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Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 28, 2021

Originally entitled “The Dream of an Hour” when it was first published in Vogue (December 1894), “The Story of an Hour” has since become one of Kate Chopin’s most frequently anthologized stories. Among her shortest and most daring works, “Story” examines issues of feminism, namely, a woman’s dissatisfaction in a conventional marriage and her desire for independence. It also features Chopin’s characteristic irony and ambiguity .

The story begins with Louise Mallard’s being told about her husband’s presumed death in a train accident. Louise initially weeps with wild abandon, then retires alone to her upstairs bedroom. As she sits facing the open window, observing the new spring life outside, she realizes with a “clear and exalted perception” that she is now free of her husband’s “powerful will bending hers” (353). She becomes delirious with the prospect that she can now live for herself and prays that her life may be long. Her newfound independence is short-lived, however. In a surprise ending, her husband walks through the front door, and Louise suffers a heart attack and dies. Her death may be considered a tragic defeat or a pyrrhic victory for a woman who would rather die than lose that “possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” (353). The doctors ironically attribute her death to the “joy that kills” (354).

BIBLIOGRAPHY Chopin, Kate. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. Edited by Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Koloski, Bernard. Kate Chopin: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996. Seyersted, Per. Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Toth, Emily. Kate Chopin. New York: Morrow, 1990

The Story of an Hour Analysis & Summary – Essay Example

This sample will help you write a The Story of an Hour analysis essay! Here you’ll find a The Story of an Hour summary. Essay also contains a plot and character analysis.

Introduction

The story of an hour introduction, the story of an hour main plot, the story of an hour conclusion, the story of an hour analysis.

The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894. This famous piece of literature was controversial for its time, as the story mentioned a female protagonist who felt relieved after her husband’s death. The conclusion of The Story of an Hour is ironic, which makes the ending memorable.

The following The Story of an Hour literary analysis essay will summarize the plot and present an extensive character analysis of Mrs. Mallard. It will be helpful for those writing a The Story of an Hour critical analysis.

Kate Chopin (born Catherine O’Flaherty) was an American writer. She is best known for her narratives of delicate and brave women’s inner lives. Her novel “The Awakening” and her short stories, among them The Story of an Hour, are being read in countries all over the world today. She is widely recognized as one of the most important authors in America.

In 1984, Kate Chopin wrote The Story of an Hour. It portrays a woman, Louise Mallard, who lost her husband in an accident. However, she later discovers that the husband survived. Mrs. Mallard goes through many emotions and feelings, reevaluating her life. That ultimately kills her when she meets her presumably dead husband at the door. The following The Story of an Hour essay will focus on the plot and the protagonist’s self-development.

The Story of an Hour Summary

Louise Mallard, the main character, had always had a heart problem. It was not a secret for her friends and relatives, so everyone tried to protect her from worries.

One day her husband, Brently Mallard, was mistaken for having died in a horrible railroad accident. Richard, Mr. Mallard’s friend, was the one who learned about this death while in the office. Josephine, Louise’s sister, broke the news to her.

Josephine was very cautious because of Mrs. Mallard’s health issue. She feared such a tragedy would cause a heart attack. Bit by bit, she strategized how to tell everything to her sister, aher plan went perfectly well. Mrs. Mallard wept only once. She did not receive the story like many women would, with a helpless incapacity to acknowledge its meaning. She only cried in her sister’s arms with a feeling of a sudden, wild abandonment (Woodlief 2).

Immediately Mrs. Mallard found herself wondering how she could survive without her husband. She went to a room and locked herself to contemplate the consequences of his death. She was devastated, and this sadness was only natural. This man had been close to her, even though only for a short time. Her sister Josephine and Mr. Richard also mourned the loss (Taibah 1).

Mrs. Mallard was alone in that room, thinking about the future. As she was contemplating her fate, instead of grief, she began realizing that this was the beginning of a better part of her life. Louise saw independence and plenty of possibilities to do what her heart desired. Now, she had only to think about herself.

Later, Josephine comes to Louise’s room, crying with a joyous smile. They descend the house’s stairs, where Mr. Mallard appears at the door. He was not involved in the accident and did not understand why Josephine was crying. At the shock of seeing her husband again, Mrs. Mallard collapses. The doctors declare that she died because of the problems with her heart.

Health issues of the central character play a significant role in the story. The author managed to bring suspense in the way she described telling the bad news to a person with a heart problem. Josephine, Louise’s sister, tries her best to be careful and attentive, expecting a painful response. However, Mrs. Mallard reacts better than anticipated.

The story focuses mostly on femininity and the institution of marriage. The analysis of The Story of an Hour has to speculate on it to reveal the core message.

The author was able to illustrate that men entirely dominate the institution of marriage. Mr. Mallard, for instance, treated his wife the way she wanted only from time to time. For years, Louise has done many things to please her husband without looking after her well-being. So, having received the disturbing news, she is quite happy. It seemed that she had never cared for her husband at all.

Or did she? Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to the death of a spouse is complicated. She cannot escape the loneliness and grief that came with the loss. But the possibility of happiness prevails. Louise knew that marriage had made her a subject for him against her will. She only felt sorrow for the loss of his life but not for living without him. She felt deep inside that she had been freed from the chains of living for another person.

Mr. Mallard’s apparent death saddened Louise at first. She was devastated about his fate but regained strength quickly. Louise was well aware of the fact that she could not bring her husband back. So, she came to terms with it, which wasn’t difficult. Mrs. Mallard saw beyond the painful moment, anticipating freedom for the rest of her life.

The room and environment around Mrs. Mallard symbolize her desire for freedom. For example, Mrs. Mallard could see the tops of trees through the window. They were all aquiver with the new spring life on the open square before her house. There was a delicious breath of rain in the air. A peddler was weeping his wares in the street below. There were spots of blue sky showing up here and there through the clouds in the west facing her window, which had met and piled up one above the other (Woodlief 1).

An open window could be interpreted as a metaphor. It reflects new possibilities and resources that Mrs. Mallard now had in her sights without anybody stopping her. She referred to it as the late spring of life.

The story reveals how women were secretly marginalized. At the time, society expected them to pursue wealth and safety, which came with a husband. Liberty should be neither their worry nor their goal. When Louise felt freedom after Mr. Mallard’s death, she kept it secret for obvious reasons. But then, her sister arrived.

Mrs. Mallard was shocked by the sight of her husband alive. All of her newfound liberty and dreams came crashing down at that moment. This shattering experience even goes to the extreme of destroying her life. Whereas she was to be happy to see her husband alive, Louise died from a heart attack.

Situational irony is presented in the author’s stylistic use of words: “She had died of heart disease…of the joy that kills.” People around anticipated this tragedy from the news about Mr. Mallard’s death, not miraculous survival.

The author explored the character of Mrs. Mallard throughout this story. The reader can’t be surprised by her sudden death or miss its irony. Louise is a woman with a great desire for independence, which a man has deprived her of through marriage. Mr. Mallard represents the absence of her liberty that restores after his death. When Mrs. Mallard sees her husband at the door once again, she collapses and never wakes up.

Based on this The Story of an Hour literary analysis, we can draw several important conclusions. Mrs. Mallard couldn’t control her emotions when they concerned the most vital matters. The lack of liberty and independence may have caused her heart problems in the first place. And they cost her life in the end.

Her husband, Mr. Mallard, took Louise’s freedom when he married her. However, as it became apparent from the story, he never valued her. When she died, he had finally faced the consequences of always taking her existence for granted.

Therefore, the oppressor faced even worse tragedy than the oppressed. The dramatic irony of Mr. Mallard’s unawareness of his wife’s true feelings towards him is a big part of the story. So, in the end, it was Mr. Mallard’s presence that killed his wife.

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an hour . The Kate Chopin International Society. Web.
Woodlief, Ann. The Story of an Hour . 2011, Virginia Commonwealth University. Web.

What is the symbolism in The Story of an Hour?

Through The Story of an Hour, the author presents us with the inner feelings and thoughts of a woman using various symbols. Mrs. Mallard’s heart problem symbolizes her dissatisfaction with the marriage, while the open window illustrates her aspirations towards a better, independent life.

What is the meaning behind The Story of an Hour?

Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour analysis illustrates that the author wanted to tell us how the society of that time was unfair towards women. It also shows the delicate and complicated inner world of a woman.

What does The Story of an Hour critique?

The Story of an Hour criticizes the typical experience of marriage in the 1890s. For women, such marriage was repressive and meant their loss of personal freedoms. Therefore, the story criticizes the society of that time dominated by men.

How do you start a critical analysis of The Story of an Hour?

Start your analysis of The Story of an Hour with a short introduction. Remember to say a few words about its author and her life. Next, talk about the story and let the reader know what it is about.

What are the two main themes in The Story of an Hour?

Firstly, the theme of a female search for self-identity is featured strongly in the story. The second theme is that of repressive marriage. The reader sees it in the way Mrs. Mallard’s reaction toward her husband’s death shifts.

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The Story of an Hour

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General Education

Imagine a world where women are fighting for unprecedented rights, the economic climate is unpredictable, and new developments in technology are made every year. While this world might sound like the present day, it also describes America in the 1890s .

It was in this world that author Kate Chopin wrote and lived, and many of the issues of the period are reflected in her short story, “The Story of an Hour.” Now, over a century later, the story remains one of Kate Chopin’s most well-known works and continues to shed light on the internal struggle of women who have been denied autonomy.

In this guide to Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” we’ll discuss:

A brief history of Kate Chopin and America the 1890s
“The Story of an Hour” summary
Analysis of the key story elements in “The Story of an Hour,” including themes, characters, and symbols

By the end of this article, you’ll have an expert grasp on Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” So let’s get started!

“The Story of an Hour” Summary

If it’s been a little while since you’ve read Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” it can be hard to remember the important details. This section includes a quick recap, but you can find “The Story of an Hour” PDF and full version here . We recommend you read it again before diving into our analyses in the next section!

For those who just need a refresher, here’s “The Story of an Hour” summary:

Mrs. Louise Mallard is at home when her sister, Josephine, and her husband’s friend, Richards, come to tell her that her husband, Brently Mallard, has been killed in a railroad accident . Richards had been at the newspaper office when the news broke, and he takes Josephine with him to break the news to Louise since they’re afraid of aggravating her heart condition. Upon hearing the news of her husband’s death, Louise is grief-stricken, locks herself in her room, and weeps.

From here, the story shifts in tone. As Louise processes the news of her husband’s death, she realizes something wonderful and terrible at the same time: she is free . At first she’s scared to admit it, but Louise quickly finds peace and joy in her admission. She realizes that, although she will be sad about her husband (“she had loved him—sometimes,” Chopin writes), Louise is excited for the opportunity to live for herself. She keeps repeating the word “free” as she comes to terms with what her husband’s death means for her life.

