Through the window Louise notes the nature “aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin). The “new spring life” is referring to the rebirth of her own life that her husband’s supposed death has brought and her new found freedom from the suppressed marriage (“Critical Analysis of ‘The Story of an Hour’”). The fact that it is spring shows the reawakening of her soul and the winter is in the past and so is her marriage. Also, at the window, she notices the patches of clear blue sky that is shining through gray clouds. The sky represents her new life without the dependency of a man and the clouds are her marriage (Rosenblum).
The spring time and blue sky express her new life and new hope. The light from the blue sky shines on her new happy life and removes the cover of her darkened life. It is an abnormal situation. If she sees beautiful things, they might be viewed sadly as a woman who lost her husband. However, she feels that everything is beautiful and hopeful because she feels more happiness than sadness after she believes her husband died.
However in this poem she cannot find a happier memory and recalls a dream instead, “I dreamed once long ago, that we walked among day-bright flowers.” Her use of positive imagery such as the “day-bright flowers” lightens the mood and achieves the same effect of the memories in The Violets, as she stops thinking of death and causes the reader to forget the unhappy nature of the initial memory and be emotionally moved by the warmth of the following memory where she is “secure in my father’s arms.” In her poems The Violets, Father and Child and At Mornington Gwen Harwood demonstrates through her use of memories, her loss of innocence, the love for her parents and how quickly time moves. Her memories also serve to engage the reader and make us feel her sense of happiness, sorrow and
Leslie Knox Ms. Baldwin English 3/ Period 6 2 March 2013 The Story of an Hour Essay In the story, The Story of an Hour, by Kate Chopin, there is a woman with a heart condition that receives bad news. She deals with thenews in a different way than most people would. At first she js sad, but then she realizes she is happy. At the end of the storythere is a major twist. The woman, Mrs. Mallard, is told by her sister Josephine and her husbands friend Richards, that her husband Brently Mallard has been killed in a railroad accodent at work.
Early in the story she uses words to help describe the grieving process of Mrs. Mallard. “She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” The words “wild abandonment” and “storm of grief” not only describe Mrs. Mallard’s grief but they are also symbols with in the story. The entire paragraph of section 5 is the most vivid combination of imagery in the entire story. “She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life.
O’Brien uses symbolism in this short story to develop Martha as being both a positive and negative figure for Lieutenant Cross. As Martha is being introduced she is right away perceived as a symbol for love, virginity and life after the war for Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He realizes that she is not a virgin nor is she in love with him, but she was his light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of the war. Every night Lieutenant Cross would hold the letters and “spend the last hour of light pretending. Imagining romantic camping trips into the White Mountains … tasting the envelope flaps, knowing her tongue had been there.” (Pg.
Her primary reason for returning was to revive the events that supplied her with so much happiness in her “past”! “I use to love looking out the window back at Bountiful.” She sits staring out a closed window in the apartment she is now. The closed window symbolizes her desire of freedom. Even though she has been in the rural city of Houston for a long time her memory of her real home has never faded. Carrie Watts is not some daffy, forgetful old lady hankering for an unrecoverable past but a canny survivor who is able to accept the compromise in fulfilling her wish.
She uses this bee-to-blossom experience as symbol of an ideal, happy relationship. A relationship where each person has mutual feelings of the other, and where there is no oppression or dominance over each other. Fast forward to her marriage with Logan, she returns to Nanny in tears crying about all that she wanted was the “things sweet wid mah marriage” like when she used to “sit under the pear tree and think” (Hurston 23). The quote reveals one of the many times that the pear tree symbol appears. The relationship that she has with Logan saddens her; she wishes for the beautiful and peaceful marriage that she dreamt of having when looking at the bee and the pear blossom.
Her beauty shined from within, finishing school and about to set path onto high school in a time where blacks had a history of segregation and a promising future was not envisioned. Her acknowledgement of nature and the colors of the clouds and how they shifted through the sky and comparison to her happiness was a sign of a new beginning for her. When she speaks of her memories she uses the word trammeled to describe that part of her life and how it was a hindrance to her that had been lifted and faded away into nonexistence. When she speaks of Henry the class valedictorian she was happy for him and their friendship gave her a sense of confidence. Their competition in their studies kept them both motivated and Maya was okay with always coming in second.
The yellow glove Homer wore on his and Miss Emily’s buggy rides represents the friendliness of Homer that the town seemed to enjoy but the yellow pillow that Miss Emily’s head rested on when she passed most likely represented her mental state at that time. Lastly there is the color red. Red is the color of love and the bedroom in the upstairs of the house was decorated in red symbolizing her love for Homer. Through color, Homer Barren, and Mrs. Emily’s house and actions symbolism is used to express the different perspectives of new and old generations ideas on changes in society. Emily staying true ideals and traditions.