week 3

Week 3: This week we delved into the complexity of theme. This week reminded me of my LMS class in fifth grade. Growing up the youngest of three boys, my grasp of a woman’s anatomy and physiology was a bit murky. Needless to say, when I learned about what happened to women once a month I was in horror and shock. The classroom of immature boys that got used to giggling at diagrams of penises was silenced by information they wished was erased from their memory. This was an intense realization. Being a bit older now, I understand a woman’s physical anatomy, but now have the task of understanding a woman’s emotional anatomy. And by reading “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin I once again have this feeling of horror and shock. Men are often overwhelmed by a woman’s emotions, and for them to follow this woman’s emotional highs and lows that are squeezed into a mere hour is scary. Stunned, I was compelled to ask questions. “How could a woman so depressed become so happy so quickly? How could a woman so dedicated to her husband mourn his death, then rejoice at his absence, and then literally “fall” into a depression at the sight of him?” While I frantically asked these questions to simply gain my composure, I realized I was asking pivotal questions about theme. The complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotional journey, mirrors the complexity of the story’s theme. The meaning I derived from this piece was that women were certainly more complex than I had thought. Certainly a juvenile and perhaps ignorant response, but theme, as I have learned, is in the eye of the beholder. For others, they interpreted it is a microcosmic look into women’s life in the late 19th century.