Some Lit Devices
After reading "The Story of An Hour" by Kate Chopin, I brainstormed three of the most important literary devices that made this story such a classic. Irony, symbolism, and tone are the most important devices used in the story.
Irony is arguably the most important of the three devices I'll go over, because it encompasses the entire story. Mrs. Mallard's heart disease and the news of her husband's "death" both contribute to her death at the very end of the story. The irony becomes apparent in the last paragraph, when her husband Brently Mallard walks through the door, alive and well. By then, it is too late for Mrs. Mallard and she succumbs to her heart disease. There's also the irony of Mrs. Mallard accepting, and even enjoying her husband's death more than when she lived with him. Even if Mrs. Mallard had survived the ordeal, she would have had to return to her regular life when she had already prepared for a new, independent one.
Symbolism is used most obviously in the story to compare water to life. Water has represented life since the beginning of time, with the first civilizations being based around river valleys. The very essence of water is necessary for humans to survive. In recent times, the phrase "Water is Life" has been used by Native Americans to protest the building of a pipeline across their sacred land. Subtle symbolism is utilized in the paragraph when Mrs. Mallard takes in "the delicious breath of rain that was in the air." This is one of the first sentences after the tone in the story shifts. It subconsciously prepares the reader for a change in the storytelling and Mrs. Mallard's point of view of life without explicitly stating anything. One can also observe the symbolism of her window facing west. West is associated with western expansion and opportunity in general. This suggests that Mrs. Mallard will expand her horizons/view of life and will be met with a new opportunity in the near future. The opportunity was unfortunately death, but it can still be seen as a new chapter in one's life or a new life overall. Either way, the theme of life is kept.
The third most important literary device used in the story is tone. A little less than halfway through the passage, there is a tone shift. After learning the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard looks outside, witnessing "the new spring life" and "blue sky." Mrs. Mallard's outlook on life and the tone of the story shifts at this point, from depressing and tragic to accepting of a new life. Later in the passage, it says, "And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not." This highlights Mrs. Mallard's point of view that maybe losing her husband isn't all that terrible. In addition, love is normally unconditional and doesn't falter when the person in question makes a mistake or a wrong choice. This suggests that Mrs. Mallard didn't truly love her husband, but appreciated things he did correctly. To summarize, the story shifts tone and also shifts the reader's understanding of how Mrs. Mallard is thinking.
To conclude, the most important literary devices used in the passage are irony, symbolism, and tone. Irony occurs throughout the entire passage after Brently Mallard is actually alive and returns home to find his wife dying because of his "death." Symbolism is used in at least two instances of water representing life and west representing expansion and opportunity. Tone is used in a tone shift early in the passage from depressing and dreary to opportunistic. These three devices all contribute to the story and why it is still studied in English classes today.
Irony is arguably the most important of the three devices I'll go over, because it encompasses the entire story. Mrs. Mallard's heart disease and the news of her husband's "death" both contribute to her death at the very end of the story. The irony becomes apparent in the last paragraph, when her husband Brently Mallard walks through the door, alive and well. By then, it is too late for Mrs. Mallard and she succumbs to her heart disease. There's also the irony of Mrs. Mallard accepting, and even enjoying her husband's death more than when she lived with him. Even if Mrs. Mallard had survived the ordeal, she would have had to return to her regular life when she had already prepared for a new, independent one.
Symbolism is used most obviously in the story to compare water to life. Water has represented life since the beginning of time, with the first civilizations being based around river valleys. The very essence of water is necessary for humans to survive. In recent times, the phrase "Water is Life" has been used by Native Americans to protest the building of a pipeline across their sacred land. Subtle symbolism is utilized in the paragraph when Mrs. Mallard takes in "the delicious breath of rain that was in the air." This is one of the first sentences after the tone in the story shifts. It subconsciously prepares the reader for a change in the storytelling and Mrs. Mallard's point of view of life without explicitly stating anything. One can also observe the symbolism of her window facing west. West is associated with western expansion and opportunity in general. This suggests that Mrs. Mallard will expand her horizons/view of life and will be met with a new opportunity in the near future. The opportunity was unfortunately death, but it can still be seen as a new chapter in one's life or a new life overall. Either way, the theme of life is kept.
