Analysis of "The Awakening" and "Story of the Hour"

"The Awakening" by Kate Chopin is a story about a woman who wakes up in the middle of the night and begins to cry and cannot seem to stop the crying(Chopin "The Awakening" 491). To the reader or to the audience, it is very easy to see how this story reflects realism. For example, the writing within the story is extremely simple(Werlock). Realist writers would often use this technique in their writing because not only was the purpose of their writing to tel the reader a story, it was also to make the writing very clear to the reader and to make the story very easy to understand or the reader or the audience(Werlock). Also there is not much figurative language within this story. Like the very simple writing, authors of realist works tend to do this simply because they want to make the language in their story very simple for the reader. For example the author quotes,"It was then past midnight. The cottages were all dark. A single faint light gleamed out from the hallway of the house. There was no sound abroad except the hooting of an old owl in the top of a water-oak, and the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that hour. It broke like a mournful lullaby in the night(Chopin "The Awakening" 491)." From this quote it is very easy to see how the author uses very simple language in the writing. There is no figurative language used in the quote, and the grammar is very simple. The other characteristic of this story that relates to realism is the overall tone of the story. The tone is very very depressing. All the main character is doing throughout the entire excerpt is crying. This reflects realism because when the period started, people got tired of living in the false world of romanticism and wanted to see the world of how it truly was. This shows how the world truly was because the story was not coated in beauty or darkness. It was just very simple. After reader "The Story of an Hour" by Chopin, similar, to the earlier story, reflects realism in many ways. Once again, like the other story, it has a lot of simple writing to keep its context along with its purpose clear to the writer. For example, in the story, the author quotes,"There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it; she did not know. It was too subtle and too elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air (Chopin, "The Story of the Hour" 444-445)." From this quote, it is once again easy to see how this story uses simple writing and almost no figurative language. Also, this story reflects realism because of the way that the tone is portrayed within the story. Since the story is has a point of view where it sees the world how it truly is and it does not distort any part of the story, then the work is clear realism(Werlock).

Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 491. Print.

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Glencoe Literature. Comp. Jeffrey Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus; McGraw-Hill, 2010. 554-555. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Feb 13, 2011. (Chopin, "The Story of the Hour")