Comparison of the Story of an Hour and the House on Mango Street - Essay Example

"The story of an hour" by Kate Chopin and "The House on Mango Street" by Cisneros are the literary representations of the societies in which both thewriters lived. Both the stories have similarities and differences as far as the plot, setting, characters, mood and theme is concerned. The writers of both the stories are female writers and both the stories have female protagonists. The theme of both the stories is about the suffering of women and their search for identity and the stories are written from the feminist point of view. In one story, the lead character, Mrs. Mallard is the victim of her torturing husband, whereas in the other story the lead character is the victim of poverty and the so-called hypocritical values of the society and class discrimination. Both the lead characters, which seem to be weak initially emerge as strong characters towards the end of the stories. We can say that these stories have a strong theme and they speak about the "Quest for Identity" of the female lead characters. In "The Story of an Hour", the narrator of the story is probably the writer herself. Being a woman and a true feminist she has handled this story in a very tender manner. The female protagonist, Mrs. Mallard comes from an upper class family. This is quite apparent from the way her house is described by the writer. The words like comfortable roomy armchair, an open square in front of the house, staircase, tall trees, twittering of birds and blue skies indicate that she lived a very comfortable life. But despite of all these comforts, she seems to be extremely unhappy with her life. In "The House on Mango Street", the name of the narrator is Esperanza. In the first chapter of the story the names of the narrator and her parents are not revealed. We come to know of their names after reading the entire novel. Contrary to the "The Story of an hour ", the female protagonist in this story comes from a poor class family, which is also apparent from the way the writer has described her house. She describes her house in the following words - "It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard, only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. There are stairs in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom-Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny." From these lines we can very well understand what the state of the house as well as the state of mind of the girl is. Thus "The House on Mango Street" is a depiction of the thoughts of a small girl who is growing up to the stage of adolescence and has started realizing slowly the prejudices in the society. In "The Story of an Hour" the mood is gloomy and full of suspense and tragedy. When the sister of Mrs. Mallard, Josephine and her husband's friend Richard break the news of her husband's death to her, she is shocked initially and weeps in her sister's arms. But when she retires to her room and relaxes in her cozy armchair, she starts thinking about her past life. She lived in a society which had specific and strict rules of conduct, and she being from an elite class had to abide by the rules or the dogmas laid down by the society. She was dominated by her husband and did not have the liberty to take her own decisions. It is only when she sits alone, relaxed in the armchair that she becomes aware of her surroundings and their beauty. It shows that she was so engrossed in her married life and had so many preoccupations that she was oblivious to the true world. She was only used to living in the hypocritical world where money and social status had great significance. It is while she is enjoying her rediscovered identity and freedom and feeling happy, that she sees her husband suddenly. He returns unharmed and unaffected. She is so shocked by his arrival that she dies on the spot. She does not die because of her heart disease but because of shock that she again will have to live a life of a slave. This story takes place within a span of just an hour. The events take place one after the other, giving no time to the reader to even think of what is happening. The writer has used simple language and has very skillfully infused mystery in the story. Every incident comes as a surprise to us, giving a blow to our imagination. Our perceptions are totally contradictory to the facts of the story. Initially we feel that Mrs. Mallard should be an old lady, because she is described to have a heart disease, which is normally found in old people and not young ones. We are surprised when the writer reveals that she is a young lady having slender hands, fair skin and is calm. Although she is young she lacks that youthful charm and seems to have aged mentally rather than physically, and this reflects on her face. When the news of her husband's death is disclosed to her, we think that she will mourn over his death and will be totally devastated and dejected. Although she loves her husband, she finds a sense of freedom in his death and imagines living a peaceful and carefree life thenceforth. We never expect her husband to return and above all her death, although we are known to the fact that she is suffering from heart disease. She dies of shock after she sees her husband alive. Richard's effort to obstruct the view of the arrival of her husband from her is in vain and the damage is already done. Thus, the story does not end as per our expectations and it comes as shock to us. The story is full of twists and turns. The way the sufferings of Mrs. Mallard are described, we start sympathizing with her and really feel sorry for her in the end when she dies a tragic death. It is full of mixed emotions. There is a feeling of happiness as well as gloominess in the story. The writer has used symbolism to enhance the story. The cozy armchair, open square in front of the window, tall trees symbolize the comforts of Mrs. Mallard. The twittering of birds, blue skies and the fresh air stand for freedom. The elusive or subtle thing, which is described to come her way creeping out of the sky in the form of sounds, color and scent, also stands for freedom. The writer has tried to show her thirst for freedom by repeating the word "free" three times. She has referred to the sense of freedom as an Elixir. When Louis comes out of the room, she is described to be "Goddess of Victory". It seems as if she has gained victory over her dead husband who had oppressed her throughout her life. The victory comes in the form of freedom. The writer has made a very creative use of figurative language. She has made use of paradox, when she describes Mrs. Mallard's joy as "Monstrous Joy". Louis represents the women of the time when Chopin wrote this story. Women at that time were locked in the wedlock, and were not given the much-deserved freedom. They had no other option but to listen to their husbands. The ending of the story is ironical. Louis's death is because of shock, whereas the doctor says that she died because of joy, "the joy that kills". The writer has used figures of speech like - repetition, paradox, metaphor and antithesis. Sentences like "veiled hints that revealed in half concealing", "storm of grief", "monstrous joy", and "piercing cry" have been used effectively. Thus this is the story of a woman who desired to have her own space but was suppressed by her husband and meets a tragic end. We can imagine, to what extent she was suppressed, that she was overjoyed and felt