"The Storm

In reading "The Storm" by Kate Chopin it first appears that Calixta is a normal housewife very involved with performing her wifely duties. But while she is a devoted wife and mother she has passions of her own with Alcee Laballiere that erupt again when he gets caught in the same storm and takes cover at Calixta's house while her devoted husband and son are away in town. After reading the story a second time I realized that the title, "The Storm", may mean the stormy relationship (affair) that she has with Alcee. When Alcee and Calixta do bow to tempation, that just like the clouds of a storm dissipate and the sun comes out, their regular lives also become happier after their "sensual" needs are fulfilled. They obviously have a past but I believe that it didn't work out between them in the long term because of the different social classes that they belonged to. Alcee's words aren't slang as they appear in the text, however, Calista's are, and it appears that she is uneducated. Maybe society wouldn't allow them to be together so this affair has to exist in private to fulfill their desires while carrying on a "normal" family life within their social status. In the second paragraph of part II it reads, "She had not seen him very often since her marriage and never alone." This leads me to believe that either Bobinot didn't trust her in the presence of Alcee or she didn't trust herself. Another reference to an ongoing affair is in part II as well, "...against which his honor forbade him to prevail." This is in reference to them being together in Assumption, and from what I gather in this paragraph is that Alcee was married at that time and Calista either was or wasn't married at that time as well. They obviously have a passion together that they don't have between their own spouses and appears that when they satisfy this passion their regular family lives prosper emotionally. I think its too simple to just say that bad equals good in this story because obviously having an affair is morally wrong, however, it seems to work for all involved in this story. Even Alcee's wife makes a reference to being free or having a desire for being away from Alcee when she says, "...their conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while." Typically when you are away from someone you love completely you miss them and want to come back in a timely manner. This statement kind of makes it seem like she is a bit happier when she is away and that she is okay to be away for a long period of time. Maybe they had an "arranged" marriage, and that is why Calixta and Alcee did not marry. The story is ironic in the fact that Bobinot is the only character happy with his life and not tempted by desire to pursue anyone other than his wife Calixta. His only simple desire is to make Calixta happy with a can of shrimps purchased from the store in town when he and Bibi arrive back home. They also take good care that they are somewhat clean from the muddy walk home.

"I Stand Here Ironing"

In this story a young mother is just trying to make it on her own raising her children and trying to do the best that she can do. I feel for her because raising children is more than a full time job you are wanting to do the best you can by them and make sure they come out on top. Because her oldest daughter Emily is slower and needs more time and effort to care for which she can not give. Because she could not care for her she sends her away. In this section of the story by Tillie Olsen pg. 284 "But never a direct protest, never rebellion. I think of our others in their three-four-year-oldness-the explosions, the tempers, the denunciations, the demands-and I feel suddenly ill. I put the iron down. What in me demanded that goodness in her? And what was the cost, the cost to her of such goodness?" is a main part of the story dealing with the ironing and Emily. Basically every working, single mother has so much on her plate and never seems to have enough time for the things she wants to do like love her children more. All little Emily wants is the love from her mother and support she deserves. In the end Emily gains back what she lost throughout her childhood and her talent show through. Even though her mother tries to give her the things she didn't think she gave her enough when she was younger, Emily tries to be strong and stand on her own two feet. Deep down I know Emily wants her mothers love more than anything in the world she could do and for her to be proud of her.

"The Storm"

In this story I see a worried mother for her husband and children not know where they are and if they are safe or not. She busy in her doing her own thing doesn't realize that there is a storm but at the last minute runs around trying to get everything together and in that moment see someone from her past Alcee. I believe these two had a past that they had both not forgotten about but just gotten sweeped under the rug. "Do you remember-in Assumption, Claixta? he asked in a low voice broken by passion. Oh! She remembered; for in Assumption he had kissed her and kissed and kissed her; until his sense would well nigh fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight." Kate Chopin pg. 257. This part of the story is where they both remember once past and the feelings and emotions they both shared for each other but for some reason they couldn't have it? Both being worried about the storm and family got caught up with the familiar feel between each other and in a heat of passion made love. Although both knowing it was wrong couldn't help themselves and it meant more to both of them but no one was to ever know but them. A secret that would haunt them both. In my own beliefs this would be wrong and these two characters both know it but couldn't help themselves and the love that they once shared between them.

Rose for Emily

The story states Homer Barron liked men and it was known that he drank with the men at the Elk's Club and that he was not the marrying kind. So it's hard to not assume that Homer was gay. As far as Miss Emily being of color, I guess I didn't think she was African- American. Miss Emily was a daughter of a confederate soldier from the 1800's. In the story it talks about her "negro, leaving her house with a market basket," therefore I believe he was her slave. In the 1800's slavery was widespread in the south. The story also mentions her, Miss Emily, resembling the angels in colored church windows. The churches that I have been in, do not have angels of color. The narrator of the story is a townsperson. The tone of the story is sympathy and cautious curiosity. In the story when it is mentioned about when her father passed away, how he had been in the house for three days, until finally the doctors and minister had convinced her to let them bury him. The towns people believed she was not crazy, but was clinging onto what little she had. Emily ends up poisoning Homer Barron with arsenic. Maybe she hated men. Maybe she was bitter towards her father about ruining her previous relationships. The townspeople remembered all the young men that her father had "driven away."

The Yellow Wallpaper

The way this story starts out, I am able to tell right away that she is a anxious person. I could tell that she has many ideas that go through her head over and over again. Her husband and brother are physicians and also agree with her that she has a illness. A nervous and depression disorder that they tell her someday will get better. She and her husbad move into a rental house for the summer and sleep in this room with yellow wallpaper! She hates this yellow wallpaper. I sometimes wonder why exactly they chose that room to sleep in because she hated it so much. It drives her "crazy" everyday. She states that the color of the wallpaper "is repellent, almost revolting; smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others." She talks about this wallpaper so much that she starts to see women in the wallpaper that are unable to get of the wallpaper. She sees these women at night and in the end, the story shifts to herself being one of those women in the wallpaper. I was really surpised in the end because I didn't think that she was going to do this. She tears the wallpaper down and her husband finds her doing this and faints himself. I feel that there are people out there that are like this. Maybe not to this extent, but when something is bothering them, they will think about it so much that they go insane. I feel like she may have a little obsessive compulsive disorder. Where she is always writing down ideas and things, and she just can't stop. I feel that the author may have related herself to this story also. I think this a good text because there are so many ways to look at.