In the Lake of the Woods & The Story of an Hour - Essay Example

Comparison of writing style: Kate works for her story within the limitations of one hour. She uses short sentences and shorter paragraphs. Tim has a long canvas and a bigger plot to go about working out his themes and to describe the mind-set of his characters. His pen achieves that objective by using beautiful and haunting descriptions. Both the authors realize the role of the important literary devise of suspense and they use it effectively and that element, along with other subsidiary themes qualifies the stories to be categorized as creations of art.

Protesting violence of war in In the Lake of the Woods by Tim: War efforts of John are linked to his overall ambition in life. Everything else is less important to him. All his thought processes are centered on strong ambitions and actions are directed to achieve pre-decided goals. Being an aspiring politician, he wishes to enter the hall of political fame as quickly as possible and therefore gives importance to the self-image seriously. His friend-soldier suggests that the massacre in Vietnam should be reported to a military officer, but John is unwilling as such an action would be a blot on his political career.

Tim O’Brien argues, "Among the missing, among the dead, there is only the flux of possibility." (23) He goes a step further to falsify the records to remove the name from the gory events and engages in self-promotion to secure medals for his military career that will eventually help the political ambitions. He tries trying to create a false picture of the beautiful world around him. This reveals the negative trait of John. He cultivates a secret alternative agenda of escapement from relationships.

The author writes, “First there, there was Vietnam, where John Wade killed people and where he composed long letters full of observations about the nature of their love. He did not tell her about the killing." (61) The author compares the massacre in Vietnam to that of the Indians at the hands of Custer. He depicts marriage as a self-promoting career and to achieve name and fame. The professed ambition of John is to gain fame and O’Brien depicts how means are of no consequence to him. He employs dubious methods to secure future.

He is willing to carry any number of secret ghosts in his pocket, so far as they do not hinder his career advancement. At every stage, he challenges life employing wrong means, adopts foul measures to corner fame. At no stage of life does he adopt honest methods for improving the prospects, always indulged in dubious reasoning as the driving force to get his ambitious plans cleared. Protesting marriages: As an oppressive /patriarchal institution and love marriages: Both the western and oriental meaning of the word marriage is--to flow together harmoniously.

Two distinct individuals, to separate personalities, born, bred and brought up in two different set of circumstances try to come together to find a common identity, a common goal and to be precise a common all. The Suppressed Joy of Independence is the main theme of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Louise has two types of reactions on hearing the news of death of her husband in a railway accident. One that of utter grief, for the consumptions of the public audience, friends and near and dear ones.

The realization dawns within her about gaining independence and that thought process