The Necklace Short Story

The Story of an Hour and The Necklace share many similarities and also many differences; both explore the feeling that both wives harbor towards their husbands and the lack of communication that both wives share. In this essay I will discuss the similarities and differences that the two short stories share with regards to communication.

People who are driven by greed end up focusing on what they do not have instead of being grateful for what they do have. This is relevant in the short story “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant because Mathilde Loisel ends up losing everything she owns just because she lets greed drive her decisions and get the best of her. When receiving an invitation to an extravagant ball, she declines because she says she does not have anything nice to wear. In the beginning of the short story she says, “There is nothing more humiliating than looking poor in the middle of a lot of rich women.(Maupassant).” The reader sees how she puts value in possessions and what others think of her. After finding a dress and then borrowing a necklace that she thought

Around the world, values are expressed differently. Some people think that life is about the little things that make them happy. Others feel the opposite way and that expenses are the way to live. In Guy de Maupassant’s short story, “The Necklace”, he develops a character, Madame Loisel, who illustrates her different style of assessments. Madame Loisel, a beautiful woman, lives in a wonderful home with all the necessary supplies needed to live. However, she is very unhappy with her life. She feels she deserves a much more expensive and materialistic life than what she has. After pitying herself for not being the richest of her friends, she goes out and borrows a beautiful necklace from an ally. But as she

Randy, from the novel, Alas, Babylon, believes in the same thing as me. He never wants to and will tell a lie even though it sometimes may be necessary. In this novel Alas, Babylon, Randy had to answer a person’s question. The person that asked however was not trustworthy and often was nicknamed bigmouth. So, Randy answered the persons question with the truth but not the whole truth because he could not afford getting the information spread and create a panic in the town. Even though Randy could have easily came up with a lie to protect the valuable truth, he did not. Randy came up with a way to not tell a lie but protect the important information at the same time. It tells us that he really values the importance of the truth and I respect that about

Thanks to the human tendency to lie as an escape from the harmful truth, deceit is everywhere. People deny climate change because the effects of such are frightening. Mass killings are reported as non-genocidal acts due to the threatening consequences of calling something a genocide. Falsity echoes in courtrooms full of people trying to escape jail time. This all brings into question the power of honesty in society.

their lack of consideration for what is true shows that they have no intention to tell the truth, or

A prime example of incorrectly managing truth is Oedipus. One character trait that made matters for Oedipus much worse than they otherwise would have been is the fact that he is extremely prideful, and thus naïve, especially when presented with information that could change his life or world view. After a series of successful victories, and praise from his people, Oedipus’s ego had become so inflated that any news that would undermine this mentality was immediately discarded. Tiresias, Jocasta, the shepherd, the messenger, all provided him with pieces of the puzzle that was his past. In this case, Oedipus actually had an advantage, because rather than having the new knowledge come crashing down on him all at once, he had the opportunity to put the stories together himself and plan how to best deal with the matter. Instead,

Alfred A. Montapert made a valid point when he said, “Nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices.” In many cases, a choice might be whether or not to tell the truth. Supporting Montapert’s idea, “Like the Sun” and “The Censors” are two stories in which honesty plays a major role. In the short story, “Like the Sun”, Sekher is an average man with a strong opinion about honesty. One day a year, he chooses to tell the complete truth, regardless of what may come out of it.

The noble importance of communicating the truth, has been retold countless time in many different forms from children book to soap operas to classic literature. Since childhood, the benefits on reveling the truth were clear, if the truth was told the individual would only suffer momentarily but will have a clear conscious and a bright future. While, lies will only cause worry and paranoia down the road, and if by chance a lie grows then the individual will be living a life of fakeness. Living in fraud lacks honor and to live by such standards is a disgrace. Yet, lying is common and the main reason for it is to prevent potential pain. Could it be that at time the truth causes more harm to the individuals involved? And if so is it better to not reveal the truth even if society demand it, for the sake of an individual happiness. Although the truth is usually portrayed in a favorable light, in the novel “Washington Square”, Henry James presents the fate of Catherine Slopper to illustrate that the truth does not always lead to an ideal ending.

Under what circumstances do people lie? The film (Dis)Honesty produced by Dan Ariely in 2015 hints on ideas about when people choose to lie, and when people think it’s wrong. Everyday billions of people lie, whether they are little white lies, or big lies they still have an affect on the people surrounding us. The short documentary is for informational purposes and is meant to attract anyone that finds the idea of lying interesting. The film talks about the types of lies that go on everyday, and goes on to tell the watchers about lies regarding drugs, politics, and more. Through the study of the choices people make on the basis of lies more knowledge has been gained on why humans choose to lie.

only tell partial truths that look pretty at first, but, will hurt you in the end. This also brings to us to the

At first glance, Chopin’s Story of an Hour (1894) and de Maupassant’s The Necklace (1884), appear to have very little in common. Chopin’s story, as displayed in its title is quite short; while in comparison, de Maupassant tells a much more detailed account of the beleaguered Loisel’s, who must learn from the self-centred Madam Loisel. With de Maupassant’s depiction of his female protagonist as selfish and ungrateful; it is difficult to fathom Chopin, known for her active role in describing woman's oppression in the nineteenth century. Interestingly, Chopin, a realist, did consider de Maupassant to

when she hears of her husband’s death. Although she is not stuck as many women would have

“She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born, as if by an accident into a family of clerks” this is what Guy de Maupassant started “The Necklace” off by saying (Maupassant 221). Also, this helps describe the main character and to give the readers a visual of Mathilde Loisel. “The Necklace” is a short story that Mathilde Loisel, the main female character, wants to be a higher class than she really is. Mathilde’s life drastically changes one night after she loses the necklace. Guy de Maupassant incorporates his use of the social class into the short story.

“Nicole Skylar Cavazos!” Yelled my mom, Heather. I just knew that I was in a heap of trouble with my mom. I had taken my moms beautiful black and silver shimmering necklace, with a sterling silver chain… again. “Where’s my necklace Nicole!” At the moment, I was sitting by my large window on my purple violet chair in my clean room, looking out of the window at the hot and dusty plains covered in dead sandy sad colored grass, and the few little umbrella looking trees with a dark color green wavy tops and rough brown trunks, as furry meerkats, prairie dogs, kangaroo rats, and many other animals scurried about, and admiring the beauty of the necklace shimmering in the sunlight rays. My mom always told me not to touch the necklace in her special, dark brown wooden polished jewelry box, that I had given her for her birthday last year by the way, but I just can’t help myself from taking the necklace. She stomped into my room with her new white sneakers, and started yelling at me some more. “I’m not going to ask you again young lady,where is my necklace!” As I glanced up at her with guilt, she crossed her arms and yelled again, “This is the 4th time this month you have taken my necklace… WHAT DID YOU DO WITH IT YOUNG LADY!” I hated it when she yelled at me, which is often, so this time I looked up and said exclaimed, “ It’s right here.” As I pointed down at my neck, where the necklace hung shining in the suns afternoon bright light. My mom came over and took the necklace off of