Analysis of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Essay Example for Free

Analysis of â€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin Essay The short story â€Å"The Story of an Hour† was written by Kate Chopin and first appeared in 1984. It tells about the ‘one hour’ brief story of the main protagonist, Louise Mallard, and her reaction upon hearing the news of her husband’s death by a car accident. And because she had a heart problem, her sister Josephine and her husband’s friend Richards decided to break to her the news as gently as possible. Not long after the supposedly bad news was revealed, Brently, Louise’s husband, suddenly comes home alive disproving the former, causing death to her by heart attack. Majority of the story’s progression revolve around Louise’s reaction upon hearing the news about her husband’s death (Brian, 2001). The scenes where Louise isolate herself in her room and savor her new-found freedom add up to the hanging idea of the real reason behind her death. It seems that the author actually give two possible emotional state to answer the underlying question of Louise’s joyful death: one is that she has become too overwhelmed to see her husband alive in contrary to the news about his involvement in a recent car accident and the other one is that she is saddened by the realization of the freedom that she thought she will have after hearing her husband’s loss is completely taken away from her again. Contrasting Representations Suprisingly, the short-story is written in complete contrasts of the main theme. First of these contrasting representations within the story is Louise’s reaction upon hearing the news. The news about her husband’s death should bring her agony and tears but instead; she sits calmly â€Å"facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. † Here we see a strange approach to the situation with the word â€Å"comfortable† being used to modify the chair near the window. Louise, a new widow herself, must not see the chair as â€Å"comfortable† as it seems just right after hearing the unbearable news of her husband’s death. Added to this, the scene outside the window also symbolizes something in contrast to the story’s progression. The spring day from the view outside her window shows a contrasting image to the situation she has. The spring is a symbol of â€Å"rebirth† or â€Å"new life† thus the spring prognosticates Louise’s new life after Brently’s death. Another interesting symbol in the story is the description of the view laid upon Louise’s eyes as she sits near the window: â€Å"The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves† (Brian, 2001). For the readers, the description made by Louise about the view she was seeing clouds what her true emotions were at that moment. It seemed that as she isolated herself in a room, she completely disregarded the news of her husband’s death. These representations had become tricky in contrasting the main theme the story supposes to have or tell. Kate Chopin’s idea of a Joyful Death: Appearance versus Conflict What the readers may discover in reading this story is the possibility that there is an ironic truth behind the death of the main protagonist’s beloved. In the main setting of the story where Louis sits in a comfortable chair, she mouth over the words we never expect to read or hear from her. She seems to be happy rather than being sad about Brently’s loss with what the story emphasizes on her shouting â€Å"free, free, free! The freedom she pertains here signifies of her having the will to live a life all by herself, after her husband is gone. As she plays a youthful characteristic of a woman, it is a well played proof that she was indeed after the freedom, of doing what she want to do and make decisions for herself. With this fact, the story seems to have a conflict of its own: conflict between the ideas of appearance and reality. From the moment that the story emphasizes about Louise having her â€Å"freedom† at last, it could suggest the notion to the reader(s) that she is not saddened by the news. Unlike what she had shown in the central point of the story, Louise somehow is expected to grieve by the people around her, all having the idea that her marriage with Brently was a happy one. This is what her sister Josephine completely understood with her reaction as she misinterprets Louise’s behavior and thinking. She hysterically calls out her sister in the room, believing that Louise is heart-broken but in reality, Louise is more lightened up by the news. The doctors’ judgment about Louise’s death also deals with this conflict. For them, it seemed that Louise died after realizing that her husband is alive. This appearance of Louise’s happiness is more illustrated when they predicted that due to heart attack â€Å"of joy that kills† (Brians, 2001). Never did they think of the reality that she died because of another reason. That she dies because she was heart-broken to recognize the truth that she will not be able to gain her freedom as what she expected earlier. Role of Woman versus Man Another conflict in the story accentuates the role of woman versus man in the society. It is illustrated in the story that Louise is a submissive wife to Brently. But there is an internal struggle within her that tells that she was not happily married at all. As what Louise thinks, â€Å"What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being† justifies more to the idea that she, indeed, had loved Brently but more were the times she feel not. Maybe for Brently, Louise appeared to be happy with their relationship or he thinks and assumes that she is. Apparently, Louise wanted more the freedom she had felt for in that short while. After finding out the truth that she was not yet totally free, she had thought that only by death that she would took possession of it at last. There in death she would find peace and liberty. Ironically, Louise took the realization that her husband was alive and chose to die in able to attain the freedom she longed for. Character Analysis Chopin made her characters compliment along with the theme of the story. The main character, Louise plays a youthful wife who tends to have her freedom despite her marriage with Brently. Her