The Metaphor of the Storm
Kate Chopin, the author of ‘The Storm’, lived from 1851-1904. She was the daughter of an Irish immigrant who later died, young Kate was then raised by her mother’s family (descendants of the French). When Kate was still young, she received convent schooling and later married Oscar Chopin, when she was 19 years old. Oscar Chopin, from New Orleans, was a Creole cotton broker. This couple later lived on a plantation, but her husband, Oscar, died suddenly in 1883. Kate was left raising their six children alone; this might have made her begin writing. She wrote ‘With Loving Care in Bayou Folk’ in (1894) and ‘A night in Arcadia’ in 1897. During those days, she read and as well admired fine women writers like Sarah Ome Jewett
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All characters in her story experienced the storm but it ended later. Bibi and his father Bobinot had gone to Friedheimer’s store and left Calixta in the house alone. While at the store, Bibi and Bobinot were faced by a challenging situation (heavy rainfall) such that they couldn’t walk home at the time. When the situation was over, Bobinot was afraid of what to tell his wife when he got home, so he composed explanations and apologies to tell his wife, while he was walking home. When they were still on their way home, Bobinot asked Bibi to stop so that they could make themselves neat and presentable before they got home. Bobinot ensured Bibi looked neat as well as himself, to avoid argument with his wife when they get …show more content…
She hastily closed all the windows and doors in the house and went outside to pick his husband’s Sunday clothes that she had hung outside. She then saw Alcee Laballiere at the gate, riding on a horse, they had not seen each other often since she got married. Suddenly, it began to rain and Alcee sought shelter in Calixta’s gallery. They both overcame the storm by sitting together and conversing in the gallery. After they were done conversing, Alcee left Calixta’s place while riding on his horse. When Alcee got to his place that night, he wrote a love letter to his wife Clarisse, since they had separated. The love letter was filled with tender solicitude. It also contained information that Clarisse and the babies not to hurry back, but if they did like it there they could stay a month longer. Clarisse was charmed on receiving her husband’s letter. Hence, Alcee and Clarisse overcame the storm that they were
Because of her childhood of being raised in an all-woman household it helped mold her feministic personality and view on life with love, faith, strength, kindness, independence, and generosity (Toth, Emily). As Kate became older she met Oscar Chopin a business man who she fell in love with and later at the age of 20 years old were married. Kate’s behaviors, like smoking cigarettes and walking through the city unaccompanied frequently shocked her conservative in laws and this streak of independence however did not bother her husband. Kate later gave birth to five sons and a daughter. Motherhood quickly played into her life as well as societal restraints on women and as she lived personal experiences with this, she began to write books about women’s daily life and fictional writing on how it could be in a women’s way. In 1879, Oscar Chopin’s money lending business was in deep trouble due to financial instability. The family moved to Coulterville, Louisiana where Oscar ran a general store. Kate Chopin’s sophisticated behavior and dress style inspired gossip in the closely knit town. Her husband, worn down by financial worries, died in 1882 with malaria, leaving Kate with an outstanding debt of $12,000 and six children to raise alone. Despite everything that Kate was going through she decided to manage Oscar’s businesses
Kate Chopin wrote the short story “The Storm” one of her most bold stories and did not even intention to publish it (Cutter 191). The two main characters in the story are Calixta and Alcee. They both used to be attracted to one another in previous years, but now they are both married to someone else. After Alcee arrives to Calixta’s house looking for shelter they are driven into a passionate moment. In the story “The Storm” the storm has a significant meaning; without it the affair of Calixta and Alcee performed would not have been as powerful as it was between them. “The Storm” has a great deal of symbolism throughout the story: the clouds, the use of color white, the storm relative to the affair, the after effects of the affair, Calixta,
Katherine O’Flaherty, later Kate Chopin, was born to Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 (Deter). Unfortunately, when Mrs. Chopin was four, her father died in a train incident leaving her under the care of three independent widows’- her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother (Deter). Mrs. Chopin’s great-grandmother, Victoria Verdon Charleville, directed her education, “giving her a taste of the culture and freedom allowed by the French that many Americans during this time disapproved of . . . through the art of storytelling” (Deter). Therefore, much of Mrs. Chopin’s success in writing about women pursuing morality, freedom, and political independence can be attributed to Victoria. Furthermore, the teachers at the St. Louis Sacred Heart Academy, a school Mrs. Chopin’s father had previously enrolled her in, “exposed her to Catholic teachings devoted to creating good wives and mothers, while also teaching independent thinking” (“Biography”).
