Book Report
The Storm by Kate Chopin
- Exactly where does Chopin’s story take place? How can you tell?
Chopin’s story is a sequel to the Cardian Ball written six years earlier. The Storm is a passionate story set in the late nineteenth century in Southern Louisiana in Freidheimer’s store. Its context is at the nearby house of Bobinot and Calixta (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). It is likely to have been set in the afternoon due to the coming storm. Hence, Chopin’s story is expected to have taken place in the house as Calixta and Bobinot wait for the Storm to pass.
- What circumstances introduced in Part 1 turn out to have a profound effect on events in the story?
As long as the plot is concerned, the introduction of the havoc-wrecking Storm in Part 1 reveals why Bibi and Bobinot are glued at the store in the afternoon. This event holds them back from Calixta, whom they picture is at home chilling out for them. Calixta, on the other side, engages with Alcee Laballiere passionately for that stormy afternoon while they seek shelter (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). When Alcee’s family and Calixta’s family are aware of the extramarital affair, there is a turn of events, but it is not bound to tear down the family union.
- What details in “The Storm” emphasize the fact that Bobinot loves his wife? What circumstances reveal how imperfectly he comprehends her nature?
It is the little things in the Storm that show that Bobinot adores Calixta. He went over the counter to buy a can of shrimp for Calixta because she loved them. He then sat on the keg, thinking about her safety as the Storm passed (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). He is oblivious of the fact that by thinking that he would get the same love that he shows back as she later becomes unfaithful to him.
- What general attitudes towards sex, love, and marriage does Chopin imply? Cite evidence to support your answer?
Kate Chopin reveals that sexual pleasure, including outside marriage, is good and can improve a couple’s relationship. She doesn’t picture adultery as negativity in marriages since her characters seem happier and more fulfilled about infidelity (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). Alcee has sex with Calixta as her son and husband shelter at the store during the Storm. No character laments over this act. Alcee comforts Calixta by reminding her of her inviolate days of when they just kissed.
- What meanings do you find in the title, “The Storm”?
The Storm is a symbol of the fierce love and passionate affair between Calixta and Alcee. It is the climax of their loving relationship on the couch during the Storm. As the stormy weather resides, it takes away Alcee and their affair (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007).
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
1.From what point of view is Poe’s story told? Why is this point of view particularly useful for the “Tell-Tale heart”?
The narrator of the Tell-Tale Heart is part of the story since he tells about his own experience. He describes it from the first-person pronoun objective and uses words such as I because the story is his (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). This is effective because he is the only one who can experience what is happening to him; thus, he is the owner of the story.
- Point to details in the story that identify its speaker as an unreliable narrator.
The story begins with the narrator telling his audience about his sanity, although he confesses to sense everything in hell, heaven, and earth (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). It is quite controversial and unusual for a narrator to prove his sanity to his audience. He also claims to love the older man but then wants to claim his life because he is disturbed by his blue eye. All this proves that the narrator is unreliable and insane.
- What do we know about the older man in the story? What motivates the narrator to kill him?
The narrator is over sensitive about everything. He claims all things in hell, heaven, and earth. This obsession in sensing things makes him be thoroughly disturbed about the older man’s blue eye until he kills him (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007).
- Despite all his precautions, the narrator does not commit the perfect crime. What trips him up?
Moments before the murder of the older man, he screams, which alarms neighbors (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). They call the authorities, and the narrator tells the police that he chopped the older man into pieces and hid him beneath the floorboard.
- How do you account for the police officers chatting calmly with the murder instead of reacting to the sound that stirs the murderer into a frenzy?
The narrator leads the police to the room where he hid the body calmly, that they did not suspect him. He sits over the place where he hid the body and allowed the police to ransack his house without fear (Kennedy & Gioia, 2007). He even set chairs for the police to sit in the room that he hid the body so they wouldn’t have suspected him. However, he can hear the dead man’s heartbeat so strongly beneath the floorboards that he can no longer contain his secret.
References
Kennedy, X. J., & Gioia, D. (2007). Literature: An introduction to fiction, poetry, drama, and
writing. 6th ed, New York, N.Y: Pearson/Longman.