To be in conflict with traditional society’s beliefs is difficult for many to do; however,
author Kate Chopin fights that battle to bring readers some of the most thought provoking
literature that a person can find in her short story “The Story of an Hour.” Using to her
advantage the conventions of narrative stories such as character development, plot control,
and irony, she is able to bring the reader into a world of emotions at which society may
scoff. Kate Chopin demonstrates her incredible literary talent in “The Story of an Hour”
by interconnecting the plot and character development, with her use of thought-provoking
vocabulary and narrative irony. (Needs more summary to explain who Mrs. Mallard,
Josephine, Brently and Richard are.)Kate Chopin’s literary talent would have never been
so strongly founded if it was not for the circumstances surrounding her life and upbringing.
Her father died when she was only four years old, which left her mother and grandmother
to raise, and shape her desires and ideologies (Charters (paraphrase noted) 156). Having
been raised primarily by strong-willed, feminine role models, Chopin developed a taste for
more of an unconventional role for women in society; in her home town of St. Louis, she
became known as the town’s “Littlest Rebel” (Davis); she was widowed and left with six
children to bring up on her own (Charters 156), but this situation developed more of her