In the meantime, Josephine sits at Louise’s door, coaxing her to come out because she is worried about Louise’s heart condition. After praying that her life is long-lived, Louise agrees to come out. However, as she comes downstairs, the front door opens to reveal her husband, who had not been killed by the accident at all. Although Richards tries to keep Louise’s heart from shock by shielding her husband from view, Louise dies suddenly, which the doctors later attribute to “heart disease—of the joy that kills .”

Kate Chopin, the author of "The Story of an Hour," has become one of the most important American writers of the 19th century.

The History of Kate Chopin and the 1890s

Before we move into “The Story of an Hour” analysis section, it’s helpful to know a little bit about Kate Chopin and the world she lived in.

A Short Biography of Kate Chopin

Born in 1850 to wealthy Catholic parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Kate Chopin (originally Kate O’Flaherty) knew hardship from an early age. In 1855, Chopin lost her father, Thomas, when he passed away in a tragic and unexpected railroad accident. The events of this loss would stay with Kate for the rest of her life, eventually becoming the basis for “The Story of an Hour” nearly forty years later.

Chopin was well-educated throughout her childhood , reading voraciously and becoming fluent in French. Chopin was also very aware of the divide between the powerful and the oppressed in society at the time . She grew up during the U.S. Civil War, so she had first-hand knowledge of violence and slavery in the United States.

Chopin was also exposed to non-traditional roles for women through her familial situation. Her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother chose to remain widows (rather than remarry) after their husbands died. Consequently, Chopin learned how important women’s independence could be, and that idea would permeate much of her writing later on.

As Chopin grew older, she became known for her beauty and congeniality by society in St. Louis. She was married at the age of nineteen to Oscar Chopin, who came from a wealthy cotton-growing family. The couple moved to New Orleans, where they would start both a general store and a large family. (Chopin would give birth to seven children over the next nine years!)

While Oscar adored his wife, he was less capable of running a business. Financial trouble forced the family to move around rural Louisiana. Unfortunately, Oscar would die of swamp fever in 1882 , leaving Chopin in heavy debt and with the responsibility of managing the family’s struggling businesses.

After trying her hand at managing the property for a year, Chopin conceded to her mother’s requests to return with her children to St. Louis. Chopin’s mother died the year after. In order to support herself and her children, Kate began to write to support her family.

Luckily, Chopin found immediate success as a writer. Many of her short stories and novels—including her most famous novel, The Awakening— dealt with life in Louisiana . She was also known as a fast and prolific writer, and by the end of the 1900s she had written over 100 stories, articles, and essays.

Unfortunately, Chopin would pass away from a suspected cerebral hemorrhage in 1904, at the age of 54 . But Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and other writings have withstood the test of time. Her work has lived on, and she’s now recognized as one of the most important American writers of the 19th century.

American life was undergoing significant change in the 19th century. Technology, culture, and even leisure activities were changing.

American Life in the 1890s

“The Story of an Hour” was written and published in 1894, right as the 1800s were coming to a close. As the world moved into the new century, American life was also changing rapidly.

For instance, t he workplace was changing drastically in the 1890s . Gone were the days where most people were expected to work at a trade or on a farm. Factory jobs brought on by industrialization made work more efficient, and many of these factory owners gradually implemented more humane treatment of their workers, giving them more leisure time than ever.

Though the country was in an economic recession at this time, technological changes like electric lighting and the popularization of radios bettered the daily lives of many people and allowed for the creation of new jobs. Notably, however, work was different for women . Working women as a whole were looked down upon by society, no matter why they found themselves in need of a job.

Women who worked while they were married or pregnant were judged even more harshly. Women of Kate Chopin’s social rank were expected to not work at all , sometimes even delegating the responsibility of managing the house or child-rearing to maids or nannies. In the 1890s, working was only for lower class women who could not afford a life of leisure .

In reaction to this, the National American Woman Suffrage Association was created in 1890, which fought for women’s social and political rights. While Kate Chopin was not a formal member of the suffragette movements, she did believe that women should have greater freedoms as individuals and often talked about these ideas in her works, including in “The Story of an Hour.”

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" a short exploration of marriage and repression in America.

“The Story of an Hour” Analysis

Now that you have some important background information, it’s time to start analyzing “The Story of an Hour.”

This short story is filled with opposing forces . The themes, characters, and even symbols in the story are often equal, but opposite, of one another. Within “The Story of an Hour,” analysis of all of these elements reveals a deeper meaning.

“The Story of an Hour” Themes

A theme is a message explored in a piece of literature. Most stories have multiple themes, which is certainly the case in “The Story of an Hour.” Even though Chopin’s story is short, it discusses the thematic ideas of freedom, repression, and marriage.

Keep reading for a discussion of the importance of each theme!

Freedom and Repression

The most prevalent theme in Chopin’s story is the battle between freedom and “repression.” Simply put , repression happens when a person’s thoughts, feelings, or desires are being subdued. Repression can happen internally and externally. For example, if a person goes through a traumatic accident, they may (consciously or subconsciously) choose to repress the memory of the accident itself. Likewise, if a person has wants or needs that society finds unacceptable, society can work to repress that individual. Women in the 19th century were often victims of repression. They were supposed to be demure, gentle, and passive—which often went against women’s personal desires.

Given this, it becomes apparent that Louise Mallard is the victim of social repression. Until the moment of her husband’s supposed death, Louise does not feel free . In their marriage, Louise is repressed. Readers see this in the fact that Brently is moving around in the outside world, while Louise is confined to her home. Brently uses railroad transportation on his own, walks into his house of his own accord, and has individual possessions in the form of his briefcase and umbrella. Brently is even free from the knowledge of the train wreck upon his return home. Louise, on the other hand, is stuck at home by virtue of her position as a woman and her heart condition.

Here, Chopin draws a strong contrast between what it means to be free for men and women. While freedom is just part of what it means to be a man in America, freedom for women looks markedly different. Louise’s life is shaped by what society believes a woman should be and how a wife should behave. Once Louise’s husband “dies,” however, she sees a way where she can start claiming some of the more “masculine” freedoms for herself. Chopin shows how deeply important freedom is to the life of a woman when, in the end, it’s not the shock of her husband’s return of her husband that kills Louise, but rather the thought of losing her freedom again.

Marriage as a “The Story of an Hour” theme is more than just an idyllic life spent with a significant other. The Mallard’s marriage shows a reality of 1890s life that was familiar to many people. Marriage was a means of social control —that is to say, marriage helped keep women in check and secure men’s social and political power. While husbands were usually free to wander the world on their own, hold jobs, and make important family decisions, wives (at least those of the upper class) were expected to stay at home and be domestic.

Marriage in Louise Mallard’s case has very little love. She sees her marriage as a life-long bond in which she feels trapped, which readers see when she confesses that she loved her husband only “sometimes.” More to the point, she describes her marriage as a “powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature.” In other words, Louise Mallard feels injustice in the expectation that her life is dictated by the will of her husband.

Like the story, the marriages Kate witnessed often ended in an early or unexpected death. The women of her family, including Kate herself, all survived their husbands and didn’t remarry. While history tells us that Kate Chopin was happy in her marriage, she was aware that many women weren’t. By showing a marriage that had been built on control and society’s expectations, Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” highlights the need for a world that respected women as valuable partners in marriage as well as capable individuals.

body-young-woman-looking-through-a-window

While this painting by Johann Georg Meyer wasn't specifically of Louise Mallard, "Young Woman Looking Through a Window" is a depiction of what Louise might have looked like as she realized her freedom.

"The Story of an Hour" Characters

The best stories have developed characters, which is the case in “The Story of an Hour,” too. Five characters make up the cast of “The Story of an Hour”:

Louise Mallard

Brently mallard.

The doctor(s)

By exploring the details of each character, we can better understand their motivations, societal role, and purpose to the story.

From the opening sentence alone, we learn a lot about Louise Mallard. Chopin writes, “Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death.”

From that statement alone, we know that she is married, has a heart condition, and is likely to react strongly to bad news . We also know that the person who is sharing the bad news views Louise as delicate and sensitive. Throughout the next few paragraphs, we also learn that Louise is a housewife, which indicates that she would be part of the middle-to-upper class in the 1890s. Chopin also describes Louise’s appearance as “young,” “fair, calm face,” with lines of “strength.” These characteristics are not purely physical, but also bleed into her character throughout the story.

Louise’s personality is described as different from other women . While many women would be struck with the news in disbelief, Louise cries with “wild abandonment”—which shows how powerful her emotions are. Additionally, while other women would be content to mourn for longer, Louise quickly transitions from grief to joy about her husband’s passing.

Ultimately, Chopin uses Louise’s character to show readers what a woman’s typical experience within marriage was in the 1890s. She uses Louise to criticize the oppressive and repressive nature of marriage, especially when Louise rejoices in her newfound freedom.

Josephine is Louise’s sister . We never hear of Josephine’s last name or whether she is married or not. We do know that she has come with Richards, a friend of Brently’s, to break the news of his death to her sister.

When Josephine tells Louise the bad news, she’s only able to tell Louise of Brently’s death in “veiled hints,” rather than telling her outright. Readers can interpret this as Josephine’s attempt at sparing Louise’s feelings. Josephine is especially worried about her sister’s heart condition, which we see in greater detail later as she warns Louise, “You will make yourself ill.” When Louise locks herself in her room, Josephine is desperate to make sure her sister is okay and begs Louise to let her in.

Josephine is the key supporting character for Louise, helping her mourn, though she never knows that Louise found new freedom from her husband’s supposed death . But from Josephine’s actions and interactions with Louise, readers can accurately surmise that she cares for her sister (even if she’s unaware of how miserable Louise finds her life).

Richards is another supporting character, though he is described as Brently’s friend, not Louise’s friend. It is Richards who finds out about Brently Mallard’s supposed death while at the newspaper office—he sees Brently’s name “leading the list of ‘killed.’” Richards’ main role in “The Story of an Hour” is to kick off the story’s plot.

Additionally, Richard’s presence at the newspaper office suggests he’s a writer, editor, or otherwise employee of the newspaper (although Chopin leaves this to readers’ inferences). Richards takes enough care to double-check the news and to make sure that Brently’s likely dead. He also enlists Josephine’s help to break the news to Louise. He tries to get to Louise before a “less careful, less tender friend” can break the sad news to her, which suggests that he’s a thoughtful person in his own right.

