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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty VS The Story Of An Hour

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The Secret Life of Walter Mitty VS The Story Of An Hour
Abstract
I have chosen to compare the two short stories “The Story of an Hour”, by Kate Chopin and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, by James Thurber. “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” is a short story written in 1937. The main character is an older man that drives his wife to town for beauty parlor visits and weekly shopping. “The Story of an Hour” was published in 1894. The main character, Louise Mallard, thinks that she will find freedom from the death of her husband. These short stories share a common theme, gender roles within a marriage. Each of the main characters in these stories has their own ideas about the gender roles that they are supposed to play, according to society and the time that they live in. The secret life of Walter Mitty and The Story of an Hour are based on a man Mr. Walter Mitty and a woman Mrs. Louise Mallard, whom believe that they have become prisoners within their marriages. They have to abide by the society standards of their era, divorce is not an option because all marriages have issues and the wedding vows need to be honored, “Until Death due us Part”.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Versus The Story of an Hour
In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter is an elderly American man who is retired and has nothing better to do but to follow his wife around. Walter daydreams about a life that he wishes he had. The focus of this story is to represent a fantasy world opposed to a reality. “The Story of the Hour” presents a much more dramatic effect. This story reflects upon a very important hour for Mrs. Mallard. She experiences freedom in this hour. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” the main focus is on the desire to escape from an ordinary life; this is also the case with “The Story of the Hour”. Louise Mallards’ desire is independence.
“The story of the hour” covers only one single hour of Louise Mallard’s life. This hour is


References: Hermes, Al, (2012) Married Women and Property Post (Web Log Post) Retrievedfromhttp://www.ehow.com/aboutmarried-womens-property-act Chopin, Kate. “Story of an Hour. Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. Lewis, J. (1999) Liberalizing Divorce Laws (Web Log Post) Retrieved from http://womenhistory.about.com/od/marriage20/Liberalizing-Divorce - Law.htm Diederich, N. (2012). Sharing Chopin: Teaching 'The Story of an Hour ' to Specialized Populations. Bernard, K. (2009). Southern literary studies: awakenings: the story of the Kate Chopin revival. Danforth, R. (1961). The American short story – American writers 14: University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Lass, A. H. & Tasman, N. L. (1969). 21 Great stories. New York, New York: First Mentor Printing. Thurber, J. (2008) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: The Creative Company, Jan 1, 2008.
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