Complete the following discussion questions - Essay Example

Discussion Questions I thought historical criticism was perhaps the most interesting critical strategybecause it allows the critic to learn more about the author as well as the time period in which the author wrote the piece, all while getting to know the work better so it all makes more sense on many different levels. This approach also enables the critic to expand their understanding to examine how these ideas discovered from the time period in question have changed over time, enabling the story to be understood differently today.

Deconstruction interested me the least because it seems to make chaos out of order and is very difficult to understand. Even when you think you understand the text through this approach, the approach itself indicates that there can be no understanding. I think gender criticism is perhaps the best approach to take for either of Kate Chopin’s stories. This is because she presents her characters with such feeling as she attacks some of the social customs that have managed to come between the genders.

In “The Storm”, for example, Chopin presents her main character, Calixta, as a frustrated woman trapped in a less than fully satisfying relationship with a man who is kind and simple but not the man she was in love with. That man is the one she has passionate sex with on the day of the storm, finally fulfilling a desire she’d carried since she had known him in Assumption but not been able to fulfill because he left her. Gender criticism would examine the circumstances of her life, the role she is expected to play and the lack of choice she was given.

At the same time, gender criticism allows one to examine the men who appear in the story as well. Bobinot is seen as simple and accepting and truly in love with his wife. He is sensitive to her moods and tries to do what he can to keep her happy, not understanding what it is that makes her upset. He is even sensitive enough to take their son with him when he goes shopping in order to give her some time to herself, but has nevertheless managed to trap his wife within the social roles expected of women regardless of her own inclinations.

Alcee also provides Calixta with no free choice when he leaves her in Assumption, but is seen to have been acting with her best interests at heart, knowing he could not be with her and that to do anything then would have damaged her reputation and her chance for a better life. Both men are seen to be trapped in social conventions as much as Calixta within this approach, which increases understanding of the story.