relieved upon the death of her husband, which would have otherwise seemed to be very abnormal and horrendous. The writing skills of Chopin are worth appreciating because her very first sentence reveals that something untoward is going to happen in case of Mrs. Mallard. It is revealed that she is a heart patient. And although we are prepared for the worst in her case, right from the opening paragraph, yet we are shocked in the end. And this is the technique, which has made this story very interesting. Contrary to "The Story of an hour", in "The House on Mango Street", the mood is not of gloom or suspense. In this story too, the writer has used figurative language and symbolism to enhance the mood of the story. She has used rhyming words like "crumbling" and "swollen" to describe the house but they actually stand for their social status or the financial condition. The story begins with a hope of having a house of own and ends in despair, when the house does not live up to the expectations of the narrator of the story. The language used by the narrator is simple and childlike. The chapter opens with "We didn't always live on Mango Street". The girl names all the places that she remembers, where her family had lived so far. With this we easily come to know that all the houses she named had been rented and they were not their own. We learn that there are in all six members in her family and that, their financial condition is not that good. The girl is maturing and has started realizing what all is required to maintain a good status in the society. Thus we come to know how the small children live in the world of imagination. The girl had the inferiority complex of coming from a poor family. The exchange of dialogues between the girl and the nun from her school shows that the girl had the feeling of shame as she came from the poor family and did not have a proper place to live. The reiteration of the question by the nun, in the following sentences proves this point - "Where do you live she asked. There, I said pointing up to the third floor. You live there There. I lived there. I nodded." Here the writer has made a very effective use of language. The repetition of the question by the nun and the repetition of the word "There" by the girl reflect the state of mind of the girl. The narrative style of the writer is poetic. She has made a very creative use of symbolism and metaphors. The words like "crumbling" and "broken" not only describe the condition of the house, but also about the mental and financial condition of the family. The father is described to having a lottery ticket in his hand which shows that he is trying his hand at lottery also, hoping to have lots of money if luck smiles on him. The title of the narrative or the name of the place where the family lived is also misleading. Mango is the symbol of prosperity and has the positive aspects associated with it. Whereas the street, which is named after this fruit, is a poor locality having crumbling houses. In both the stories, the writers have shown the dark side of the society. The lead characters are females who are victims of the evils of the society. The titles are simple but have lot of meaning hidden in it. It arouses curiosity in the readers about what would happen to the main characters. The language used in both the stories is simple and allegorical. "The Story of an hour" has a proper ending that is the death of the lead character, whereas the ending of the other story is incomplete. The fate of the girl is undecided as it is not clear whether she will continue to stay there at Mango Street or will search for another place. In "The Story of an hour" the lead character is a grownup mature lady whereas in "The House of Mango Street", the girl is growing up and is not mature enough. This is the simple story, but it's plot keeps on switching over from the past to present. The narrative is just like how a small child would narrate the story to us. The sentences are broken. In the first story, the lead character Louis is unhappy, despite of all the comforts and wealth. She behaves in a certain way, because the society expects her to do so. In the other story, the society is unfair with the girl because she is poor and helpless. She is looked down upon, because she does not live in a good house. Louis wishes to have her own space and have identity of her own. Esperanza too wishes to be someone in life and have a better house of her own. In the "Story of an hour", the narrator of the story is probably the writer, whereas in the other story the main character only narrates all the incidents. It is a first person narration. In both the stories certain words are repeated or more emphasis is laid to prove the seriousness of the situation. For example, in "The Story of an hour" the word "free" is repeated three times, which shows how desperate Louis is to get freedom. It is about women liberation and it definitely boosts the morale of women and provides insight to them to raise their voice against injustice. And in "The House on Mango Street", the writer very delicately handles the issues of class discrimination and the plights of the poor homeless people. She has made very effective use of certain words to prove her point. The word like "there" bears lot of meaning. When the nun says this word, she is looking down upon the girl and when the girl uses this word, it is merely to show the direction, where her house is. Thus both the stories have multiple shades of beauty, joy, sorrow, tragedy, hope and despair and are truly interesting and enlightening. Both the lead characters dream of having a bright future. After comparing these two stories we conclude that the objective of both the female characters is to have an identity of their own. It describes their quest to have freedom and independence. One dies for it, while the other builds strong hope of being successful in life and to have a house of her own, that she can be proud of and can point to. Louis craves for love and attention whereas Esperanza desires to have that so called social status. After going through both the stories, we learn a lot about the vices of the society. Ultimately happiness and contentment is the spice of life. The social status and wealth cannot get you the real happiness and satisfaction in your life. We tend to run after those things, which are uncertain, and beyond our reach and lose the ones, which are in our hands or are within our reach. Both the lead characters are in search of the happiness and respect in the society, but to get that they have to struggle a lot. Thus we can say that both the stories convey the same message of women's "Quest for Identity" Sources: Web sites cited - http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/hourdis.html http://www.wsu.edu:8080/wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/chopin.html http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC040522/shortstories/storyofanhour/storyhourmain.htm http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mangostreet/ http://www.novelguide.com/TheHouseonMangoStreet/summaries/TheHouseonMangoStreet.html http://www.propaganda.net/skoleside/stil=150 http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/fiction/criticaldefine/femessay.pdf http://my.hrw.com/support/hos/hostpdf/host_text_219.pdf http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/StorHour.shtml http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/houseonmango/section3.html Read More