It’s also important to note is that Richards is aware of Louise’s heart condition, meaning that he knows Louise Mallard well enough to know of her health and how she is likely to bear grief. He appears again in the story at the very end, when he tries (and fails) to shield Brently from his wife’s view to prevent her heart from reacting badly. While Richards is a background character in the narrative, he demonstrates a high level of friendship, consideration, and care for Louise.

Brently Mallard would have been riding in a train like this one when the accident supposedly occurred.

Mr. Brently Mallard is the husband of the main character, Louise. We get few details about him, though readers do know he’s been on a train that has met with a serious accident. For the majority of the story, readers believe Brently Mallard is dead—though the end of “The Story of an Hour” reveals that he’s been alive all along. In fact, Brently doesn’t even know of the railroad tragedy when he arrives home “travel-stained.”

Immediately after Louise hears the news of his death, she remembers him fondly. She remarks on his “kind, tender hands” and says that Brently “never looked save with love” upon her . It’s not so much Brently as it’s her marriage to him which oppresses Louise. While he apparently always loved Louise, Louise only “sometimes” loved Brently. She constantly felt that he “impose[d] a private will” upon her, as most husbands do their wives. And while she realizes that Brently likely did so without malice, she also realized that “a kind intention or a cruel intention” makes the repression “no less a crime.”

Brently’s absence in the story does two things. First, it contrasts starkly with Louise’s life of illness and confinement. Second, Brently’s absence allows Louise to imagine a life of freedom outside of the confines of marriage , which gives her hope. In fact, when he appears alive and well (and dashes Louise’s hopes of freedom), she passes away.

The Doctor(s)

Though the mention of them is brief, the final sentence of the story is striking. Chopin writes, “When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Just as she had no freedom in life, her liberation from the death of her husband is told as a joy that killed her.

In life as in death, the truth of Louise Mallard is never known. Everything the readers know about her delight in her newfound freedom happens in Louise’s own mind; she never gets the chance to share her secret joy with anyone else.

Consequently, the ending of the story is double-sided. If the doctors are to be believed, Louise Mallard was happy to see her husband, and her heart betrayed her. And outwardly, no one has any reason to suspect otherwise. Her reaction is that of a dutiful, delicate wife who couldn’t bear the shock of her husband returned from the grave.

But readers can infer that Louise Mallard died of the grief of a freedom she never had , then found, then lost once more. Readers can interpret Louise’s death as her experience of true grief in the story—that for her ideal life, briefly realized then snatched away.

In "The Story of an Hour," the appearance of hearts symbolize both repression and hope.

“The Story of an Hour” Symbolism and Motifs

Symbols are any object, word, or other element that appear in the story and have additional meanings beyond. Motifs are elements from a story that gain meaning from being repeated throughout the narrative. The line between symbols and motifs is often hazy, but authors use both to help communicate their ideas and themes.

In “The Story of an Hour,” symbolism is everywhere, but the three major symbols present in the story are:

The heart
The house and the outdoors
Joy and sorrow

Heart disease, referred to as a “heart condition” within the text, opens and closes the text. The disease is the initial cause for everyone’s concern, since Louise’s condition makes her delicate. Later, heart disease causes Louise’s death upon Brently’s safe return. In this case, Louise’s ailing heart has symbolic value because it suggests to readers that her life has left her heartbroken. When she believes she’s finally found freedom, Louise prays for a long life...when just the day before, she’d “had thought with a shudder that life might be long.”

As Louise realizes her freedom, it’s almost as if her heart sparks back to life. Chopin writes, “Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously...she was striving to beat it back...Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.” These words suggest that, with her newfound freedom, the symptoms of her heart disease have lifted. Readers can surmise that Louise’s diseased heart is the result of being repressed, and hope brings her heart back to life.

Unfortunately, when Brently comes back, so does Louise’s heart disease. And, although her death is attributed to joy, the return of her (both symbolic and literal) heart disease kills her in the end.

The House and the Outdoors

The second set of symbols are Louise’s house and the world she can see outside of her window. Chopin contrasts these two symbolic images to help readers better understand how marriage and repression have affected Louise.

First of all, Louise is confined to the home—both within the story and in general. For her, however, her home isn’t a place to relax and feel comfortable. It’s more like a prison cell. All of the descriptions of the house reinforce the idea that it’s closed off and inescapable . For instance, the front door is locked when Mr. Mallard returns home. When Mrs. Mallard is overcome with grief, she goes deeper inside her house and locks herself in her room.

In that room, however, Mrs. Mallard takes note of the outdoors by looking out of her window. Even in her momentary grief, she describes the “open square before her house” and “the new spring life.” The outdoors symbolize freedom in the story, so it’s no surprise that she realizes her newfound freedom as she looks out her window. Everything about the outside is free, beautiful, open, inviting, and pleasant...a stark contrast from the sadness inside the house .

The house and its differences from outdoors serve as one of many symbols for how Louise feels about her marriage: barred from a world of independence.

Joy and Sorrow

Finally, joy and sorrow are motifs that come at unexpected times throughout “The Story of an Hour.” Chopin juxtaposes joy and sorrow to highlight how tragedy releases Louise from her sorrow and gives her a joyous hope for the future.

At first, sorrow appears as Louise mourns the death of her husband. Yet, in just a few paragraphs, she finds joy in the event as she discovers a life of her own. Though Louise is able to see that feeling joy at such an event is “monstrous,” she continues to revel in her happiness.

It is later that, when others expect her to be joyful, Josephine lets out a “piercing cry,” and Louise dies. Doctors interpret this as “the joy that kills,” but more likely it’s a sorrow that kills. The reversal of the “appropriate” feelings at each event reveals how counterintuitive the “self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” is to the surrounding culture. This paradox reveals something staggering about Louise’s married life: she is so unhappy with her situation that grief gives her hope...and she dies when that hope is taken away.

Key Takeaways: Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”

Analyzing Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” takes time and careful thought despite the shortness of the story. The story is open to multiple interpretations and has a lot to reveal about women in the 1890s, and many of the story’s themes, characters, and symbols critique women’s marriage roles during the period .

There’s a lot to dig through when it comes to “The Story of an Hour” analysis. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just remember a few things :

Events from Kate Chopin’s life and from social changes in the 1890s provided a strong basis for the story.
Mrs. Louise Mallard’s heart condition, house, and feelings represent deeper meanings in the narrative.
Louise goes from a state of repression, to freedom, and then back to repression, and the thought alone is enough to kill her.

Remembering the key plot points, themes, characters, and symbols will help you write any essay or participate in any discussion. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” has much more to uncover, so read it again, ask questions, and start exploring the story beyond the page!

What’s Next?

You may have found your way to this article because analyzing literature can be tricky to master. But like any skill, you can improve with practice! First, make sure you have the right tools for the job by learning about literary elements. Start by mastering the 9 elements in every piece of literature , then dig into our element-specific guides (like this one on imagery and this one on personification .)

Another good way to start practicing your analytical skills is to read through additional expert guides like this one. Literary guides can help show you what to look for and explain why certain details are important. You can start with our analysis of Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” We also have longer guides on other words like The Great Gatsby and The Crucible , too.

If you’re preparing to take the AP Literature exam, it’s even more important that you’re able to quickly and accurately analyze a text . Don’t worry, though: we’ve got tons of helpful material for you. First, check out this overview of the AP Literature exam . Once you have a handle on the test, you can start practicing the multiple choice questions , and even take a few full-length practice tests . Oh, and make sure you’re ready for the essay portion of the test by checking out our AP Literature reading list!

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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“The Story of an Hour”: Irony

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is not only full of symbols but also ironic situations and comments, making it having multiplicity of meanings.

Introduction to Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”

Besides superficial meanings, a literary piece has deeper meanings to tell like Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” which is not only full of symbols but also ironic situations and comments. From the face, it seems a very simple story of a lady who receives the news of the death of her husband and feels depressed. When the same news transpires the wrong report, she immediately dies due to cardiac failure. Yet deeper meanings are not the same as superficial ones. They show not only the character of a woman of the 19 th century but also the social and financial circumstances in which she lives and how marriage traps her. Kate Chopin uses multiple symbols and ironies to convey the real meanings of false love, marriage, and social issues related to the 19 th century through her story “The Story of an Hour.”

Spotting Themes in “The Story of an Hour”

My first reaction to the story is that of stupefaction. I, at once, realized the irony and its symbolical value when I read the last sentence. The heart vulnerable to suffering in the first line stops working due to happiness. What a symbol of the fickleness of mind that the writer uses! It is also that the story has several symbols used dexterously by Kate Chopin to make her meanings clear. The story opens with the mention of heroin. The stress is upon her heart as if she is suffering from some cardiac issue, but also that she has heart problems. It has both meanings that she is an amalgamation of not only physical but also emotional problems. The story shows “Mrs. Mallard … afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin) which is the major reason for the great care the news breaker has taken. This heart is also a symbol of society as marriage is the heart of any society and if society must have strong foundations, the marriage institution must get strengthened. Her heart may show the situation of the peril that the family institution faced in the 19 th century. This opens up another debate when the story ends where it shows that she has died due to cardiac arrest but not on account of sorrow but happiness.

Symbolism in “The Story of an Hour”

Kate Chopin has also used symbols such as time, patches of sky, and the chair. Some of them are even personifications. The time is of spring as Kate Chopin states about her that she could watch the “trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life” (Chopin). All the next sentences show her jubilation over the situation she finds herself in. She thinks that now she is seeing all spring and no more autumn as she is going to free herself from the clutches of her marriage. In fact, spring is a symbol of happiness and shows how she views life. In this happiness, she sees all things expressing her feelings such as the patches of the blue sky. It is also a symbol of happiness and freedom. Earlier she thought of ending her life, but now the symbols have changed. Similarly, the chair has also become a significant symbol. The chair is personified when she hears the news of the death of her husband and sinks into it, but when this is over, she relaxes in it.

Irony in “The Story of an Hour”

As far as irony is concerned, Kate Chopin has used both situational as well as dramatic irony . The mere coming back of the dead husband is an example of situational irony. It is highly ironic that a person who is supposed to be dead and going through rituals comes alive home and is hardly aware of his own death. The second situational irony is that Mr. Mallard who should have come home dead, comes alive and Mrs. Mallard who is going to live a new life, dies on the spot. The greatest irony is that Mrs. Mallard is feeling happy and free, while others are worried that she might go into a comma or that this grief may cost her life. However, when the situation turns, they see that she, instead of dying of a heart attack, dies due to excessive happiness. Just read what the story says at the end, “When the doctors [states that it is] joy that kills” (Chopin). The other form is that of dramatic irony which is both when she cries though actually, she is happy that she is now free from her marriage locks. She is, in fact, thinking how wonderful life would be for her, while it is not the case for others who are thinking that life would be difficult for her and taking steps to make her comfortable. Her situation is that she is taking to her fancy imagining good old days of freedom, while her sister is taking care of her by clasping “her sister’s waist (Chopin) so that she should be consoled in any way. This shows how pretension and artificiality have been dominant in the 19 th century and how ladies are fickle-minded.