youth marked up the end of her life and this irony of life, of choosing liberty by death, seemed to be one of the uncertain situations in the matter of choosing life over death. Brently, although his character is not discussed further on in the story, seemed to be playing a role of a husband who wants her wife under his control. Louise would never want liberation if he was a good man to her. His characteristic gives a deeper impact in the story, making Louise choose to die with freedom rather than living with him in a life full of despair. Josephine, Louise’s sister, was recognized here as a doting sister who takes care of her and all the matters that has a connection with her. Josephine, together with Richards, had taken care of gently telling to her the â€Å"death† of her husband Brently. She half-concealed the truth, in order for Louise to accept it without suffering her heart problem. Richards, Louise’s friend, is the one who brought the news to the house, he is responsible for assuring Brently’s death. As he rushes to tell the news to his friend, there is a suggestive truth that he was worried about what his friend’s reaction would be after hearing the news. If he had not rushed over to deliver the news, there is a possibility that Brently could arrive first in the house and justify that his name in the news is a big mistake, preventing Louise’s death and would have lived more. Apart from Brently, Richards is also responsible for the protagonist’s death. The story gives us the impression that not every death could bring grief to someone. It could be, in another way, a joyful event. Chopin had also brought about the issues of women and their role in the society. The story, written in the nineteenth-century, showed how women years back had no rights to be at their own will. Women then were still under the prying eyes of the society and men dominate over them. Chopin tackles a lot of moral issue within the story. Her story suggests that it would still be better if women of her own time maintain their roles in the society. In the nineteenth-century, men are expected to be superior over women and not the other way around, not what Louise wanted to be. Her insights within the story inspires us with the vision of what harmonious relationships are ought to be and the wide complexity in bearing the contrasting truth between appearance and reality. References: Brians, Paul. et al. Reading about the World. (Vol. 2) 3rd Edition. Texas: Harcourt Brace College, 2001.

The Works of John Grisham Essay -- essays research papers

John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8, 1955. His parents were a construction worker and a homemaker. As a child, John Grisham dreamed of one day becoming a professional baseball player. In 1967, his family moved to the town of Southaven, Mississippi. Ten years later he received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University. In 1981, he received a law degree from Ole Miss. That same year, he married Renee Jones. He also started a law practice in Southaven, where he practiced both criminal and civil law. Two years later, Grisham was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives where he served until 1990. During his seven year span, he one day overheard the testimony of a 12 year old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the father had murdered his daughter's rapists. Grisham spent five years of getting up a 5 a.m. to finish this novel, entitled A Time to Kill. Initially, the story w as rejected by many publishers, but was bought by Wynwood Press and given a modest printing in 1988. Before A Time to Kill was published, Grisham had already begun work on The Firm, which was bought by Paramount Pictures for $600,000. The Firm spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was the best-selling novel of 1991. Grisham has continued to write one novel per year since A Time to Kill. Grisham now resides in Oxford, Mississippi and Charlottesville, Virginia. John Grisham writes a very distinctive style of mystery. Grisham started out as a lawyer, so he generally writes mysteries that pertain very much to law and government. This type of mystery is commonly known as the legal thriller. He gives you just enough information to keep you guessing, but not enough to give away the ending. Although, Grisham has written one novel that has absolutely nothing to do with law, lawyers, or courtrooms. To date, John Grisham has written twelve novels. They are A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, and A Painted House. There have also been several media adaptations to Grisham's novels. They include: - The Firm. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Paramount Pictures, 1993. Based... ... September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with two weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist- high to my father, almost over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop." Thus begins a story inspired by life in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it. For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will cha nge the lives of the Chandlers forever. A Painted House is a moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience. - Oxford, Mississippi: The Oxford American (2000) - New York: Doubleday, 2001 The Works of John Grisham Essay -- essays research papers John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas on February 8, 1955. His parents were a construction worker and a homemaker. As a child, John Grisham dreamed of one day becoming a professional baseball player. In 1967, his family moved to the town of Southaven, Mississippi. Ten years later he received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University. In 1981, he received a law degree from Ole Miss. That same year, he married Renee Jones. He also started a law practice in Southaven, where he practiced both criminal and civil law. Two years later, Grisham was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives where he served until 1990. During his seven year span, he one day overheard the testimony of a 12 year old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the father had murdered his daughter's rapists. Grisham