1.) Comment on the similarities and differences between Louise in "Story of an Hour" and Norma Jean in "Shiloh." What are their attitudes about marriage? Partnership? Love? What do they love?
2.) What does "freedom" mean to each of the female protagonists in the three stories? How are each of them trapped, and how do each of them seek release?
3.) OPEN RESPONSE. If neither of the prompts above does anything for you, or if you feel really excited to say something completely different, then you may do so!
These questions should open up enough material for everybody to say something unique and incisive about the texts. Remember, don't try to answer everything, but if you invest yourself then you will inevitably say something interesting!
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The obvious differences between Louise and Norma Jean are that Norma Jean recognizes right away that she is unhappy with her marriage where as Louise does no realise this until she hears about her husbands death. But, both women find happiness in their freedom. Louise closes the door to her room after hearing the news of her husbands passing and bursts out, "Free!" because she no longer has to live for somebody except for herself. Both women are at polar opposites of their revaltions at the time considering Norma Jean is feeling strangled by her husband suddenly around her all the time and tries to wander while on the other hand Louise has just had this revelation when she finds out her husband has passed. It takes one to loose their partner and one to gain to realise they were unsatisfied with their situations and needed a life of their own. Basically, they love themselves more than they love their partner because it is their life they want to live for, not their partners.
ReplyDelete1) In the Story Of An Hour, Louise was a young, attractive woman. When she heard of her husbands supposed death, she wept once and that was it. In ways, she missed her husband, but mostly she was “free.” She loved her husband, but it wasn’t enough. She liked the idea of being able to start over, live her life the way she wanted to. When she was looking out the window, she was complacent and at peace with things. She was listening to the birds sing, and watched as the trees burst. She watched the rain disappear, and watch blue patches appear. In a way, all the bad things in her life had went away, and good things were about to happen. By Mr. Mallard dying, it was the birth of a new life. However, when she found out that it was a mix up and Mr. Mallard was indeed alive, she became afflicted with heart disease, “the joy that kills.” She couldn’t stand the shock of it being true. In Shiloh, Norma Jean was put through a lot. Her husband was hurt on the job, and cared more about smoking marijuana and making things from craft kits, than working on their marriage. Norma Jean was forced to become the head of the household, and put her own wants and needs on the backburner. When their child passed away, Norma Jean had to grieve on her own because her husband was always on the road. Naturally, she grew to resent her husband for not being there, and their marriage slowly began to suffer. From what I can see, Norma Jean is all for working together, and communication, both of which Norma Jean and Leroy’s relationship seem to lack. I think Norma Jean was just tired of it all, tired of the pain, tired of the loneliness. Ya know, a person can only do so much. Both, Norma Jean and Louise both love their husbands, but it came a point for both of them, where it just wasn’t worth the fight anymore. They had to focus on themselves.
ReplyDelete2) When it comes to freedom, these women had their own vision of what being free really means. For Mrs. Mallard, she kept saying “Free, body and soul, free!” She wanted to rid herself of her marriage, she wanted to feel independent. She knew by her husband dying, she’d know nothing but joy and happiness for the rest of her life. For Norma Jean, being free meant no longer being with Leroy. She needs to focus on her mind and body, before anything else. She’s sick and tired of being tired. For Connie, being free means everything. She’s a teenage girl. She wants to be able to do what she wants when she wants, hang out with all the boys in the world, and not have to be yelled at by her parents. Being a teenager, is all about experimenting and living it up, however, in time she’ll realize the freedom she so desperately wanted, really isn’t what she wanted after all.
In 'Where Are You Going, and Where Have You Been' Connie showed love for her family by when Arnold told her that he would kill her family if she did not go with him, she gave up her life for her family. And in 'Story of An Hour' Louise when told of her husbands death only cried a little bit and then was over it. If she was faced with the same delema as Connie, I am sure she would have not gone. It shows the love that Connie had for her family and there safty than Louise had for her Husband. There is no comparison.
ReplyDeleteEach woman in all three different stories had a different view of freedom. Connie, the reckless teenager, lived her life the way nobody else wanted her to live it. She constantly opted to decide which path to take that her mother didn't agree on. More so, she felt as though going against her family , including innocent sister June, was how she was meant to live. Her way of ''freedom'' ends up to bite her in the long run when her bad decisions push her into the wrong situation. For Norma Jean, the obsessive body trainer, freedom was about freeing herself from Leroy in Shiloh. Maybe her vision of freedom had come when Leroy had become a handicap and no longer able to do manly household chores. Next comes Louise, due to the overwhelming response to her husbands ''death'' she shuts herself off to the world by running into a different room. Its funny how these stories involve men that are either dead, handicap, or the enemy. None of them portray a healthy gentlemen capable of doing normal day to day chores.