Conclusion of Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”

In short, Kate Chopin suggests the meanings through symbols and irony in this story. All the symbols used in this story have different meanings that correlate with the ironic situations and remarks. It shows that life in the 19 th century was witnessing fast transformations – the result of fast progress and modern ideas creeping into society. Marriage and false love were destroying social relationships which different symbols amply demonstrate here.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour . n.d. VCU. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/>. Accessed 12 Mar. 2020.

You may read more on Shorty Essays Below:

“Everyday Use” and “A Man Who Was…”: African American Culture
“Sweat” and “Everyday Use”: Feminism
“The Cask of Amontillado”: Revenge

“Araby” by James Joyce: Modernist Story
Humanity in “The Cabuliwala”

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A year after affirmative action ban, how students are pitching themselves to colleges

Deep Read ( 13 Min. )
By Olivia Sanchez, Nirvi Shah, and Meredith Kolodner The Hechinger Report

June 28, 2024

In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college admissions, students have had to give more thought to how they present themselves in their application essays – to what they will disclose.

Data from the Common Application shows that in this admissions cycle, about 12% of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups used at least one of 38 identity-related phrases in their essays, a decrease of roughly 1% from the previous year. The data shows that about 20% of American Indian and Alaskan Native applicants used one of these phrases; meanwhile 15% of Asian students, 14% of Black students, 11% of Latinx students, and fewer than 3% of white students did so.

Why We Wrote This

A year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court barred affirmative action in college admissions. Students have since used their application essays as a place to explore identity.

To better understand how students were deciding what to include, The Hechinger Report asked newly accepted students from across the United States to share their application essays and to describe how they thought their writing choices ultimately influenced their admissions outcomes. Among them was Jaleel Gomes Cardoso from Boston, who wrote about being Black.

“If you’re not going to see what my race is in my application, then I’m definitely putting it in my writing,” he says, “because you have to know that this is the person who I am.”

In the year since the Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college admissions last June, students have had to give more thought to how they present themselves in their application essays .

Previously, they could write about their racial or ethnic identity if they wanted to, but colleges would usually know it either way and could use it as a factor in admissions. Now, it’s entirely up to students to disclose their identity or not.

Data from the Common Application shows that in this admissions cycle about 12% of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups used at least one of 38 identity-related phrases in their essays, a decrease of roughly 1% from the previous year. The data shows that about 20% of American Indian and Alaskan Native applicants used one of these phrases; meanwhile 15% of Asian students, 14% of Black students, 11% of Latinx students, and fewer than 3% of white students did so.

To better understand how students were making this decision and introducing themselves to colleges, The Hechinger Report asked newly accepted students from across the country to share their college application essays. The Hechinger staff read more than 50 essays and talked to many students about their writing process, who gave them advice, and how they think their choices ultimately influenced their admissions outcomes.

Here are thoughts from a sampling of those students, with excerpts from their essays.

Jaleel Gomes Cardoso of Boston: A risky decision

As Jaleel Gomes Cardoso sat looking at the essay prompt for Yale University, he wasn’t sure how honest he should be. “Reflect on your membership in a community to which you feel connected,” it read. “Why is this community meaningful to you?” He wanted to write about being part of the Black community – it was the obvious choice – but the Supreme Court’s decision to ban the consideration of a student’s race in admissions gave him pause.

“Ever since the decision about affirmative action, it kind of worried me about talking about race,” says Mr. Cardoso, who grew up in Boston. “That entire topic felt like a risky decision.”

In the past, he had always felt that taking a risk produced some of his best writing, but he thought that an entire essay about being Black might be going too far.

“The risk was just so heavy on the topic of race when the Court’s decision was to not take race into account,” he says. “It was as if I was disregarding that decision. It felt very controversial, just to make it so out in the open.”

In the end, he did write an essay that put his racial identity front and center. He wasn’t accepted to Yale, but he has no regrets about his choice.

“If you’re not going to see what my race is in my application, then I’m definitely putting it in my writing,” says Mr. Cardoso, who will attend Dartmouth College this fall, “because you have to know that this is the person who I am.”

– Meredith Kolodner

Essay excerpt:

I was thrust into a narrative of indifference and insignificance from the moment I entered this world. I was labeled as black, which placed me in the margins of society. It seemed that my destiny had been predetermined; to be part of a minority group constantly oppressed under the weight of a social construct called race. Blackness became my life, an identity I initially battled against. I knew others viewed it as a flaw that tainted their perception of me. As I matured, I realized that being different was not easy, but it was what I loved most about myself.

Klaryssa Cobian of Los Angeles: A seminomadic mattress life

Klaryssa Cobian is Latina – a first-generation Mexican American – and so was nearly everyone else in the Southeast Los Angeles community where she grew up. Because that world was so homogenous, she really didn’t notice her race until she was a teenager.

Then she earned a scholarship to a prestigious private high school in Pasadena. For the first time, she was meaningfully interacting with people of other races and ethnicities, but she felt the greatest gulf between her and her peers came from her socioeconomic status, not the color of her skin.

Although Ms. Cobian has generally tried to keep her home life private, she felt that colleges needed to understand the way her family’s severe economic disadvantages had affected her. She wrote about how she’d long been “desperate to feel at home.”

She was 16 years old before she had a mattress of her own. Her essay cataloged all the places she lay her head before that. She wrote about her first bed, a queen-sized mattress shared with her parents and younger sister. She wrote about sleeping in the backseat of her mother’s red Mustang, before they lost the car. She wrote about moving into her grandparents’ home and sharing a mattress on the floor with her sister, in the same room as two uncles. She wrote about the great independence she felt when she “moved out” into the living room and onto the couch.

“Which mattress I sleep on has defined my life, my independence, my dependence,” Ms. Cobian wrote.

She’d initially considered writing about the ways she felt she’d had to sacrifice her Latino culture and identity to pursue her education, but said she hesitated after the Supreme Court ruled on the use of affirmative action in admissions. Ultimately, she decided that her experience of poverty was more pertinent.

“If I’m in a room of people, it’s like, I can talk to other Latinos, and I can talk to other brown people, but that does not mean I’m going to connect with them. Because, I learned, brown people can be rich,” Ms. Cobian says. She’s headed to the University of California, Berkeley, in the fall.

– Olivia Sanchez

Essay excerpt:

With the only income, my mom automatically assumed custody of me and my younger sister, Alyssa. With no mattress and no home, the backseat of my mom’s red mustang became my new mattress. Bob Marley blasted from her red convertible as we sang out “could you be loved” every day on our ride back from elementary school. Eventually, we lost the mustang too and would take the bus home from Downtown Los Angeles, still singing “could you be loved” to each other.

Oluwademilade Egunjobi of Providence, Rhode Island: The perfect introduction

Oluwademilade Egunjobi worked on her college essay from June until November. Not every single day, and not on only one version, but for five months she was writing and editing and asking anyone who would listen for advice.

She considered submitting essays about the value of sex education, or the philosophical theory of solipsism (in which the only thing that is guaranteed to exist is your own mind).

But most of the advice she got was to write about her identity. So, to introduce herself to colleges, Oluwademilade Egunjobi wrote about her name.

Ms. Egunjobi is the daughter of Nigerian immigrants who, she wrote, chose her first name because it means she’s been crowned by God. In naming her, she said, her parents prioritized pride in their heritage over ease of pronunciation for people outside their culture.

And although Ms. Egunjobi loves that she will always be connected to her culture, this choice has put her in a lifelong loop of exasperating introductions and questions from non-Nigerians about her name.

The loop often ends when the person asks if they can call her by her nickname, Demi. “I smile through my irritation and say I prefer it anyways, and then the situation repeats time and time again,” Egunjobi wrote.

She was nervous when she learned about the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, wondering what it might mean for where she would get into college. Her teachers and college advisors from a program called Matriculate told her she didn’t have to write a sob story, but that she should write about her identity, how it affects the way she moves through the world and the resilience it’s taught her.

She heeded their advice, and it worked out. In the fall, she will enter the University of Pennsylvania to study philosophy, politics, and economics.

I don’t think I’ve ever had to fight so hard to love something as hard as I’ve fought to love my name. I’m grateful for it because it’ll never allow me to reject my culture and my identity, but I get frustrated by this daily performance. I’ve learned that this performance is an inescapable fate, but the best way to deal with fate is to show up with joy. I am Nigerian, but specifically from the ethnic group, Yoruba. In Yoruba culture, most names are manifestations. Oluwademilade means God has crowned me, and my middle name is Favor, so my parents have manifested that I’ll be favored above others and have good success in life. No matter where I go, people familiar with the language will recognize my name and understand its meaning. I love that I’ll always carry a piece of my culture with me.

Francisco Garcia of Fort Worth, Texas: Accepted to college and by his community

In the opening paragraph of his college application essay, Francisco Garcia quotes his mother, speaking to him in Spanish, expressing disappointment that her son was failing to live up to her Catholic ideals. It was her reaction to Mr. Garcia revealing his bisexuality.

Mr. Garcia said those nine Spanish words were “the most intentional thing I did to share my background” with colleges. The rest of his essay delves into how his Catholic upbringing, at least for a time, squelched his ability to be honest with friends about his sexual identity, and how his relationship with the church changed. He said he had striven, however, to avoid coming across as pessimistic or sad, aiming instead to share “what I’ve been through [and] how I’ve become a better person because of it.”

He worked on his essay throughout July, August, and September, with guidance from college officials he met during campus visits and from an adviser he was paired with by Matriculate, which works with students who are high achievers from low-income families. Be very personal, they told Mr. Garcia, but within limits.

“I am fortunate to have support from all my friends, who encourage me to explore complexities within myself,” he wrote. “My friends give me what my mother denied me: acceptance.”

He was accepted by Dartmouth, one of the eight schools to which he applied, after graduating from Saginaw High School near Fort Worth, Texas, this spring.

– Nirvi Shah

Essay excerpt:

By the time I got to high school, I had made new friends who I felt safe around. While I felt I was more authentic with them, I was still unsure whether they would judge me for who I liked. It became increasingly difficult for me to keep hiding this part of myself, so I vented to both my mom and my closest friend, Yoana ... When I confessed that I was bisexual to Yoana, they were shocked, and I almost lost hope. However, after the initial shock, they texted back, “I’m really chill with this. Nothing has changed Francisco:)”. The smiley face, even if it took 2 characters, was enough to bring me to tears.