spent five years of getting up a 5 a.m. to finish this novel, entitled A Time to Kill. Initially, the story w as rejected by many publishers, but was bought by Wynwood Press and given a modest printing in 1988. Before A Time to Kill was published, Grisham had already begun work on The Firm, which was bought by Paramount Pictures for $600,000. The Firm spent 47 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and was the best-selling novel of 1991. Grisham has continued to write one novel per year since A Time to Kill. Grisham now resides in Oxford, Mississippi and Charlottesville, Virginia. John Grisham writes a very distinctive style of mystery. Grisham started out as a lawyer, so he generally writes mysteries that pertain very much to law and government. This type of mystery is commonly known as the legal thriller. He gives you just enough information to keep you guessing, but not enough to give away the ending. Although, Grisham has written one novel that has absolutely nothing to do with law, lawyers, or courtrooms. To date, John Grisham has written twelve novels. They are A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Partner, The Street Lawyer, The Testament, The Brethren, and A Painted House. There have also been several media adaptations to Grisham's novels. They include: - The Firm. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Paramount Pictures, 1993. Based... ... September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with two weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist- high to my father, almost over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop." Thus begins a story inspired by life in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it. For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will cha nge the lives of the Chandlers forever. A Painted House is a moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience. - Oxford, Mississippi: The Oxford American (2000) - New York: Doubleday, 2001

Position of English law in the Malay States and its effect to the local law Essay

While, as for the reception of English law in the Malay states, RJ Wilkinson said : ‘There can be no doubt that Moslem Law would have ended by becoming the law of Malaya had not British law stepped in to check it’. Before the British intervention into Malay states, Malays were governed by Malay adat law and for the non-Malays, they were governed by personal laws or if they were British subjects, English law. These laws continued to apply, subject to modifications made by specific legislation, until the formal reception of the English law. British started to intervene into Malay states using series of concluded treaties with Malay Rulers, in return for British protection against external attack, agreed to accept British advisers whose advice had to be sought and acted upon in all matters except those concerning Islam and Malay custom. It can be seen that through the so-called Residential System, British imposed indirect rule over the Malay states. The formation of the Federated Malay States (FMS) showed that the Malay Rulers seems started to accept the British intervention into Malay states. Reception of English law into FMS can be divided into informal and formal reception. English law was introduced informally through the Residential System in two ways. Firstly, through the Enactment, on the advice of the British administrators, a number of specific legislation modeled on Indian Legislation which, in turn, was based on the English law. Secondly, through the decisions of the courts established by the British administrators. The higher rank of the judiciary were mostly filled by English or English-trained judges who naturally turned into English law whenever they were unable to find any local law to apply to new situations, particularly of a commercial character, caused by the very fact of British influences. For instance, in the case of Government of Perak v Adam (1914), where it is a tort case, involving unlawful obstruction of land belonging to Plaintiff. Woodward JC said: ‘In dealing with cases of torts, this court has always turn for guidance, as a fundamental principle, to English decisions..’ The Judge should have applied Perak law instead of English law. The same goes to in the case of Motor Emporium v Arumugam. It is a case on execution of  judgment through prohibition order. Terrel CJ said: ‘The courts of the FMS have on many occasions acted on equitable principles, not because English rules of equity apply but because such rules happen to conform to the principles of natural justice’. As the Malay states were not British territories, English law could not be imposed through the Common law principle of reception. Malay states were independent and protected states and the Malay Rulers were sovereign. It can be proved in the case of Duff Development Ltd v Government of Kelantan in which the issue was whether the state of Kelantan was a sovereign state and therefore, enjoyed immunity from execution of its property. It has been held that Privy Council acknowledged Kelantan as a sovereign state. Another example is in the case of Pahang Consolidated Co. Ltd. v The State of Pahang (1933) where the same principle applied as the suit against the Defendant could not be maintained because Pahang was one of a sovereign state. British introduced English law through legislation enacted by Malay states themselves. The omnibus introduction of English law took place in the FMS only in 1937, through the Civil Law Enactment passed by FMS Federal Council. Section 2(1) of the Civil Law Enactment 1937 provides that the application of Common law and Equity in FMS as the same like which were enforced in England subject to such qualifications as local circumstances render necessary. Whereas, the Unfederated Malay States (UMS) received the English law formally when the FMS Enactment was extended to them by the Civil Law (Extension) Ordinance 1951. In conclusion, English common law was introduced in Straits Settlements by Charter of Justice while the Malay states, English law was not received formally in the FMS until 1937 and UMS until 1951, but it had been received long before those dates, informally and indirectly.