The author employed the use of symbolism in the description of the storm. Storm, a natural phenomenon that brings about extreme weather condition that might lead to an undesirable outcome. "The Storm" in the context of the selection brought about a positive outcome. “The storm” in the story is not the physical storm that occurred outside with heavy downpour, but the coming together of Alcee and Bobinot. A physical storm forms when the atmosphere is saturated with water and droplets of water pour out from the sky. The symbolic importance of the storm represents the liberation of Alcee and Calixta, from the shackles of societal or moral expectation. "He pushed her hair back from her face that was warm and streaming her" (425). Although Alcee pushed Calixta’s hair back to see her face, the author’s interpretation was not physical. Chopin meant that Alcee was able to set Calixta free from the bondage of marriage temporarily.
'The Storm' begins on a stormy spring day, with the protagonist Calixta at her sewing machine. She is alone, her husband Bobinot and son Bibi have gone to the store. Calixta seems to be a bored woman, confined to her duties as a housewife and mother. As the distant storm approaches she is unaware of what the storm brings, her former lover Alcee.
Readers first get a glimpse of Calixta in the beginning of the story when her son Bibi mentions she’ll be afraid of the approaching storm; he refers to her as “Mama” (99). Calixta’s husband Bobinot reveals her name as he thinks of her when he finds a can of shrimp she’ll like.
Kate Chopin in “the Storm” uses symbolism in characters to develop the theme that marriages are not perfect. Although there is a physical storm in the story, there is also a storm of emotions. Chopin is able to convey the emotions of her characters throughout the story because the storm that takes place at the very beginning of her story.
Calixta the main character is an ordinary housewife that encouraged a coincidence that somewhat her life but most importantly her way of thinking. With the absence of her son and husband who were both stuck at the market during a sudden storm a coincidence occurred at home. Like the title, the storm signifies the turbulent event between Calixta and her old lover Alcee, both finally having the freedom from their very married lives. The perfect opportunity to re-express love for each other.
When Alcee rides up at the beginning of the storm Calixta gathers her husband s Sunday clothes in order to remember her sense of duty and loyalty to her husband. Respecting social graces, Alcee tries to stay outside, but the storm drives him into the house. Inside Calixta s home Alcee can see into her dim and mysterious bedroom, this foreshadows the forbidden relationship that takes place.
Kate Chopin is writing so many great stories about whatever she sees. Kate has many Wonderful stories such as, (The Storm, Desiree’s Baby, A Pair of Silk Stocking, A Respectable Woman, and The Story of an Hour). There is one story in particular that catches my mind which is “The Storm”. 0In Kate chopin's era, women are seen as nothing more than a wife and have to stay with their husband for life. Chopin shows a dramatic scene between Alcee and Calixta during the time of a storm that is passing by. Chopin states a non judgemental spot about refraining from morals about the purity of marriage especially calixta. Chopin drenches in “The Storm” a strong feminist and makes a good question about marriage.