Hafsa Sheikh of Pearland, Texas: Family focus above all

Hafsa Sheikh felt her applications would be incomplete without the important context of her home life: She became a primary financial contributor to her household when she was just 15, because her father, once the family’s sole breadwinner, could not work due to his major depressive disorder. Her work in a pizza parlor on the weekends and as a tutor after school helped pay the bills.

She found it challenging to open up this way, but felt she needed to tell colleges that, although working two jobs throughout high school made her feel like crying from exhaustion every night, she would do anything for her family.

“It’s definitely not easy sharing some of the things that you’ve been through with, like really a stranger,” she says, “because you don’t know who’s reading it.”

And especially after the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action, Ms. Sheikh felt she needed to write about her cultural identity. It’s a core part of who she is, but it’s also a major part of why her father’s mental illness affected her life so profoundly.

Ms. Sheikh, the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, said her family became isolated because of the negative stigma surrounding mental health in their South Asian culture. She said they became the point of gossip in the community and even among extended family members, and they were excluded from many social gatherings. This was happening as she was watching the typical high school experiences pass her by, she wrote. Because of the long hours she had to work, she had to forgo the opportunity to try out for the girls’ basketball team and debate club, and often couldn’t justify cutting back her hours to spend time with her friends.

She wrote that reflecting on one of her favorite passages in the Holy Quran gave her hope:

“One of my favorite ayahs, ‘verily, with every hardship comes ease,’ serves as a timeless reminder that adversity is not the end; rather, there is always light on the other side,” Ms. Sheikh wrote.

Her perseverance paid off, with admission to Princeton University.

-- Olivia Sanchez

Besides the financial responsibility on my mother and I, we had to deal with the stigma surrounding mental health in South Asian culture and the importance of upholding traditional gender roles. My family became a point of great gossip within the local Pakistani community and even extended family. Slowly, the invitations to social gatherings diminished, and I bailed on plans with friends because I couldn’t afford to miss even a single hour of earnings.

David Arturo Munoz-Matta of McAllen, Texas: Weighing the risks of being honest

It was Nov. 30 and David Arturo Munoz-Matta had eight college essays due the next day. He had spent the prior weeks slammed with homework while also grieving the loss of his uncle who had just died. He knew the essays were going to require all the mental energy he could muster – not to mention whatever hours were left in the day. But he got home from school to discover he had no electricity.

“I was like, ‘What am I gonna do?’” says Mr. Munoz-Matta, who graduated from Lamar Academy in McAllen, Texas. “I was panicking for a while, and my mom was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna drop you off at Starbucks and then just call me when you finish with all your essays.’ And so I was there at Starbucks from 4 until 12 in the morning.”

The personal statement he agonized over most was the one he submitted to Georgetown University.

“I don’t want to be mean or anything, but I feel like a lot of these institutions are very elitist, and that my story might not resonate with the admissions officers,” Mr. Munoz-Matta says. “It was a very big risk, especially when I said I was born in Mexico, when I said I grew up in an abusive environment. I believed at the time that would not be good for universities, that they might feel like, ‘I don’t want this kid, he won’t be a good fit with the student body.’”

He didn’t have an adult to help him with his essay, but another student encouraged him to be honest. It worked. He got into his dream school, Georgetown University, with a full ride. Many of his peers were not as fortunate.

“I know because of the affirmative action decision, a lot of my friends did not even apply to these universities, like the Ivies, because they felt like they were not going to get in,” he says. “That was a very big sentiment in my school.”

– Meredith Kolodner

While many others in my grade level had lawyers and doctors for parents and came from exemplary middle schools at the top of their classes, I was the opposite. I came into Lamar without middle school recognition, recalling my 8th-grade science teacher’s claim that I would never make it. At Lamar, freshman year was a significant challenge as I constantly struggled, feeling like I had reached my wit’s end. By the middle of Freshman year, I was the only kid left from my middle school, since everyone else had dropped out. Rather than following suit, I kept going. I felt like I had something to prove to myself because I knew I could make it.

Kendall Martin of Austin, Texas: From frustration to love

Kendall Martin wanted to be clear with college admissions officers about one thing: She is a young Black woman, and her race is central to who she is. Ms. Martin was ranked 15th in her graduating class from KIPP Austin Collegiate. She was a key figure on her high school basketball team. She wanted colleges to know she had overcome adversity. But most importantly, Ms. Martin says, she wanted to be sure, when her application was reviewed, “Y’all know who you are accepting.”

It wouldn’t be as simple as checking a box, though, which led Ms. Martin, of Kyle, Texas, to the topic she chose for her college admissions essay, the year after the Supreme Court said race could not be a factor in college admissions. Instead, she looked at the hair framing her face, hair still scarred from being straightened time and again.

Ms. Martin wrote about the struggles she faced growing up with hair that she says required extensive time to tame so she could simply run her fingers through it. Now headed to Rice University in Houston – her first choice from a half-dozen options – she included a photo of her braids as part of her application. Her essay described her journey from hating her hair to embracing it, from heat damage to learning to braid, from frustration to love, a feeling she now hopes to inspire in her sister.

“That’s what I wanted to get across: my growing up, my experiences, everything that made me who I am,” she says.

– Nirvi Shah

I’m still recovering from the heat damage I caused by straightening my hair every day, because I was so determined to prove that I had length. When I was younger, a lot of my self worth was based on how long my hair was, so when kids made fun of my “short hair,” I despised my curls more and more. I begged my mom to let me get a relaxer, but she continued to deny my wish. This would make me so angry, because who was she to tell me what I could and couldn’t do with my hair? But looking back, I’m so glad she never let me. I see now that a relaxer wasn’t the key to making me prettier, and my love for my curls has reached an all-time high.

This story about college admission essays was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s higher education newsletter . Listen to Hechinger’s higher education podcast .

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Story of An Hour — The Main Themes of The Story of an Hour

The Main Themes of The Story of an Hour

Categories: Kate Chopin The Story of An Hour

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Published: Dec 3, 2020

Words: 557 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

The essay delves into the unsettling lives and crimes of two notorious American serial killers, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer, from their troubled childhoods to their heinous acts in adulthood. Despite the distinct modus operandi and victim profiles—Bundy targeted young women, while Dahmer preyed on young men—parallel threads run through their histories, notably traumatic family backgrounds and experiences that possibly served as a catalyst for their future crimes. Both exhibited early signs of psychopathy and violent tendencies and were marked by some degree of familial mental health issues. Their killings were closely tied to their sexual gratifications and their need to exert control. A notable discourse lies in the exploration of whether their horrifying acts were shaped more decisively by nature or nurture, with the author speculating that a confluence of both factors was likely. Both men, after committing a string of horrifying and repulsive crimes, met their own grim fates, closing dark chapters in American criminal history.

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L.A.’s underground celebrates the life of punk iconoclast John Albert

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Once upon a time, the collected works of music journalists, film critics and other cultural correspondents appeared with regularity on the literary landscape.

We relied on their observations to make sense not only of the art we admired and the artists who created it but of the times we lived in and the places we felt at home.

Now? Not so much. The way culture is celebrated, disseminated and reported on has changed, probably forever.

So when a book like “ Running With the Devil: Essays, Articles & Remembrances ” by John Albert appears on the horizon, it feels as anachronistic as a sailing vessel flying the skull and bones.

But John Albert was no ordinary writer.

When he died suddenly from a heart attack last year at the age of 58, he left behind a body of work scattered across the pages of books, anthologies, literary journals and alternative weeklies. His friend and editor, Joe Donnelly, hit on the idea to assemble these pieces in a collection.

“Almost as soon as John died,” Donnelly said, “I started thinking about the responsibility to preserve his writing legacy.”

Donnelly approached their mutual friend Iris Berry, co-founder of Punk Hostage Press , about the project. She didn’t need to be convinced.

“There always seemed to be a kind of magic surrounding John Albert,” Berry said. “A mystery and a charisma that I can’t explain. He definitely left us too soon.”

Book cover of "Running With the Devil" by John Albert

It’s only fitting, then, that “Running With the Devil” will receive a grand, old-school book launch at Wacko Soap Plant from 3 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 30.

Berry and Donnelly will be joined by a crew of underground all-stars that includes Jesse Albert, Jennifer Finch, Brett Gurewitz, Ben Harper, Keith Morris, Arty Nelson, Jerry Stahl, John Waldman and Justin Warfield.

Albert emerged from the exurbs of Los Angeles and embraced the city in all its guises. He was an early member of Christian Death and Bad Religion, two bands whose names suggest a spiritual affinity, or at least a consensus, but couldn’t be more stylistically dissimilar.

He wrote about discovering Black Flag and embracing punk rock with pulp panache: “I have cut my hair short and can’t stop smashing windows.”

“In the Black Flag piece,” Berry said, “I love how he writes about the transition into punk rock in great detail. It affected everyone around him, especially his parents and friends. Throughout history, parents have always been horrified by their kids’ choices, but the punk movement was one of the toughest and John articulated it so well.”

Albert was so much more than a former musician and occasional music writer. As a recovering addict, he found salvation in sport: first and most famously through baseball, which he wrote about in “The Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates.”

Writing about a team of recovering addicts, washed-up rockers and miscellaneous oddballs, he captured something magical about L.A.

“He made sense of Los Angeles in a sort of Didion-esque and Eve Babitz way,” Donnelly said. “His best subjects were his friends and the people in his circle, and he had a unique window into Los Angeles during that time and place.”

As Albert’s interests and experiences expanded, so did his writing: He wrote about surfing, living with Hepatitis C, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As Keith Morris, founding vocalist for Black Flag and the Circle Jerks, puts it: “John was a stud prince rawker and had a great knowledge of all sorts of happening stuff.”

Albert had a knack for writing about things that had been overlooked or pushed to the margins, and by training his lens on them helped make them culturally significant again. In a city that runs on hype, Albert was more interested in those who’d opted out, been left behind or were kicked to the curb by the dream factory.

John Albert sits at a restaurant table, looking down

“He was a throwback,” Donnelly said, “a punk-rock George Plimpton. He was in the mix of life and wrote from the perspective of lived experience, and not just helicoptering into an anthropological survey of something. He actually knew of what he spoke.”

Although he wasn’t a sentimental writer, Albert wrote with great humor. His sarcasm could be devastating, but he saved it for those in his inner circle, the people he loved most.

“John was such a talented writer,” said Berry. “He remembered so much. The feelings, the details of the feelings, and the places. He slides from comedy to tragedy and back to comedy with such grace. He was a true storyteller.”