The third most important literary device used in the story is tone. A little less than halfway through the passage, there is a tone shift. After learning the news of her husband's death, Mrs. Mallard looks outside, witnessing "the new spring life" and "blue sky." Mrs. Mallard's outlook on life and the tone of the story shifts at this point, from depressing and tragic to accepting of a new life. Later in the passage, it says, "And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not." This highlights Mrs. Mallard's point of view that maybe losing her husband isn't all that terrible. In addition, love is normally unconditional and doesn't falter when the person in question makes a mistake or a wrong choice. This suggests that Mrs. Mallard didn't truly love her husband, but appreciated things he did correctly. To summarize, the story shifts tone and also shifts the reader's understanding of how Mrs. Mallard is thinking.
To conclude, the most important literary devices used in the passage are irony, symbolism, and tone. Irony occurs throughout the entire passage after Brently Mallard is actually alive and returns home to find his wife dying because of his "death." Symbolism is used in at least two instances of water representing life and west representing expansion and opportunity. Tone is used in a tone shift early in the passage from depressing and dreary to opportunistic. These three devices all contribute to the story and why it is still studied in English classes today.
Overall, the ideas and explanations presented are explained pretty well. Yet, you are missing one of the most important literary devices in the story, which is conflict. The story has multiple different conflicts in it, like Man v.s Self, Man v.s Society, and Man v.s Fate. While symbolism and tone are very important, I believe that conflict overshadows both of them, making it the same level of importance as Irony. You also spend more time describing the symbolism of water, then how it is important to the story. I also think that in your blogs you need to explain more, as you only touch upon the surface of your ideas.
ReplyDeleteKing Bling,
ReplyDeleteYour reasoning for choosing symbolism, tone, and irony was adequatley explained throughout your blog. I like how you supported your arguments with quotes from the text and how you also elaborated off of the quotes.
However, I think you could have included more information on irony since you claimed irony to be the most important literary device. I am not saying that what you have written is wrong but instead that you could have written more since it was "the most important" literary device and yet, it was your shortest paragraph.
Overall, good job and I liked your gifs.
First off, your title is one of the best I've seen. It seriously made me laugh when I first saw it even though lit is a hackneyed term. Secondly, your images were related enough for the reader to understand them as well as added a comedic layer to it. It was somewhat short in my opinion, but there was enough of an explanation for me to understand your thinking. You had a solid description of the story throughout the blog and were able to create a good argument for your claims.
ReplyDeleteI feel that your Irony paragraph could have been elaborated on slightly more. You did say that irony was the most important device in the story, yet it was your shortest body paragraph. I also think that in the conclusion, you could have tied all the devices in together a little bit better. Lastly, there could have been more references towards the text, and more elaboration on your quotes.
Other than that, I feel like KING BLINGGGGG did a really solid job on this blog. It was easy to read, with pictures that made it easier to understand. This was a really good first blog.
-MegaWatt
I thought your blog consisted of a lot of good information and it was easy to understand. However in your first paragraph about Irony, to back up what you are saying you should include evidence from the text to show the audience you have information to back yourself up. You did hit some important key points though but next time I would try to add a little more detail. For example, to go with irony you could have said that the story itself unfolds in the time frame of one hour as stated in the title.
ReplyDeleteYour symbolism paragraph was good and I thought it hit a major key point when you said how water-life. However you could have put more examples of symbolism to add to it. For example you could have talked about her heart trouble and expand on it as it was mentioned in the story. Although I liked how you mentioned the open window and talked about the western expansion because that was a good point that probably not a lot of people noticed.