I will start with The Storm, the Initial Situation, The storm begins and Calixta was at home alone. Bobinôt, was away from home and can't protect his wife. When I was reading the story I was given the impression that a woman is alone and possibly in danger back at the house. The Conflict began when Calixta's old lover arrives at her house just in time to be stuck indoors with by the storm. It would be one thing if Calixta had to wait out the storm alone, worrying about her husband and small son being in stuck in the storm perhaps with no shelter But she's not alone: as soon as the storm starts, her ex lover showed up. We know trouble was about to start. Of course we know what happened next, Alcee and Calista had sex as part of the climax of the story. Now here is the Suspense part of the story ,Calixta's family returns home just after Alcée leaves. Will they cross paths? Will Calixta be able to cover up what has just happened? Those were the first question that came to mind while i was reading the story. Poor Bobinôt worries over whether Calixta will be angry with them when they return home although he was not the guilty party. but it all turns out to be just fine. To conclude the plot of the story, everyone benefits from the affair, and no one finds out about it. No one's going to find out about all the action that just happened. Alcée and Calixta's secret is officially safe,
While Bibi and Bobinot are "Stuck in the storm," Calixta is feeling "free" because of the storm. Now by free I don’t mean released, as from captivity, but free of Bobinot and the marriage long enough to do something she wanted to do, which was sleeping with Alcee, even if only for a short time. It is discovered towards the end of the story that Alcee is also married with children, so it was a moment of "freedom" for him as well. Ironic, no? It would make more since for this to be an "accidental meeting" if Alcee lived further away, or if it happened out in public and they were both single, but this is not the case. He mustn't live far away, and we know this because in the end of the book, once Alcee has left, we read that "When they seated themselves at the table, they began laughing so much and so loud that anyone could hear them as far away as Laballiere's," which Alcee’s is. This tells us that he must not live very far away, so that being the case, why make the special stop off at Calixtas? We also find out that they had been lovers in the past, making it easier to assume that they still have feelings for each other, although no one suspects it in their marriages. The two seem to be married only for convenience, not for lust or
This conceit of the storm continues throughout much of the story with the storm's crescendo symbolizing a climax in Calixta and Alcee`'s sexual encounter. At first, the obvious desire between the pair is sublimated into a nervous tension, and the effort to restrain their physical longing for the sake of social mores is paramount. Calixta exclaims, "If this keeps up, Dieu sait if the levees goin' to stan' it," which is symbolically indicative of the growing force of their passion and the weakening of their resistance before that passion. A blinding bolt of lightening breaks the lovers' nervous tension, much as it splits through the air and strikes the chinaberry tree. This violent crash precipitates Calixta and Alcee`'s first embrace and kiss, and the affair that ensues vividly matches the progress of the raging storm. The storm reaches a crescendo, which Calixta views as a delightful counterpart to their passionate love-making, for, "they did not heed the crashing torrents, and the roar of the elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms" (284). To make the parallel between the storm and Alcee and Calixta's affair particularly evident, Chopin consistently uses this conceit until the end of the encounter, for the thunder
Kate Chopin is known as one of the greatest feminist authors of her time. She grew up around independent, widowed women: her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. With her father’s death due to a train wreck, and her husband’s death from“swamp fever,” Chopin was left alone to support her six children. According to Nina Baym, the author of Chopin’s biography, influences from strong women in Chopin’s life led to why she wrote about desires, limited aspects of women’s lives, and how women began to challenge the male-dominated culture (550). A lack of men as chief figures in Chopin’s life prevented her from experiencing a tradition of submission by women to men. Additionally, many of Chopin’s works were influenced by realism and feminism.
Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on February 8, 1850, to an affluent family. Chopin’s life had a great deal of trauma, losing her father in a railroad accident and her beloved grandmother dying shortly after impacted her life. Kate spent the Civil War in St. Louis, a city where residents supported both the Union and the Confederacy and where her family had slaves in the house. Chopin married at an early age of nineteen to a wealthy French man in 1870 and the two settled in New Orleans. Kate Chopin’s writing career began with her life and experiences in St. Louis, New Orleans; she wrote short stories, novels and so on. “At Fault” was Chopin’s very first novel, a book about a religious widow in love with a divorced man, which was not typical in the nineteenth century. Kate Chopin was a daring writer, she wrote many controversial stories and books about women freedom, sex, and extramarital affairs. For example, Chopin wrote short