One of the many tragedies of Albert’s untimely passing is that we have been deprived a book about fatherhood in 21st century L.A. Albert loved his son, Ravi, and all the proceeds from the collection will go to him.

“Getting to publish his book, ‘Running With the Devil,’ is bittersweet for me,” Berry said. “I’m honored to get to publish him, grateful to Joe Donnelly for bringing it to me and for editing it. I just wish it was under different circumstances. But knowing that it’s for his son, Ravi, is everything. As my mom would say, ‘It’s definitely a mitzvah.’”

Join Iris Berry, Joe Donnelly and friends at Wacko Soap Plant, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., on Sunday, June 30, from 3 to 7 p.m.

Jim Ruland is the author of the novel “Make It Stop” and “Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records.”

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What students can expect after Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action

Big changes are coming to how elite colleges choose future students – and how those applicants vie for coveted seats.

A Supreme Court ruling Thursday concluded that Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the 14th amendment to the Constitution by considering students’ race as one of many factors in admissions decisions. This form of affirmative action, which is common at the country’s several hundred highly selective institutions, is no longer allowed.

Students of color say the decision is devastating and sharply changes their outlook on the admissions process. “It made me wonder immediately, how is this going to affect my senior year?” said Rikka Dimalanta, 17, who will be a senior this fall in Los Angeles. “If our identity as students isn’t going to be taken into account, what else am I supposed to put on my application?”

There are other ways for colleges to pursue diversity goals, however, and for students of color to access those institutions, including in some cases by bringing race into the conversation.

Here’s an early look at how college admissions could change.

For most colleges, business as usual

Though Thursday's decision is historic, it’s important to note it won't mean much for many colleges. Of the more than 1,000 institutions that use the Common Application , just 70 admit fewer than 25% of their applicants, CEO Jenny Rickard has said .

And plenty of schools are in one of the states that banned affirmative action in college admissions before this week's ruling, including Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan. Arizona State University quickly declared Thursday that it was one of those institutions that won’t be affected. It “will have no impact on the diversity of the Arizona State University student body or ASU’s commitment to having a student body which reflects the population of the State of Arizona,” the university said.

Will affirmative action ruling matter? Thousands of college and universities already accept almost everyone

How the decision affects college admissions tests, essays

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a growing number of highly selective colleges began making standardized test scores an optional part of applications . One of the hopes was that it would lead to a more diverse student population. Then when the pandemic hit, test-optional policies became the default for logistical reasons : As of this past spring, submitting SAT or ACT scores was still optional at most schools.

Although studies have shown the shift from these tests has meant only small changes in what the student body looks like at small, private institutions, experts predict the court's affirmative action decision will cement those policies. And that could mean more emphasis on personal statements and essays – an area where race often comes up.

Observers have focused on one line in particular from the ruling : “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

But the justices also wrote – directly challenging the dissent – “universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

“For any students my age – myself included – this decision doesn’t prevent us from talking about the way that race has impacted us," said Aina Marzia, 17, a rising senior in El Paso, Texas, who was infuriated by the court's decision. "It’s just that we don’t have a box to check for our application this fall.”

Anurima Bhargava, a civil rights lawyer who formerly served with the U.S. Department of Justice, urged future applicants not to shy away from highlighting their racial identity when applying to colleges.

“It’s not that diversity isn’t something that universities can pursue. It’s not that you can’t tell your own stories, stories of your racial experiences, about your identity or your background,” she said in a discussion Thursday hosted by Whiteboard Advisors, a research and consulting firm. “How universities are going to take account of that is still going to be a question for them, but it’s not that students can’t tell those kinds of stories.”

Jeff Selingo, a higher education journalist who spent a year behind the scenes with college admissions officers , said one next step for those gatekeepers is to deliberate what to make of students whose essays deal with race.

What to know: A breakdown of the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision

What does this mean for legacy admissions?

Another item for college officials to deliberate: legacy admissions, the practice of giving preference to applicants whose family members attended the institution.

Richard Kahlenberg, a progressive scholar who served as an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the Harvard and UNC cases, said he believes at least some elite colleges will abandon the practice now that they can no longer consider race in admissions.

“If our identity as students isn’t going to be taken into account, what else am I supposed to put on my application?” Rikka Dimalanta, who will be a high school senior this fall in Los Angeles

Before, he said, affirmative action allowed them to achieve some racial diversity without necessarily ensuring their campuses were socioeconomically diverse as well. One study found more than half of Harvard’s students, however racially diverse, for example, came from the top 10% of the country’s income distribution. Another analysis found that 43% of Harvard’s white admits in 2019 were legacy students, recruited athletes, children of faculty and staff or on applicants affiliated with donors.

Before, he said, affirmative action allowed them to achieve racial diversity without necessarily ensuring their campuses were socioeconomically diverse as well. One study found more than half of Harvard’s students, for example, came from the top 10% of the country’s income distribution. Another analysis found that 43% of Harvard’s white admissions in 2019 were legacy students, recruited athletes, children of faculty and staff or on applicants affiliated with donors.

Some highly selective universities, including in states that banned affirmative action, already had stopped practicing legacy admissions. They include the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles. Elsewhere, Texas A&M University and the University of Georgia also have ended the practice.

In remarks denouncing the court's ruling, President Joe Biden also said he is asking the federal Education Department "to analyze what practices help build a more inclusive and diverse student bodies and what practices hold that back, practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity."

A shift to using affirmative action – in recruitment

The onus will be on colleges to recruit from a wide range of communities at the front end of the admissions process, said Forrest Stuart, the vice president of enrollment management at Lafayette College.

“This is really about building a diverse applicant pool,” Stuart said. “There’s nothing in the decision that I’ve seen that says you cannot ensure that the applicant pool is representative of all backgrounds.” Lafayette, a small private college in Pennsylvania where about a quarter of students are people of color, has under Stuart’s leadership partnered with community-based organizations to ensure students from underrepresented backgrounds put their names in the hat as well.

“It really helps because you’re then choosing from a broader base,” said Stuart, who expects this affirmative action-esque approach to recruitment to gain more popularity as colleges work to ensure diversity on campus without considering race in the actual admissions process. “If your net is cast wide enough and broad enough on the building of your applicant pool, I don’t think it’s going to be as difficult for us – at least at Lafayette.”

Biden also encouraged colleges to build a diverse class by factoring in applicants' family’s income and where they grew up and to consider students’ experiences with hardship or discrimination, including racial discrimination.

Counselors: Colleges need to send a new message to students

Without proactive measures like diversifying applicant pools, educators worry, many students who would’ve applied in an affirmative action world will decide it’s not worth it.

At the American School Counselors Association, Executive Director Jill Cook has been fielding lots of questions. Many counselors are worried students of color will decide against applying to their reach or dream schools because they don’t think they’ll get in. What if some students choose not to apply at all, perceiving higher education to no longer be a welcoming place? (Legislation seeking to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs at colleges can make the campuses seem even less inviting.)

There are also high school counselors who worry about the reverse – students overexerting themselves and applying to too many schools because they fear their chances of getting in are reduced after the court’s ruling.

David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said his group will continue to urge high school counselors to push students to meet with admissions officers at their schools of interest.

“Colleges are looking for a diverse group of students, and the decision should not discourage students at all from applying,” Hawkins said. “We will be swimming against the tide, and it can be discouraging. But we also want to ensure that students know it won’t change the fact that colleges are looking for them.”

Some students may take that message to the extreme.

Allen Koh, founder/CEO of Cardinal Education, an educational consulting firm in California catering to the very affluent, said he has seen mostly white clients move to states like Montana and Wyoming to pursue a perceived geographic advantage based on what they see as a desire on the part of elite universities to boast student enrollment from all 50 states.

“Harvard calls these states ‘sparse country,’ and different universities call them different things,” he said. “But if you think about the sparse population that ‘sparse country’ implies, the pool of students you’re going after isn’t very large. So they actually get a significant advantage.”

Can anything really replace what the court struck down?

Probably not.

Education experts say universities will likely become less diverse as a result of the ruling, and while the court nonetheless acknowledged the importance of diversity in higher education and left the door open for schools to achieve it through other measures, such efforts could take years to see results – if at all.

“Those measures will be expensive and take years to bear fruit,” said Jennifer McAward, an associate professor of law at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “In the meantime, we are likely to see a substantial drop in racial diversity at highly selective universities.”

Some point to California, where voters in 1996 passed a proposition prohibiting race-conscious college admissions. Despite numerous outreach efforts, University of California system officials have been unable to restore enrollment to levels of diversity representative of the state.

More: Ahead of Supreme Court affirmative action case ruling: Do Harvard, UNC discriminate?

“The shortfall is especially apparent at UC’s most selective campuses,” they wrote in an amicus brief filed to the Supreme Court last summer, “where African American, Native American and Latinx students are underrepresented and widely report struggling with feelings of racial isolation.”

And even with race conscious admissions for years, Black enrollment in college has dropped nationwide over time .

At elite colleges, admissions will always feel 'arbitrary'

According to Mitchell Chang, a UCLA chancellor and professor of higher education and organizational change and Asian American studies, the decision will do little to make college admissions seem more equitable.

“There’s always going to be this sense that it’s unfair,” he said, pointing to the Ivy League and other elite schools that admit fewer than 10% of their students and enroll classes of just a few hundred people. “If we remove race-conscious admissions, it’s not like these institutions are going to accept more students. The numbers and percentages of winners will remain the same.

“Someone’s always going to be upset that they didn’t get admitted yet were highly qualified, because in many ways, when you’re trying to select between hyper-qualified people, the difference between getting in and rejected is almost arbitrary.”

Contact Alia Wong at (202) 507-2256 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @aliaemily .

Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

ChatGPT Outperforms Undergrads In Intro-Level Courses, Falls Short Later (arstechnica.com) 53 --> 53

Chatgpt outperforms undergrads in intro-level courses, falls short later more | reply login, chatgpt outperforms undergrads in intro-level courses, falls short later.

Informative
Interesting

Easy solution ( Score: 5 , Insightful)

In fact one invented by the victorians and still used on proper courses (ie STEM) - put the students in a vigilated exam room where they have to do the exam on the spot.

Coursework has always been a cheats paradise and I myself colluded with friends on my course. I never did understand what it was supposed to prove other than you're ability to write or type.

Re: ( Score: 3 )

Re: ( score: 1 ), re: ( score: 2 ).

Yeah, maybe you can get away with that in history or english, good luck just regurgitating on a maths or physics paper where you're expected to actually solve stuff.

Re: Easy solution ( Score: 1 )

Liberal arts classes can operate at a higher level ( score: 2 ), can always learn as pioneers did ( score: 2 ).

You'd better hope your doctor was good at memorisation of symptoms and dieseases when he trained or you could be in trouble.

