Identity in Midwest Literature - Essay Example

Identity in Midwest Literature Table of Contents Identity as Leap of Faith: Identity in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ 3 Works Cited 9 Identityas Leap of Faith: Identity in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ Focusing on one of the works, the argument is that identity in Midwestern literature has little to do with social roles, and more to do with the rich inner lives of the individuals portrayed, and how, in many instances, those inner lives, personalities, and thoughts have far more substance and weight, and far more inner credibility and consistency, than what can be shallow outer selves that society has in part crafted for the individual. That outer self, in contrast, seems lacking in substance in contrast, lacking in any spirited identification by the individuals portrayed. The sense that one gets, reading the texts, is that identity in Midwestern literature consists of a split, one rich and inward and against the grain of what society expects, and the other outward and lacking enthusiasm, lacking any real depth and anchor within the very core of what the individual holds himself to be. In Kate Chopin’s brief but powerful story ‘The Story of an Hour’ the contrast between a very solid and substantial inner life and the soul-lacking shell that the rest of society sees is very stark. The latter is palpable in the fact that for the main character, the outside world was not even a consideration. The majority of the story occurs within the confines of Mrs. Mallard’s private quarters, and it is here that the real Mrs. Mallard, sans the gaze and judging eyes of even her family, was represented in the story. This intimate, self-conscious self was the self that Midwestern literature seems to point out as the true self, represented here in the character of Mrs. Mallard. This inner self, with the rich inward life, is not just something that one chooses as being the true self, but rather something that insists itself, something that is certain of itself. Encountering this self as a welling up of a feeling of freedom from the depths of her, the story even comes to depict this self as something worthy of the most sublime part of one’s solitude. It is the part that affirms this welling up of an inner voice telling oneself of the truth of one’s existence, and of the truth of who one really is. Chopin expresses this divine moment in the following terms (Chopin): She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body (Chopin) Taking a step back, one can read the story too in a way that sees the story’s development as mirroring Chopin’s vision of what identity is, and what is the true self. In the beginning the story seems to take off from the point of view of an impartial observer who sees the main character as essentially a respectable keeper of the house, as reflected in the designation of Mrs. Mallard, rather than the narrator giving the main character a more intimate name, as the narrator did with Mrs. Mallard’s sister. We know from the succeeding paragraph that this sister is Josephine. At the end of the story we would come to know that Mrs. Mallard’s name was Louise. In between the narrator shifts imperceptibly from the perspective of someone looking at Mrs. Mallard from the outside, to someone intimately privy to the thoughts, feelings, and even to that unknown source of Mrs. Mallard’s giddiness and feeling of freedom as the death of her husband and the realization of her future without him sank. From this manner of narration it seems evident that Chopin herself views identity as that inner layer of a person’s thoughts and feelings, that are laid bare once the outer shells of a person’s social standing, relationships with others and the community, titles, and official capacities are stripped away. Those fall by the wayside like so many layers of clothes that really do not touch the man, or woman in this case. This inner core is the self, and this inner core, it seems, has concerns, loves, joys, tribulations, sorrows, and elations that have little to do with what the outer world sees and demands of the person. In the case of Mrs. Mallard, even, as the story implies, the concerns and demands of the outer world, in the final analysis, impinged on that very freedom which she felt for a brief instant, and which containing so much joy in contrast to the severely crippled existence that she lived in the presence of her husband, she finally could not live with. That true self, rising to the surface and claiming its own freedom and joy, was like a man deprived of oxygen for a long time, who having been allowed to breathe in freely, could not in the end live with the rich oxygen, and perished. This is an aspect of the self, of identity, that seems to stand out from this perspective of Chopin’s story, and as representing Midwestern literature in general (Chopin). Going back to the story structure, the structure reveals in one reading the vision of Chopin of an inner reality that is the true self, and which is hidden under layers of repression, social demands, social roles, the will of others imposed on the self, and such things. The vision is one of the self, the real self of an individual, having to live under the weight of this collective suppression, and occasionally only finding its way to the surface, and only in the most intimate and aware moments of a person’s life. It is revealing that even for Mrs. Mallard, who seemed outwardly content with the arrangements of her life as a married woman who sometimes loved and sometimes did not love her husband, the death of the husband was an occasion first of sorrow, and then of a bursting joy. To Chopin, that bursting joy is the result of the self, the true identity of Mrs. Mallard, surfacing to the surface as a result of that great tragedy of the “death” of the husband. The brief reference to the external event and to Mrs. Mallard is a testament it seems to Chopin’s vision of the outer life of individuals as merely like clothing to be dispensed with and removed with haste. The meat of the self, the identity that really matters, is within that, beneath the outer masks and roles that people wear. The reference to Louise, meanwhile, shows that even the identity that people share with the people closest to them, their family and their lovers, is some distance removed from that core of the self that is the true self. The story then can be mapped as first occurring on that outer social level where the main character is viewed as Mrs. Mallard, moving to the innermost self of the character as a self trapped in social conventions and finding widowhood to be an intoxicating stretch of freedom extending indefinitely into the future, and then moving back a step to that level where the main character is Louise, sister to Josephine, and wife to Brently. These vital outer selves anchor the person within, and situates her within the context of family and husband, as the outermost layer in the beginning situates the main character in the context of the larger society, as wife and as a widow of a working man. This map reveals the many layers of the self as Chopin understands it, and portrays also the map of identity and the self in Midwestern literature in general. The complexity of the layers demonstrates the complexity of what people call to be themselves. The outer layer too, representing the face that the main character used to interact with general society, while shallow and briefly mentioned in the story, is itself complex, and necessary, given that the innermost self had to live with that social self in order for the person to survive in the first place. That more intimate shell, the shell that a person shares with the rest of the family, is also important, but even this intimate shell is just another set of clothing that masks a more essential self. Outwardly too, in the structure of the physical setting, this map is mirrored. In the room where most of the action occurs, the outward world matters very little. The action occurs on the level of that most intimate part of the main character, which is that part of her that consists of that upwelling of a giddy happiness at the prospect of freedom. The room is the outward manifestation of that inner sanctum where the only things that matter are the thoughts, feelings, judgments, and intuitions of the main character. Nobody enters there, and that the room was locked from the inside, keeping even her sister out, represents the way that innermost self is not privy to even family and closest friends. The happiness too, that was experienced and realized at that most intimate level excluded everyone, including her husband, and that too was outwardly reflected in the exclusion of everyone outside of that room, where Mrs. Mallard had a taste of that certain freedom welling from deep inside her (Chopin). There is something to be said about this vision of the self that Chopin espouses, and the way she imbued the narration, the plot, the external settings and even the manner of unfolding of the story with that vision. In Midwestern literature it seems, this inner self that has great urgency and validity is at odds, or at least has very little to do, with what happens on the level of society, and the level of the relationships that seem outwardly necessary, but inwardly toxic too, and lacking any real foundation in the happiness of the individual. In Chopin freedom seems to be contrary to what society dictates, and what people have to put up with in order to fit in and play nice with society and with family. The surprise for Mrs. Mallard, and for Chopin too in a way, is that this inner self has an insistent and sure voice, whose validity cannot be denied. It is an intuitive realization rather than something that is externally learned. In fact, one can say that arriving at this true self, people may sometimes get disoriented and feel like one is landing on ground that has never before been explored. Yet this innermost self, sure of itself, cannot be denied, and one walks into it with faith, guided only by the rush of freedom and happiness that it brings (Chopin). Works Cited Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. 1894. Web. November 2, 2012, http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/ Read More