Tuesday, June 19, 2018

What are the similarities between Louise Mallard in Chopin's "A Story of an Hour" and one of the three main characters in Walker's "Everyday Use."

In "Story of an Hour," Mrs. Mallard is upset when she initially hears of her husband's presumed death in a railroad accident. However, as she begins to think about her husband, she can't decide whether she had loved him or not. She feels ambivalent towards him, but she knows that she is happy to be living on her own.
Mrs. Mallard is similar to Mama in "Everyday Use." While she loves Dee in some ways, as Dee is her daughter, she is happy to live apart from her. Dee looks down on Mama and tends to lecture her and to act superior to her. At the end of the story, Mama refuses to give Dee the quilts she wants, and she decides to give them to her other daughter, Maggie. Mama's decision to withhold the quilts from Dee symbolizes Mama's withholding her true love from Dee. Like Louise Mallard, Mama at some point decides to free herself from her controlling daughter and to live without her.

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