Overall I though you hit a lot of good points but in the future I would maybe add more detail and expand a little more on it. Also I would use textual evidence to back up what your are saying and to show the audience you know what your talking about.
King Bling,
ReplyDeleteOverall, I felt that this blog had a clear and concise nature that was easy to read and understand. You even partially convinced me to change my mind that tone was one of the three most literary devices by tying in the symbolism and tonality of spring in the short story. Even so, there were some negative aspects of this blog that need to be addressed.
Throughout the blog, I felt that there was a lack of textual evidence and analysis on that evidence. Although your personal opinions were pretty spot-on in my opinion, without that evidence, readers could speculate that you either neglected to use the text as an aid or just simply did not expand on your ideas. This issue could be easily fixed with more quotes from the text and making sure to include vivid details and explanations.
Even so, I felt that this was a solid blog. You will definitely be able to correct those mistakes on other blogs in the future.
Hello Bing Blong,
ReplyDeleteI found the formatting or at least the arrangement and topic of your paragraphs to be very neat even though your jifs were giving me a headache.
For your irony paragraph you never explain how the statements where ironic and just talked about instances when you believed it was irony. Instead of vaguely talking about instances in the paragraphs next time you could improve by providing quotes for evidence, then explaining how you believed there was irony in it, and then explaining why this is important to the story.
Your symbolism paragraph was better than the irony because you started to explain yourself and what the water and window facing west meant, but you still did not explain how this was important to the story. The relation to her window facing west and Mrs. Mallard wanting a new life was good, but you could have improved by expanding on it and saying how the symbolism supports the idea she wanted to have a new life.
In your tone paragraph before half-way you stop talking about actually tone and switch to how Mrs. Mallard does not actually love Mr. Mallard. Although your analysis of that quotation is good, it has nothing to do with tone and does not belong there.
Your conclusion could have been improved, but I also believe that you should include why the literary devices should have been in the body paragraphs rather than just at the end. Even in the conclusion, you did not explain why the devices are important for all things. When you stated "Symbolism is used in at least two instances of water representing life and west representing expansion and opportunity." you still didn't talk about how it was important and just quickly pointed out the two instances of symbolism you found in paragraph 3.
dear Aiden Lobby, a jif is peanut butter. Its actually gif, nerd. š¤
DeleteKing Bling,
ReplyDeleteYour blog could have been a little longer in length but your pictures helped spread it out and keep me interested. Your format was well put together and easy to understand. All three of your devices could use a little help, as well as everyone's. Try to really relate back to the devices when using sources to help the reader understand more. You could have used more examples for symbolism to elaborate. We used one of the same gifs #go #us #twins Overall, great job way to grab the reader's attention. It was very clear and I didn't struggle to comprehend, which is common.
Kingus Blingus. There are many things to say about this blog. First off, i thoroughly enjoyed it but do indeed have some things that you could indeed fix. One thing would be the irony paragraph. You start off by saying that it is one of the most important ones of all. You say this but I believe that you could write more about why it is, and another example of where it is in the story. Now after reading your second paragraph, i understand the importance of water. What I do not understand fully is how it connects with the story. There may be more for you to write there because I found myself reading why it was important for life, but not why it was important in the story. Finally, the tone paragraph. I see that halfway through, it kind of goes off course. As if you're talking more about how Mrs. Mallard doesn't love him rather than the tone of it. My suggestion would be to ask yourself if this would be considered off course or not. Overall I did enjoy the blog, and it was very nice.
ReplyDeleteDearest Kingathan Blingathan,
ReplyDeleteThe organization was top notch throughout the post. It was easy to read and very pleasant on the eyes. Great graphic design. Also I think that a lot of the content was very good. That being said, there were subjects I felt could have been expanded on. I respect the ambition to prove some of the smaller devices as the most important, but they could have been fleshed out into a more full idea with more evidence to back your claim. The post felt somewhat cut short and idea felt incomplete.