Blog 9

“The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin is about a young woman, Louise Mallard, who lost her husband in a train accident. She was told the tragic news by her sister and her husband’s friend. When she heard the news, Louise was very devastated and she immediately started to sob uncontrollably. She cried a lot and then she went to her room to be by herself. As she is crying by herself in her room, a very strange feeling comes over her. She is looking out the window when she begins breathing very heavily and starts to repeat the word “free!” over and over again. At this point, Louise is realizing that now that her husband is dead, she does not have to live for him anymore. She realizes that men and women who are in a relationship are always living for each other and trying to control and change each other. Suddenly she is happy that she can now live for herself and she is looking forward to the rest of her life. She comes out of her room and meets her sister and her husband’s friend at the front door. Someone opens the door and Louise is shocked to see her husband walk through the door. Turns out, he did not make it on that train and he was not even aware that there had been an accident. Louise screams and ends up dying from a heart attack.

In the story, Louise thinks that men and women hold each other back when they are together and she looks forward to living the rest of her life for herself. Louise valued individualism and I believe that Kate Chopin also does since she writes about it. Ralph Waldo Emerson also values the individual. In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Self Reliance”, he writes a lot about how it is important to be an individual and not conform to what other people are doing. “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” (Emerson). I think that Emerson’s beliefs that it is important not to conform with what everybody else is doing relates to Kate Chopin’s belief that living for yourself is better than living for someone else.

Bibliography

Chopin, Kate. ""The Story of an Hour"" Virginia Commonwealth University. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.

Emerson, Ralph W. "Self Reliance." Emerson Central. Emerson Texts. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.