No problem, he can learn those things as the pioneers originally did. Through examination of the corpses of patients in their early years of practice. Why do you think it called a "practice"? We don't necessarily have to stand on anyone's shoulders.

1 reply beneath your current threshold.

Most of my professors encouraged collusion on projects and assignments. They expected each student to learn the material and not just copy the others work, but working together to understand a problem and come up with a solution was acceptable. Perhaps the only exceptions were tests and when the prof said not to work together, such as on homework assignments as an essay or simple problems in courses such as engineering dynamics.

Complementory skills, learning from each other ( Score: 2 )

One of the lifeguards I chat with at my school is in his capstone Masters project course/team project. The focus of the project is writing serial prompts to reduce the "word salad" generated by LLMs when trying to generate longer essays on technical subjects. Their customer is a post-doc working on a pub.

This is never going "back in the bottle" and will infiltrate even most STEM courses, eventually.

Professors are not incentivized to teach, and this will be an easy way out for schools/departments, the prof

Sounds like you benefited from group work. It's a good way to learn.

"Sounds like you benefited from group work."

Maybe I did, but at the expense of people who actually did the assignments themselves as they were supposed to be done.

So... You just copied their work without contributing anything?

Do you understand the meaning of "group work"?

Good coursework is about applying lessons learned ( Score: 2 )

I was looking for that. Hey, but the comments are all different now! Does that in anyway prove that ChatGPT is at work here on /. too?

Are we surprised? ( Score: 4 , Interesting)

NLPs are random string generators, which are modded so that the strings they generate resemble other strings, which the thing learned on. So, maybe it works well with rote, but in general they don't work at all when one needs to apply reason.

The problem is what to do with the ever-increasing number of people, who don't understand how "AI" works and wrongly believe they have true "intelligence" talking to them from the chat prompt, and take whatever comes out of it at face value. I see many, for example, who are writing "code" by asking chat-gpt random string generators to give them "code samples" for every line they have to write. Often a question that is half a page long is composed just for an one-liner like os.chdir(path).

Just yesterday one of my students came with some i2c commands that "didn't work". It was easy to see why, they were simply wrong. We went over the datasheet briefly, the student worked a bit to build the proper commands and, unsurprisingly, all was fine. What was curious, however, was how could this person come up with the strings they showed me, I mean, it is a 5-page explanation of several simple bytestrings, not rocket science.

Turns out the person didn't read the data sheet at all, but asked a chat service to generate the code to drive the device. The chat complied, providing randomly generated "answers" of what to feed the device. The answers looked somewhat like a python script using the python smbus interface, except, of course, the actual i2c commands being complete bonkers, and the API being used incorrectly in some cases.

Time wasted, lessons unlearned, garbage code and failure increases proportionately to chat-gpt usage. And as more of it appears (and more of it gets into the "learning" feedback loop), the worse it will get.

The future is bleak.

LLMs, dear auto-correct "AI", not NLPs.

" So, maybe it works well with rote, but in general they don't work at all when one needs to apply reason."

Sounds like a large part of the human population frankly. Great at remembering facts, not so great when applying them.

Re:Are we surprised? ( Score: 5 , Insightful)

Sam Altman, please log in.

I think more people than just Sam Altman would describe diplomas as overpriced pieces of paper.

To jump from that to "Get educated by ChatGPT" takes same parkour that's way beyond my skill set.

I think that mostly applies to the rsilvergun types that basically just live for the sake of existing and bleat every time something doesn't go their way. But the word "bleak" doesn't seem right for them, it's just what it has been since time immemorial: Just some animals eating and breading. Kind of like looking at a rock and saying it has a bleak future -- sure, I guess, but so what?

but in general they don't work at all when one needs to apply reason.

There are literally bechmarks on this topic.

I just made this one up yesterday - complete with fictional topics, shuffled sentences, and distractors thrown in.

--- 1. If something is nahu then it's blurgy. 2. John is a wajut. 3. Greebles are nahu. 4. Emily is a wajut. 5. All wajut are nahu. 6. Cindy is not nahu. 7. Some greebles are wajut.

Is John blurgy?

Let's approach this step-by-step:

We know that if something is nahu, then it's blurgy. (Gi

Your "benchmark" is broken. It looks like it is using implications (which are critical for finding rational arguments), but it really only is using equivalence (which LLMs usually can do).

That's a pretty long way of saying "someone was using a tool incorrectly".

Yes, except that it isn't really a tool, but a bad crutch, and that people are using it as advertised.

Intro-level courses ( Score: 5 , Insightful)

Intro-level courses are for you to learn, not to perform. You're not supposed to know but to understand. It's the basics, so you can get by parroting like an LLM, but then, like an LLM, you'll faceplant when you get to the interesting stuff.

I was going to post that lower division courses are about memorize and regurgitate which is what computers are good at. That's the key element function of every database: store and retrieve information provided with no analysis. But upper division and post undergraduate work requires understanding. The high you go the more understanding is required and the poorer a computer program will do.

A $5 hand held calculator performs 100% on all K-12 math. So what? Should we call it an AI?

Answer: Universities need to be less lazy ( Score: 2 )

Creativity is, after all, what is sought after. Creative analysis is not the forté of AI."

We're running out of creativity tests that AIs don't trounce humans at [sciencedirect.com].

Not impressed ( Score: 2 )

ChatGPT has the benefit of everything it has scraped from the internet. How would a student do if he had google at his disposal during the exam, and had the exam time limit extended by the number of times that the computer is faster at searching?

Why don't we hamstring the student some more then?

Let's make it so that the student has to do the exam submerged to the chest in a cold pool while holding a 20lb weight in one hand and can only answer with a touch phone on the other hand.

LLMs are not databases.

Tools ( Score: 4 , Interesting)

He said the role of a modern university is to prepare the students for their professional careers, and the reality is they are going to use various AI tools after graduation. So, they'd be better off knowing how to do it properly.

They are tools. Refusing to use a better tool is stupid. (Yes, yes, worshiping a tool is stupid too, but who's doing that?)

Latest cool thing I did with a tool (ChatGPT) -

"Given this form {url to the front end of a giant form on the client's old website}, can you generate an import file for {form tool we are going to use} to recreate it on a new website?"

"Sure! Here is the import json file for recreating this form in {form tool} ..."

Did I need to tweak a few of the 100+ fields after importing the file? Sure. But did it save me a few hours? Yep.

A tool. Don't be a Luddite. Learn how to use it.

Same old situation. Already with CAS. ( Score: 3 )

When CAS (computer algebra systems) came in, it could solve integrals and differential equations in seconds. A one hour exam created by a professor could be solved in under a minute by CAS (most of the time was typing in the question to it).

I pointed out the absurdity to the professor but he just said they can't use CAS during exams. But that was not the point. The point was that it was a useless task to learn how to do. There was no practical purpose for 99.99% of people to learn how to do.

What was worse was that calculus was a gatekeeping course. You could only get a degree in engineering and CS if you passed calc 1 and 2. There was people there failing for the third time and then some who failed and switched to another major that doesn't require calculus but was not engineering or CS.

I've heard also but before my time it was the same with calculators and then with things like MATLAB. A question on exams used to be to invert a 3x3 matrix by hand and calculate the square root by hand.

I don't blame the professors. They are not incentivized to fix this. They are expected to do research and also teach a basic lucrative course that engineering students are required to take. Nobody gets tenure or achievement for improving a course and is not part of the incentive process.

The only change comes when a new textbook comes in and is brain dead easy to follow a text book.

Re:Same old situation. Already with CAS. ( Score: 4 , Insightful)

I think you missed the point. You may have a tool that does the work faster and even more reliably, but you weren't supposed to be learning how to do the work - you were supposed to be learning how it works and why, to give you a deeper understanding of uncountable other things to which those concepts apply.

I was a finite math geek back in the day. Now I would struggle to calculate all but the simplest probabilities, but I still understand the concepts behind the calculations and when they apply. That was the real lesson.

Actually, it was just to pass the class which was in turn to get that CS or engineering degree. It was to gate-keep that degree and make it hard to get and keep the standard of the university.

The last thing you want is someone who couldn't learn integration by parts to get an CS and engineering degree and then sully the name of the university.

Wiring exam questions is hard. Mindlessly cranking an error prone handle isn't useful.

With that said, mindlessly plugging runes into a computer algebra system to get more runes proves what exactly? You need to actually understand calculus is order to do physics sms engineering.

I don't mind if engineers use a cas, but I wouldn't trust one who couldn't manage without one.

The 3x3 matrix exam question always struck me as insufferably lazy and I even got into a debate with the exam board at undergrad over th

You're assuming that if someone can't invert a 3x3 matrix, then they don't know how matrices work at all.

Or, if someone can't find the square of a number to 10th decimal place, then they don't know how numbers work.

You can easily know how integrals work without remembering how integration by parts works or the various various integration tricks. Or, just do it numerically. I don't see when an engineer would even need symbolically integrate much less learn dozens of tricks for a small subset of problems.

the role of a university? ( Score: 5 , Insightful)

"He said the role of a modern university is to prepare the students for their professional careers..." How sad. A university professor believes the university is a trade school, not a place to learn critical thinking and become educated enough to understand something of the ways of the world and one's place in it. So go ahead and simply teach the sheep AI so they can earn money and become good consumers.

I would argue a good professor includes:

learn[ing] critical thinking and becom[ing] educated enough to understand something of the ways of the world and one's place in it

as part of:

the role of a modern university [in] ... prepar[ing] the students for their professional careers...

Yes, that was my first thought as well. How the mighty have fallen and they do not even notice.

It's cogent... But there's no there there ( Score: 2 , Interesting)

Most of what LLMs generate feels like an over-achieving grade 12 writing an essay on a topic they know little about.

The sentences are cogent and it feels like it makes sense, but if you read closely, there's no there there. It's mostly hand-wavy sorta plausible nothings.

Hmm... I just noticed that that applies to marketing literature and political speeches.

I guess I better look forward to our new AI overlords.

Sort of like my undergrad days ( Score: 2 )

"outperforms undergrads... ( score: 2 ).

...in Intro-Level Courses, Falls Short Later."

Sounds a lot like my own college experience.

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Why You’re Paying Your Veterinarian So Much

People have grown more attached to their pets — and more willing to spend money on them — turning animal medicine into a high-tech industry worth billions.

A woman in a floral dress sits under a leafy tree in a wicker chair beside a black dog that is sitting on the ground.

By Katie Thomas

This article is part of our Pets special section on scientists’ growing interest in our animal companions.

Heather Massey brought Ladybird to the veterinarian when the 9-year-old mutt began having seizures. A scan from an M.R.I. machine revealed bad news: brain cancer.

