Day 7 Blog

Day 7 Blog
The Celebration of Individuality
In Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard is “afflicted with a heart trouble.” Her sister, Josephine, and a friend, Richards, are there to tell Mrs. Mallard some terrible news about her husband, Brent Mallard. Richards was “in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received.” Mrs. Mallard’s husband’s was on the list of men killed in this tragic event. Both individuals, Josephine and Richards, are trying to calmly explain to Mrs. Mallard about her husband’s death. They cannot upset her because of her heart condition. At the news of her husband’s death, “she wept at once” and “went away to her room alone.” Mrs. Mallard “stood, facing the open window.” She notices outside all of the beautiful things that are living. She sit in the chair “quite motionless”, when she saw something in the distance. “She was waiting for it” because she knew something was coming. Soon, “she was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her. It was freedom to live her life. ” Then she started shouting “’free, free, free!’” She begins to see that how in the future she will live a long life, a long life that she will be free and no longer tied down by her husband. Her sister comes and knocks on her door, and the two go downstairs. Unexpectedly the front door opens, and “it was Brently Mallard who entered.” He was not killed in the accident. Suddenly, Mrs. Mallard died of a heart attack. The doctors said that “she had died of heart disease—of the joy that kills.” Basically, the doctors said that Mrs. Mallard died because she was filled with a happy feeling. Was she happy that her husband was actually alive, or was she still overcome by the happiness that she experienced knowing that she was finally free? I personally think that she is not happy that her husband is alive because just previously she said “she loved him—sometimes. Often she had not.” She died in the end because she can no longer live under her husband’s ways. She wants to be an individual, and she wants to do the things that she wants to do. In marriage, often you are bound to someone. You make decisions together, you live together, and so on. For once in her life since she first was married, she felt her independence. Once her husband returned, she felt like her independence had been taken away from her. She could no longer live a life of being “tied down.”
I noticed two symbolic things in this story. The first is when Mrs. Mallard went to the open window. This window is symbolic because it is open. It represents her independence now that her husband is dead. She can live the life that she wanted to live. She will no longer be tied down by her husband and her marriage. She can be free. The second symbolic thing in this story are the things that are living in the fifth paragraph (“rain…peddler…one was singing…countless sparrows”). All of these things represent the living and the free to Mrs. Mallard. These things are observed through an open window which means that they are within reach for Mrs. Mallard, however, she still cannot reach them. To be quite honest, I do not really know if Chopin’s story affirms or rejects the notion of individuality that Emerson and Whitman put forth because I had a lot of trouble understanding the last two pieces. Could anybody direct me in the right direction, please?
“The Story of an Hour” reminds me of the movie “Black Swan.” It reminds me of this movie because the main character, Natalie Portman, thinks that she killed her rival, the girl from California (Nina). However, a little later in the movie, Nina knocks on the door and comes in, just like Mr. Mallard, and comes in alive. Natalie Portman was very surprised of this just like Mrs. Mallard was surprised to see her husband alive.
Before I begin with “Self Reliance” and “Song of Myself”, I just wanted to give a fair warning that I struggled a lot with these two pieces.