ReplyDelete-Laura Conroy
I agree with what Kim said about Louise and Connie. Connie showed real love for her family when she knew she was going to happen to her. She doesn't want her family to get hurt. Louise is different. Like Kim said, she cries for a bit about her husbands death, but then is over it just as quickly as she got the news. In comparison, Connie loves her family more. In "Shiloh" Norma Jean shows less love than Louise. Norma Jean loves her husband only when he is not around. Her husband tries to make their relationship work out, now that he is home, but she doesn't seem to want to try. She shows less love for her family than both Connie and Louise. Out of the three woman in these stories, Connie is the one who loves her family the most.
ReplyDeleteI was confused with many parts of some of the stories. In Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour I was lost at the ending. Did Louise actually die too? It just seemed odd that Chopin would write on the bottom of page 251 that Louise "carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory." I intrepid that as if she was strong and was overcoming finding out her husband has just passed away. Yet on the last page we read "When the doctors come they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills." Is Chopin trying to say that her final steps were done in a victorious way? I just got lost. Anyone if you can help clarify that would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteIn Shiloh what is Norma Jean's problem. Its like that second her husband is around more she wants to leave him. From reading it I got this feeling that Norma Jean more like the concepts of being married. The house, a family, having a ring, but doesn't want to have to put in some much effort. In some ways its like a the story of New England Nun. That both woman in the story like the ideas of being with someone who's not around but when they happen to be around more the want to leave them.
While Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? is just a bunch of creepy that I just can not get my mind around to even start asking questions.
I am going to say something that made me mad after reading Shiloh. Norma Jean was obviously unhappy and did not want to be with her husband anymore. I completely understand why she divorced him because if something is not working out and if you are not happy, then you should change that. People should not have to suffer over things that can be fixed. The thing that made me truly mad though is that she took him to Shiloh to divorce him. It would have been less devastating for Leroy if she just did it at home. It hurt me reading about how she just walked away after saying what she wanted to in an environment he was not familiar with. I also feel like this is why she is different from Louise because she does not want her husband and therefore, divorces him. Louise, on the other hand, wanted to be with her husband, but he passed away. She was so devastated about losing her loved one that she had a heart attack, and died as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the story “Shiloh” it seems that ever since Leroy’s been disabled, Norma Jean has wanted a new start in life. Not exactly with another person at first, but she is not too fond of Leroy’s idea to try and build a new house. Compared to Norma, Mrs. Mallard seemed to be happier prior to her husband’s death but totally changed after since she had heart trouble. I say this because Mrs. Mallard wanted to be alone after hearing the news and told them that she wasn’t going to “make herself ill.” I think that Norma wanted a husband who was just as physically active as she is. It isn’t clear to me but it seems that Norma is a gold digger in a way since she basically stopped loving Leroy after the accident. The way both of these women are similar is how they are both unhappy with how their relationships are going and want a drastic change, except it was too late for Mrs. Mallard. Norma seemed to be more in love with Leroy’s income and not who he was as a person, while Mrs. Mallard was too shocked to even live with learning of the loss of her husband.
ReplyDelete-->Similarity between Louise in “Story of an Hour” and Norma Jean in “Shiloh”
ReplyDeleteIn “Story of an Hour,” Louise Mallard seems to truly love her husband until she is presented with the information about her husbands passing in a railroad disaster (250). After this information is revealed to her, she genuinely grieves until a strange presence of something unknown is felt: "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 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" (251).
As with Norma Jean in “Shiloh,” her love for Leroy was also unconditional in the beginning. It was until an unfortunate accident, Leroy’s tracker-trailer jackknifing in Missouri (826), which caused Norma Jean’s feelings to change for Leroy (much like Louise’s feelings for her husband changed after his non-accident).
-->Difference between Louise and Norma Jean
One can assume that Louise would not have had the sort of epiphany that she had, that she was free (251), without hearing the news of her husbands supposed death. With this, it is able to be assumed that if she did not hear this news she never would have felt that way, and her relationship with her husband would still be together.
In Norma Jean’s case, it is probable that even if her husband had not been in the tractor-trailer accident her feelings regarding her husband would have still ended in the same result, however, it may have taken longer to reach that result.
-->All three women seem to thrive for freedom. In Norma Jean’s case she wants to break free from the mistakes that she made when she was young. When she says “I didn’t miss these old songs back then, but I have this crazy feeling I missed something,” it shows her starting to question how she lived her life. So freedom to her means to be able to relive her life the way she always wanted to. With Louise, freedom to her meant something different then changing her life. Freedom to her meant to be able to "live for herself" and "no powerful will bending hers" (251). With Connie, freedom to her meant everything. During the teenage years, especially, is when one begins to thrive for freedom: the want to drive, to be independent, to be an adult. To Connie freedom meant to be away from her patronizing mother, and to be able to do what she wanted, when she wanted.
--> After thoughts
I have to disagree with Gerald's statement that Norma was a gold digger. How I interpreted the story was that her and Leroy had lost what was truly important in their relationship (communication), that when they were finally able to spend time together, they didn't have the connection that they had before.
Also, at the end of "Story of an Hour," I was a little confused. How I read it was that after seeing her husband in the doorway, Louise was in such complete shock ( and also what I believed was disappointment) that she had a heart attack and passed. I am not sure if that is how it reads though.
