Mrs. Mallard as a Scapegoat of Feminism

Louise Mallard in "The Story of an Hour" shows an indescribable joy after overcoming the sad news of her husband's death. Instead of feeling gloomy and finding the environment to seem different, which people usually feel after being informed of a loved one's death:

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the cluds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window (267).

After being filled with the joy, she descends the stairs like the "goddess of Victory" (269). This doesn't mean she did not love him, however, the feeling of lack of freedom by being married to Mr. Mallard was larger than the love she had for him. This concept goes with the feminist movement breaking out during the time. Kate Chopin describes how men would possibly not come up with ideas that (some) women are restrained. The doctors, who are most likely men at this time, concludes that she had died of "joy that kills," of the happiness she was assumed to have been consumed by when she saw her husband, whom she believed to have been dead. However, Louis Mallard's death overall seems to create an argument for and against the feminism movement. Her death could have been the punishment for the ecstasy she had felt after hearing her husband's death, or it could have meant to prevent her from further sufferage-from going through the life deprived of freedom, again. The perception of her death is another way of presenting the feminism in this short story.

Colorful

Although "Paul's Case" was quite a depressing story, it was multicolored, symbolizing Paul's emotional status and ambitions. When he appears at school to plead for his continuation in school, he wears a red carnation on his overcoat (Bohner and Grant 202). This, which the teachers have felt inappropriate and that Paul was mocking them, portrayed his ambition to get out of the middle-class life he's living in at that moment, to the bourgeoisie life he dreams of. It also signified his discontent in the middle-class life, and the power in which he keeps on trying to attain independence from the middle-class values. Red also comes up later in the story as the "red robe" he purchases after the escape from his home, and the "red velvet carpet laid from the door [of the hotel he's staying in] to the street," illustrating his belief that he had attained power to get out of the proletariat life (Bohner and Grant 210-11). When he thinks about his house, he thinks about the "horrible yellow wallpaper" of his room along with the other terrible things (Bohner and Grant 205). Yellow represents the ugliness and abhorrence of Paul's own life. Purple, especially represented by purple he was wearing, represents luxury and prosperity-the bourgeoisie life Paul wanted to belong in (Bohner and Grant 212). The color blue is mentioned excessively when he is in the art gallery: "Raffelli's gay studies of Paris streets and an airy blue Venetian scene" would be one example (Bohner and Grant 204). Blue symbolizes Paul's dream, or his dream world, far from his reality. He experiences such grand feeling when he looks at the art works in the beginning of this short story. When Paul realizes that his dream he had thought had come true was only temporary, the color black facades him:

"The memory of successive summers on the front stoop fell upon him like a weight of black water. He had not a hundred dollars left; and he knew now, more than ever, that money was everything, the wall that stood between all the loathed and all he wanted" (Bohner and Grant 213).

The color black proposes darkness, loneliness, how the fear comes back to Paul to haunt him. It also hints the upcoming death, which he carries out after seeing his red flower dying in the winter's coldness, in an unstable environment, realizing the briefness of his unstable "flourishing" moment. Although astonishingly colorful, the most of the colors in this story signifies quite repugnant concepts, indicating that being colorful does not necessarily mean happiness, although it does certainly mean a sign of life of enthusiasm, unlike one of boredom and passiveness. If Paul's color was supported by his community and helped him do something that could advance him in the society he wants to be in, he would not have run away from his own life would have made a huge difference in his life.

A Sarcastic Message to his Friend

In "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Twain writes about what he have heard from a man whom a friend of his have requested for Twain to get information about Leonidas W. Smiley. I believe Twain was pretty angry, or at least annoyed by his friend's request for he have written that he has:

"A lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; that [his] friend never knew such a personage; and that he only conjectured that if [he] asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore [him] to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to [him]" (Bohner and Grant 272).

He even adds to it that, "If that was the design, it succeeded" (Bohner and Grant 272). "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was first written as a letter to the friend from the East, or at least written in letter format, although it is now displayed as a short story. Mark Twain was living in a time when the East was considered civilized, cultured and advanced; and the West was considered less-educated for the fact that Americans have settled in the East far before they started to move out to the West. Frogs, "Smiley" says, can do almost anything, if they received the education (Bohner and Grant 274). This signifies the people deprived in education; that they could do almost anything, or just like the educated people, as long as they were educated. Twain's thoughts also proceed during the bet of frogs. The other man cheats by filling the frog up with "quail shots," which Smiley does not notice until he was gone (Bohner and Grant 275). He shows how education can also be meaningless at times: cheating, would be an example for that. Mark Twain wanted to send a message to his friend that, if the process of getting the information of Leonidas W. Smiley was just for him to go through the boring and meaningless process, it had succeeded and wanted to show the irritation he had experienced during it by stating indirectly that education, which his friend could have practiced excessively, can be useless at times.

Thirty-three

"The Other Duel" by Jorge Luis Borges, I believe, contained some unimportant informations, or atleast, informations that seemed unimportant and meaningless for the short story. The fact that Carmen Silveira had named his sheepdog Thirty-three, was the most confusing to me. It may be that, by stating the name, the dog becomes more important, or significant to the story. However, that was the only information, besides that it "was found dead in the ditch," that was inscribed in the text. Does the number thirty three mean something, or was it just Silveira's favorite number? Researching the specific, I have found out that areas such as Buenos Aires, Argentina and Durazno, Uraguay, which I believe were the locations where the event took place, are located on 33°30' of the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, the dog's name may have been significant. I do not believe, however, that Silveira had been so intelligent, giving the fact that he had been continuing the meaningless fight with Manuel Cardoso. Also, those knowledge may not have been existing at the time and place. It could have been Borges' application of elements of humor in this story. Although I do not know if the people in the area spoke Spanish or not, I also have found out that, in Spanish, "Diga treinta y tres" ("Say thirty-three") is the same as "say cheese," indicating to "smile to the camera." Since when we take pictures, especially by saying "say cheese," we are a content, it may be pointing out Silveira's happiness when he was with his dog, or his love for the dog. Perhaps, Borges is using both facts for both meanings, or that was all the information he have received from Carlos Reyles about the dog and it has missing pieces to the story, or it does not have any significance and the fact is just there, which, I think, is the most doubtful.

The death of Peyton Farquhar

What was the advantage, for the Union, in deceiving, tricking, and killing Peyton Farquhar? It is explained in the text that Farquhar is "a well-to-do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama family" and he is not in the army. He was, however, "naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause," and "he did what he could" to support his side. "No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South," the first paragraph of part 2 reads, "no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier." Anyhow, there would have been a lot of civilians in the South who would have felt the same way. Was it the fact that he was wealthy, which would have made significance to the people, including both the Federals and the Confederates? Being rich, would mean that the person or the family own slaves, which is definitely true for Peyton Farquhar who is "a slave owner." The Federals, who, at least appear to, believe, strongly in the immorality of slavery, would have loathed the wealthy slave-owners, and therefore, they slaughter the man. This may not be a "smart move" since the man's slaughter would not give the Federals victory nor would it end slavery. Also, there would have been a lot of other wealthy Southerners who would have had the belief. Why Farquhar? Could it have been any Southern civilian? Was it to show an example to the other Confederates so that they would not do the same thing, as a warning from the Union? Is this insignificant and we, as readers, are not supposed to care or is the short story trying to convey something by indicating a death of one civilian and not focusing on army combats and soldier deaths?