrs. Louise Mallard, a young woman whose wrinkles portray “repression” and “strength.” As the story begins, the narrator reveals that Mrs. Mallard has “heart trouble.” Her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards have come to her after…
Sonny’s Blues – Analysis
Each of us wants to live a life where we feel fulfilled and joyous. A few of us accomplish this with seemingly little effort; others struggle on their journey through periods of self doubt, rejection, depression, or the blues. James Baldwin was no different; yet while he struggled toward his own individual fulfillment, he began…
Sonny’s Blues – Setting
Bebop In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a new form of jazz music was being developed. The style, called “bebop,””bop,” or later,”hard bop,” centered on a very complex and abstract type of soloing during familiar tunes. Often in the solo, only the chords of the original melody would remain the same, and the tune…
Sonny’s Blues – Themes
In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” a man finally comes to understand the darkness and suffering that consumes his brother, and he begins to appreciate the music that his brother uses to calm those blues. Suffering The main theme of “Sonny’s Blues” is suffering, particularly the sufferings of black people in America. Although James Baldwin presents…
Sonny’s Blues – Characters
Creole Creole is a bass player who leads the band that Sonny plays in at the end of the story. He functions as a kind of father figure for Sonny; he believes it is his purpose to guide Sonny through his blues and teach him how to turn them into music. He also attempts to…