I have to agree with Patrick, Ty, and Gerald. It's funny how different the guys and girls responses are about the stories. In "Shiloh" Norma Jean did not like her husband being around and did not want a log cabin, that's for sure. Maybe she had a bad experience with Lincoln Logs as a kid. Who knows? I felt bad for Leroy because he tried hard to impress her and to re-connect with her. Yes he was away and yes it was for long periods of time, but he did the best he could. So what the guy liked to smoke a little weed and build things? I think her view of marriage is a little questionable. In "Story of an Hour," Louise made me sick. In my opinion, Louise is a weak person looking for a way out, but not on her own terms. If she is so unhappy, at least have the courtesy to tell the guy that she wants out. Have some respect for yourself and your partner and take care of your business. Its called being a decent human being. I will say that shit must have been pretty bad for her to be so happy and "freed" after the news of her husband's death. It does not appear that they had the best relationship.
ReplyDelete-Scott Van Winter
Louise and Norma Jean are two very different women in each of the stories. Louise in "Story of an Hour" truly loves her husband all the way until the "end" of his life and the end of hers. Louise did think she was free when she found out her husband was dead. She was in mourning and could not believe what had happened but yet she was free. Love had become a burden for Louise. Norma Jean loves Leroy until he is handicapped. He becomes a burden and holds her back from being as independent as she once was. Norma Jean fell out of love with Leroy. Her belief was that she just moved on from him to something else much like how she moved on from music to body building. The transition was subtle and gradual but once it had changed, the love was completely gone. Love is temporary to Norma Jean.
ReplyDelete-John Choquette
The three female protagonists in the stories are Norma Jean, Connie,and Louise. In the short story "Shiloh", Norma Jean is trapped in her unhappy marriage. They got married so young and got pregnant that it was all forced upon her. She seeks release by deciding to leave her husband and starting over. Throughout "The Story of an Hour", Louise is told that her husband was killed in a train accident. At first she is upset, but while looking out the window she realizes she has a new sense of independence. She yells "free" repeatedly while realizing that her husband oppressed her even though he wasn't trying to. To her freedom means independence and the right to live the way she wants without someone holding her down. In the story, "Where are you going, Where have you been" Connie feels trapped by her mother's constant criticism and nagging to be more like her sister. She even said at one point she wished her mother were dead. At the end of the story, she is crying for her mother and realizing that she will never see her mother again. She is being kidnapped and taken away from her mother who she now wishes she could actually see again.
ReplyDeleteIn the story Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason, i feel as though Norma Jean was ungrateful and she was just pushing her husbund away because she could not deal with the pain of the lost of her first child. I cant even imgine how painful the loss of your first born child must be but i think se should of worked on her marriage and put more effort into it.I also think she maybe could have been angry with him since they had loss a child and her husbund was away working they didnt have time to morn together and express their feelings towards what happened. To make sure each one understood that it wasnt anyone's fault and it could not been prevented it just happened. Norma Jean probably held her feelings in for so long because Leroy was not there for them to communicate or talk about it that she held in that anger and when he came back frm work because of the accident it was not the same. Their connection was lost making it akward for both of them. They both felt like they were 18 and they didnt know one another as well as they did at the beginning of their marriage. Its sad to see that they grew apart and their marriage was not going to make it but i was confused at the end of the story. I didnt know if she jumped the bluff of the river or what. i feel as though it was ironic how he couldnt really chase her beacuse of his leg conditon making it seem as though he had already lost her and there was nothing he could do to get her back.
ReplyDeleteLouise and Norma Jean were both married woman. Louise however was completely in love with her husband while as much as Norma Jean tried, her love for her husband was gone. The fact that Louise locked herself in her room and wept for hours at the news of her husbands death on the railroad tracks shows her love for her husband. Norma Jean goes on outings with her husband after he is let off work because of injuries and she just can't bring herself back to the love she had for him when they first got married. The fact that he is around all the time annoys Norma Jean as compared to when Louise's husband returns home she dies of joy. Free to Norma Jean is free of her husband when she finally comes clean about the fact that she doesn't want to stay married to him. Louise says "Free! Body and Soul Free!". I think she is saying this because her husband is finally from work.
ReplyDeleteI think that in “Shiloh” the female protagonist, Norma Jean, traps herself in cloud of negativity and depression caused by the pain of losing her baby. She seems to push away Mabel and Leroy every time they show any sort of compassion on concern for her, for example when Mabel scolds her for smoking, or when Leroy tries to build her a log cabin. She takes out her aggression by constantly working out, which I think she does to try to avoid thinking about the sad emotional state that she is in. In the story “Where are you Going and Where Have you Been” the female protagonist, Connie, seeks attention from strangers, particularly boys, to make herself feel attractive and desirable because she doesn’t get positive attention at home. Her mother tells her to stop gawking at herself and to be more like her sister, and her father is rarely home, and when he is, he isn’t very attentive to her so she seeks reassurance from outside sources.
ReplyDelete