With the prognosis grim, Ms. Massey decided against further treatment at the animal hospital near her home in Athens, Ga., and Ladybird died four months later. The M.R.I. scan and related care had cost nearly $2,000, which Ms. Massey put on a specialty credit card she had learned about at a previous vet visit.

That was in 2018. She is still paying off the debt, with more than 30 percent interest.

“Could I afford to do that? Not really,” said Ms. Massey, 52, who is disabled and does not work. “Was it worth it to me? Yes.”

Ms. Massey’s experience illustrates the expensive new realities of owning a pet. For decades, veterinarians typically operated their own clinics, shepherding generations of pets from birth to death. They neutered, vaccinated and pulled thorns from paws and noses. When animals became seriously ill, vets often had little to offer beyond condolences and a humane death.

But in recent years, as people have grown more attached to their pets — and more willing to spend money on them — animal medicine has transformed into a big business that looks a lot like its human counterpart. Many veterinary offices have been replaced by hospitals outfitted with expensive M.R.I. machines, sophisticated lab equipment and round-the-clock intensive care units. Dogs and cats often see highly trained specialists in neurology, cardiology and oncology.

This high-tech care has spurred a booming market. Veterinary prices have soared more than 60 percent over the past decade, according to federal statistics. Private equity firms and large corporations have bought hundreds of facilities around the country, an acquisition spree reminiscent of the corporate roll-ups of doctors’ offices.

Veterinary care prices have soared in the past decade

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The Feminist Impact of “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin Essay (Book Review)

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The Story of an Hour was written in 1894 by a controversial and outstanding author Kate Chopin. She faced criticism for her ground-breaking stories that showed the unpleasant truths of how unjust the world could be. The writer was constrained by traditional feminine roles until she was widowed at the age of 32 and had to take care of 6 children. Her biography slightly resembles the story of Louise Mallard, who was also processing the alleged death of a husband. In Chopin’s work, Mrs. Mallard had to realize her life was going to change drastically. Furthermore, the story focuses on this exact reflection on the chance of living freely with no authorities or weighing responsibilities. Undoubtedly, this literary piece significantly influenced the early feminist discourse in the beginning of the nineteenth century.

To begin with, in The Story of an Hour, the protagonist Mrs. Mallard understands all the advantages of her unexpectedly free life while dealing with the grief. Even though Mr. Mallard “had never looked save with love upon her,” she still felt rather repressed and manipulated in their household (Chopin, 1981, p. 2). During the late nineteenth century, women were the furthest from autonomous – they could not own property, vote, or make independent decisions. Therefore, the author does not show an ungrateful or unloving wife. Chopin simply demonstrates the struggles wives had to go through to be a good partner under patriarchy. Moreover, in her story, people thought Louise Mallard died out of joy of seeing her husband alive, which makes the end ironic. The reality behind the protagonist’s death is that she could not handle the thought of continuing living her life in constant oppression by the patriarch.

To sum up, Kate Chopin’s literary piece definitely helped the feminist movement to make women less oppressed and abused by sexist gender stereotypes. The Story of an Hour shed light on the major problems of a patriarchal family. The writer had to face judgment because her progressive ideas were way ahead of time; therefore, she was considered a forerunner to the feminist writing of the twentieth century.

Chopin, K. (1981). The story of an hour . Jimcin Recordings.

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IvyPanda. (2022, August 16). The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-feminist-impact-ofthe-story-of-an-hour-by-kate-chopin/

"The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin." IvyPanda , 16 Aug. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-feminist-impact-ofthe-story-of-an-hour-by-kate-chopin/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin'. 16 August.

IvyPanda . 2022. "The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin." August 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-feminist-impact-ofthe-story-of-an-hour-by-kate-chopin/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin." August 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-feminist-impact-ofthe-story-of-an-hour-by-kate-chopin/.

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IvyPanda . "The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin." August 16, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-feminist-impact-ofthe-story-of-an-hour-by-kate-chopin/.

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The Story of an Hour Critical Analysis Essay
The Story of an Hour was written by Kate Chopin in 1984. It describes a woman, Mrs. Mallard, who lost her husband in an accident, but later the truth came out, and the husband was alive. This essay will discuss The Story of an Hour with emphasis on the plot and development of the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, who goes through contrasting emotions ...
What's a good thesis statement for "The Story of an Hour"?
A good thesis statement for this story might discuss the fact that the original title of the story was "The Dream of an Hour." A good paper could be written discussing all the various ways and ...
108 The Story of an Hour Essay Topics & Examples
The Story of an Hour as an early feminist story. In your essay, you can study feminist aspects of Chopin's story. For instance, you may look into female liberation, marriage as a trap, and other similar themes. Mrs. Mallard's death as liberation. The main character of the story, Mrs. Mallard, longs to be free.
What's a good thesis statement about identity for "The Story of an Hour
To write an essay over the theme of identity in "The Story of an Hour," it would be important to pay attention to the fact that the main character is called Mrs. Mallard until she retires to her ...
Analysis of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
In "The Story of an Hour," there is both internal and external conflict. The essence of the latter is in the opposition of a person to society and its norms. Chopin refers to one of "the numerous paradoxes against which the woman had to survive in the American society in the 19 th century" - imposed roles and stereotypes (Kusi and ...
"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin: A Critical Analysis
Introduction: "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, first published in 1894 in the St. Louis Life magazine, was later included in the 1895 collection "Vojageur" and in the 1895 edition of "Bayou Folk". This iconic short story features a unique narrative structure, where the protagonist ...
Analysis of Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour
Originally entitled "The Dream of an Hour" when it was first published in Vogue (December 1894), "The Story of an Hour" has since become one of Kate Chopin's most frequently anthologized stories. Among her shortest and most daring works, "Story" examines issues of feminism, namely, a woman's dissatisfaction in a conventional marriage and her desire…
A Literary Analysis of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin: [Essay
In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," the author skillfully employs literary devices to explore the theme of female liberation and the constraints of marriage. Through the lens of Mrs. Mallard's experiences, the story reveals the complexities of societal expectations and the potential for personal freedom. This essay will analyze how Chopin ...
The Story of an Hour Critical Essays
Critical Overview. A popular writer during her lifetime, Chopin is best known today for her psychological novel The Awakening. Chopin's depiction of female self-assertion was regarded as immoral ...
The Story of an Hour: a Critical Analysis
Kate Chopin's short story, "The Story of an Hour," is a masterpiece of American literature, recognized for its exploration of complex themes such as freedom, marriage, and societal expectations. In this critical essay, we will delve into the narrative's underlying messages, character development, and the literary devices employed to convey its ...
Analysis, Themes and Summary of "The Story of an Hour" by ...
This article includes a summary, as well as a look at themes, symbolism and irony. Summary of "The Story of an Hour". Mrs. Mallard, who has heart trouble, is gently given the news that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her husband's friend Richards found out at the newspaper office, confirmed the name, and went to her sister ...
The Story of an Hour Analysis & Summary
Topic: The Story of an Hour Words: 1585 Pages: 6. This sample will help you write a The Story of an Hour analysis essay! Here you'll find a The Story of an Hour summary. Essay also contains a plot and character analysis. Table of Contents. The Story of an Hour is a short story written by Kate Chopin in 1894.
"The Story of an Hour" Summary & Analysis
After her initial sobs of grief subside, Louise escapes into her bedroom and locks the door. She refuses to let Josephine or Richards follow her. Alone, she falls into a chair placed before an open window. Absolutely drained by her own anguish and haunted by exhaustion, she rests in the chair and looks out the window.
The Story of an Hour: Summary and Analysis
Analyzing Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" takes time and careful thought despite the shortness of the story. The story is open to multiple interpretations and has a lot to reveal about women in the 1890s, and many of the story's themes, characters, and symbols critique women's marriage roles during the period.
Essays on The Story of an Hour
"The Story of an Hour" Essay Example 📝 Thesis Statement Examples. 1. "In 'The Story of an Hour,' Kate Chopin tells us about Mrs. Mallard's feelings and how they change, showing the limits of marriage rules." 2. "The short story 'The Story of an Hour' explores how women felt in the past and how they wanted freedom from marriage." 3.
Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"
Introduction. This paper will provide a summary and an analysis of "The Story of an Hour," a short story by Kate Chopin published in 1894. Despite being only several pages long, the passage has become popular among readers. The title refers to the fact that the plot revolves around a woman and what she experiences throughout one hour.
"The Story of an Hour": Irony
Conclusion of Analysis of "The Story of an Hour". In short, Kate Chopin suggests the meanings through symbols and irony in this story. All the symbols used in this story have different meanings that correlate with the ironic situations and remarks. It shows that life in the 19 th century was witnessing fast transformations - the result of ...
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The Main Themes of The Story of an Hour
The ambiguously unexpected twist was shocking, Louise was beyond joy, overwhelmed. In The Story of an Hour, the prominent main themes are the deprivation of independence, and the unfairness or sexism that marriage holds. Both themes are obvious in which reflect the historical background at that time.
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Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" Criticism Essay
To illustrate, The Story of an Hour narrative is based on the supposed death of Brentley Mallard - the husband to Louise Mallard - thus reflecting a number of real life deaths that characterized Chopin's life. In 1855, when the author was just 5 years old, her father died in a rail accident. This death was significant to Chopin.
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The Story of an Hour
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The Feminist Impact of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin Essay
The Story of an Hour was written in 1894 by a controversial and outstanding author Kate Chopin. She faced criticism for her ground-breaking stories that showed the unpleasant truths of how unjust the world could be. The writer was constrained by traditional feminine roles until she was widowed at the age of 32 and had to take care of 6 children.
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Literary Theory and Criticism

Analysis of Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour

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The Story of an Hour Analysis & Summary – Essay Example

Introduction

The Story of an Hour Summary

What is the symbolism in The Story of an Hour?

What is the meaning behind The Story of an Hour?

What does The Story of an Hour critique?

How do you start a critical analysis of The Story of an Hour?

What are the two main themes in The Story of an Hour?

The Story of an Hour

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“The Story of an Hour” Summary

The History of Kate Chopin and the 1890s

A Short Biography of Kate Chopin

American Life in the 1890s

“The Story of an Hour” Analysis

“The Story of an Hour” Themes

Freedom and Repression

"The Story of an Hour" Characters

Louise Mallard

The Doctor(s)

“The Story of an Hour” Symbolism and Motifs

The House and the Outdoors

Joy and Sorrow

Key Takeaways: Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”

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Introduction to Analysis of “The Story of an Hour”

Spotting Themes in “The Story of an Hour”

Symbolism in “The Story of an Hour”

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