Analysis of Brave New World How Technology Controls Society - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1018 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/05/15 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Brave New World Essay Did you like this example? As humans life has been developed due to the significant improvement in science, people are more reliable on machines and technology. The more people find those new developments are helpful that they cannot have such a good life without them, the more they invisibly control humans life. The book Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley, illustrates the impose of science on humans life and how their innate characteristics are destroyed. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Analysis of Brave New World: How Technology Controls Society" essay for you Create order The novel points out the vision of a futuristic society which science and high technology are abused, leading to the over-control above human. Since people are assigned to be born in the World State, they have to accept their destinies living as servants for the Director, who creates the society and even the people. Unlike the normal society, people here are made, not born. They, hatcheries, are crafted in the laboratories. Their personalities and behaviors are informed before birth, which defines them to automatically follow the rules of the society and stay in the right castes. Different people are arranged in different groups in order to serve the World State and satisfy their needs. As can be seen in the novel, the Gammas and Deltas are the groups of those who enjoy outdoors and have high survivability in the heat. They are needed to work in fields in Africa. The Betas are those who work in factories as managers. Both of them are the progress of the Bokanovskys Process, which creates 96 identical embryos from a single ovum, run by Henry Ford. The society is full of clouds of twins looking, thinking, and acting as they are trained to do so. The people are created to be the future machines that have humanities but emotions and feelings are controlled by the leader, as they are born to fill the working positions that the terrifying world allow them to live but force them to only follow the rules. Everyone belongs to everyone else. (43) People are surrounded by others who share the same thoughts and acts. John Savages worries at the nightmare of swarming indistinguishable sameness clarify that the World State has taken off the ability of the human to be different in dividuals (209). When the society is surrounded by identical twins, people lose the chance to be themselves and recognized. If ones different, ones bound to be lonely. (137) They are trained to be a community of identical twins to be servants. Therefore, except for the headquarters, the one who is different from others would live the rest of his life with discrimination and isolation. On the other hand, Brave New World is thought to be a satire of a utopia that people are made to be happy instead of feeling happy by enjoying their life. In the current society, happiness is worthless, comes from any little things in life. However, it is considered the opposite way people evaluate happiness. The World State creates a perfect formula to bring people happiness. Peoples needs and want are met and they have anything that they wish for except for real love, real feelings for others. Nothing actually belongs to the people there. Huxleys novel, with his scathing voice and ironic description, reflects a terrifying reality in the future marked by oppression and control. A world of controlling freedom and miserable happiness is thought to be a utopia even though by the way it guides people and forces them to have the illusive happy-feeling. It is stated in the novel that Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isnt nearly so spectacular as instability. (221) Happiness is no longer the state of contentment and being joyful. It is now the state of people pretend to be happy without their actual behold. They are encouraged to take soma a type of drug that people take to escape from pain, discomfort, sadness, anger, and even to forget others lost to have the overall sense of well-being and feel consoled. Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly hallucinant is what Mustapha says of soma (53). Soma heals peoples pain and brings them the feeling of happiness. The people in the World State is enslaved without them knowing they are under control by a strong government that seems to only mastermind their thought and act, but their whole life. Making people feel happy seems to be a good way to treat its citizens, however, over-controlling others feelings is how the government mistreats people in the World State. Moreover, people only feel happy because they are engineered. They are those embryos that operated to be strong. They serve the World State as it serves their demand without complaint. They are the future machines that created in order to work and make profits. Being inspired by Henry Ford the precursor of industry, the World State has become a scientific-industrial society that human is the tools that keep machines functioning. While detecting the artificial genetic population, Huxleys novel has a role of a warning sign about the danger of how fast scientific developm ents take control over us and affect human behavior. Because the hypnopaedia perfectly form humans brain by those assigned thoughts, people automatically allocated in the right working positions. Once they are born to be member of the World State, nothing can be adjusted. We dont want to change. Every change is a menace to stability. (224-225) People seem to reluctantly accept their life as smart puppets who have humanity. Even children are displayed to the form of unconscious teaching. They learn to think and act the way they should, and learn to love the World State as they spend their whole life working and sacrificing for it. Brave New World is a novel that regarding to the scientific feature of the World State, human are controlled by science and the illusion of happiness. As humans life has been improved as a result of the development of science-industry, it is also can be destroyed by the over-invade of scientific control. By oppressing people and preventing them from having emotions, the World State uses science to guide its citizens to follow the societys standard.