It is evident from Emerson’s, “Self-Reliance,” that he supports non-conformity and individuality. In “Self-Reliance,” Emerson tells us how we must make our own decisions and use our own brain and “learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within.” We must act independently, and “trust thyself.” Others will be put into our lives to doubt us and what we say, but we must have the will power to stand by our thoughts and say what we are thinking. Emerson also talks about youth, and how “youth has no force.” The youth’s “voice is sufficiently clear and emphatic.” What I think Emerson is saying when he mentions youth is how youth say what they want. They do not care about other people’s opinions; Emerson says, “a boy is…independent, irresponsible.” He then talks about how Emerson himself is a nonconformist. He does not donate to the poor like everyone else because “Are they my poor?” He thinks that people perform all these “good actions as some piece of courage or charity”, and he believes that this is not right. These virtues that they perform “are penances” and people perform them only because that is what is expected of society. Emerson thinks why not be your own person and make your own decisions. He then goes on to talk about consistency. He says that “the other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word.” We often worry too much about what others think of us and what we have done in the past. He advises us to “Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again” meaning say what you feel. The ultimate judge at the end of the day is oneself; Do not conform to others. At this point in Emerson’s piece, I started to get lost, but I will to my best to explain my interpretation. Emerson talks about how we read a “costly book” or notice the “statue” in society around us, and we feel lesser from these accomplishments of others. We must not feel lesser than these material objects because we are worth so much more. He then talks about how “our reading is mendicant and sycophantic.” We read of all these successful made up men and compare ourselves to them. This only hurts our self worth. In the end, Emerson talks about four things: religion, self-culture and travelling, “intellectual action”, and society. He speaks of religion and prayer. He says that “Prayer that craves a particular commodity-anything less than all good-is vicious…and…prayer as a means to effect a private end Is meanness and theft.” In the second topic, self-culture, he talks about travelling. Most Americans travel because it “retains its fascination for all educated Americans.” However, travelling can be bad because some people may travel “with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows.” In the third topic, “intellectual action”, he speaks of how “our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments.” I do not really understand what he is saying here, but possibly could he mean if we decorated our independence like we decorated our houses, we would all be independent and different. The fourth topic was society. Emerson says that” all men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves…Society never advances.”
All in all, I think that Emerson’s message here is to be your own person; do not fear to be different. Do not conform to society. A passage where I saw optimism towards celebrating the individual self was when Emerson talks about children. He says “A boy is…independent, irresponsible.” I believe that Emerson’s message here is that children are free, and I believe this. Children will do what they want and say what they want. They are too young to care what anybody thinks of them, and they will be unique. Another passage where I saw optimism towards celebrating the individual self was when Emerson says “envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide.” Basically, I believe that Emerson is trying to show people how we don’t want to be like everyone. It is like killing your own inner self to be like someone you are not.
In Walt Whitman’s, “Song of Myself,” Walt talks of himself and how he “loaf and invite my soul.” He then goes on to talk about how “houses and rooms are full of perfume.” Every individual has their own specific scent. He is explaining here how each person is unique with their smell which is an example of optimism towards celebrating the individual self because he “breaths the fragrance himself, and know it, and like it.” In the second stanza he talks of his own self and how he is alive. He says, “My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air through my lungs;” He feels so alive because he can see, hear, touch, and feel all the beauty around him. In the sixth stanza, a child asks Whitman, “What is the grass?” Whitman is unsure of how to respond because he himself does “not know what it is.” To answer the child though, he comes up with a variety of different answers such as the grass is “a flag of my disposition…the handkerchief of the Lord…the grass itself is a child.” With all these answers that he gives the child, he thinks to himself what the grass is. The grass here is symbolic, but I do not know how or what it stands for. In stanzas fifteen thru seventeen, Whitman talks about all different types of people that he sees including “the bride” who “unrumples her white dress.” This list touches on many different types of people, and I believe this shows the individuality of many different people. Stanza fifteen, the stanza that lists of all different types of people that Whitman sees, is another example of optimism towards celebrating the individual self. Each person is different, and each person will take different steps through life. It is up to them as an individual to decide what path they will take. Hopefully, they will follow their heart and do what they want to do and not conform to society. In Stanza 24, Whitman talks about himself. He uses the word “kosmo” to describe himself. What does this word mean? Does it represent anything? He is “of might Manhattan”, and he is “Turbulent, fleshy and sensual, eating, drinking and breeding;” He has heard many “long dumb voices, voice of…slaves…persons…thieves and dwarfs.” What does he mean by this? Is this part of his past or family history? In Stanza 48, Whitman mentions “that the soul is not more than the body” meaning our body is something very unique. We must respect it and value it. He then talks about God. He mentions that “not God, is greater than one’s self is.” He is not trying to deny God of his powers; he still respects him. He knows that he will “hear and behold God in every object.” He also tells his readers to “be not curious about God.” The last sections almost seem as though he is contradicting what he said, like he does not believe it. He is also bidding farewell by saying, “I stop somewhere, waiting for you.” I notice that in the last section he says, “If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.” Is this related to the grass in stanza six? How does this tie together?