Alice Walker - "Everyday Use"

Tradition in  "Everyday Use"

Traditions in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker are important to both Dee and her mother, but they have different meanings. For Dee’s mother and her sister Maggie, traditions are built on a foundation of inherited objects and ways of thinking while for her daughter, traditions are something that no longer have everyday use and are corrupted by history. Most importantly, in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, these traditions are all based in a learning and education and the way of thinking possessed by each character has shaped the traditions they rely on. In terms of this analysis and summary of themes in "Everyday Use" one should note that that these two ways of thinking about African American traditions create the tension in the short story and although there is no "correct" viewpoint about these traditions expressed, the set up of the story allows the reader to consider both sides.

 

The plot of "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker itsekf Even from the beginning of "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, it is clear there is a tension between Dee and her family because of her outside education. She is no longer tied to the world of everyday usefulness (working around the land and the house) but is more related to the world of education and a more ethereal kind of usefulness. For her mother, the situation is quite the opposite. Her knowledge is useful and grounded in her everyday tasks. She gives a summary of her farm-related accomplishments and brags of being able to kill a hog like a man and can cook and take care of the homestead. Because the reader gets the sense that she is steeped in an educational tradition that emphasizes usefulness, she is at odds with the educational traditions of her daughter, Dee, who has been to school away from home. This tension between educational traditions is one of the main themes in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and is apparent after Dee’s mother details what she knows about (usually related to farm tasks) but when she discusses her daughter’s educational traditions, she speaks almost disdainfully, saying, “She used to read to us without pity, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know.” To her mother, Dee’s knowledge is foreign and is tinged with an element of danger since it includes “lies” and “other folks’ habits” and worse yet, it makes her mother and sister, who have a different tradition of learning feel “ignorant and trapped” with knowledge that her mother feels is not necessary.

 

In “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, traditions based in learning extend far beyond ways of thinking about issues or objects, they also inform the way each character expresses her outer identity. For instance, Dee’s mother admits that she is a solid and “big boned” woman who was built for work which her daughter, who has been around more educated people, does not find attractive since it does not suit her ideal of what a modern black woman should look like. Her mother is aware of this, saying that if she were to appear on television, she would be, “the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake.” In other words, because of her tradition of education in the modern (read as “white-influenced” world) Dee would find that her mother is does not fit what her education has taught her is attractive. Again, there is the traditional tension between what is beautiful and attractive at odds with what is practical and useful. There is no right or wrong way for a person to be, but the author is showing how these traditions are at odds. To Dee, coming home with her big gold hoop earrings and bright long dresses is a demonstration that her traditions have changed. Her mother finds it difficult to get over this change saying, “At sixteen she had a style of her own and knew what style was” and she also admits that, “Often I fought off the temptation to shake her.” Just as with the case of the quilts, her mother thinks they should be useful and not decorative while her daughter, with her different educational traditions believes that they should not go to use and should stand for something.

 

          The most prime example of traditions creating tension as a result of education in “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker is that of the name change Dee takes on after she finds fault with her mother’s tradition of naming children after relatives. When she tells her mother about her name change, Dee, now Wangero, says, “I couldn’t bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me.” Her mother does not know what to say to this although she does try to accept it. For her, names are based on a tradition in which there was not a lot of thought about a name and they were used as something that was useful since they connected one family member to another. When considering her choice of “Dee”  Wangero’s mother thinks back to Beg Dee, whom her daughter was named after and says, “That’s about as far back as I can trace it…Though in fact, I probably could have carried it back beyond the Civil War through the branches.” Again, this is a prime example of educational traditions at odds since Dee/Wangero has been taught to consider the social and political implications of a name and to connect importance to these while her mother’s traditions have relied on naming children after other family members.

 

         In any of the cases highlighted above in this essay, it is never clear if the Alice Walker in “Everyday Use” is trying to express the belief that one set of traditions is better than the other. Instead, it seems that she is trying to show how one’s education influences thoughts about traditions. This demonstrates that traditions are mutable and can be changed over time if the right influences exist. It also seems to show that traditions are rooted in everyday use and thus just as the thesis statement for this Walker story and, for that matter,  for this summary of "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker contends, both the frame and meaning of the story are contained in the title. For Wangero, her uses are served by thinking critically about her past since she is not actively required for work on her family’s land. For her mother, however, these thoughts serve no use and it is best, because of her setting and influences, to focus on that which is conducive to everyday use. By the end of the story, the title takes on more significance as we see that traditions are rooted in their use in a given situation and that they are prone to change.

Miroslav Šolti
091055

Alice Walker - "Everyday Use" Draft

Alice Walker - Everyday Use Draft

This is a story, set in the rural American south, family house in a pasture, in which an African-American mother, "Mama Johnson," who grew up in the early part of the past century, struggles to absorb, understand, evaluate and appreciate the ramifications of her strongly bucolic and dirty background in comparison with a daughter (Dee) who had obtained an impressive advanced formal education in Augusta, Georgia and migrated to work in an urban environment. Mama, in several ways, views her other daughter, Maggie, who is in comparison the less fortunate one. Her ungenerous appearance partly stems from a house fire that left her with severe burns from which conspicuous scars remain.
The story begins with Mama and Maggie awaiting the visit of Dee. Despite Dee's being a direct blood relative, the two went to great lengths the previous afternoon to make the yard, "so clean and wavy."
It was realized early in life that Dee was the significantly brilliant and ambitious one of the two daughters, she longed for the modern advanced setting. She was outspoken and unabashed, loved to dress well and display her beauty.  Mama, a woman whose formal school was shut down in 1927 right after she had achieved a second grade education, apparently embraces her daughter's brilliance and ambitiousness by raising money, with the help of their church, to send her to school in Augusta. Mama and Maggie must have, on one hand, been eager to see Dee leave the home habitation, at least for sometime. Dee was a young lady of beauty and sophisticated language; Mama tells Maggie that she knows of some childhood friends that Dee had. To Mama, such friends were mostly mysterious, grim-faced, and they often seemed to be in a Dee-induced trance...astounded by her knowledge, bombastic articulation, and beauty.  Dee apparently has a certain level of fondness for her less fortunate sister, but that seems to be overshadowed by her superiority complex, by her looking down upon Maggie because Maggie does not measure up to her aesthetic and intellectual attributes as well as world view. Dee is quite outward looking and ambitious.
Maggie is quite the opposite...burned, bruised, poor sighted, ungainly in appearance, abashed to the extent of often hiding in corners and wanting to bury her head in the sand. The fire that burned and handicapped Maggie, undoubtedly contributed to her stultified development and reservedness. But it is not clear whether the bullying attitude of her older sister Dee also contributed to this. Dee did read to her sister and mother, indicative of her desire for these blood relatives to become of higher social level and esteem. Mama talks of Maggie, "Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright." The author also makes us curious about the house fire that scarred Maggie. Mama emphasizes that Dee hated the house and seemed to rejoice in it's burning down. This would raise suspicion that Dee had something to do with the fire. But hardly anything about how the fire was started is mentioned.
As Mama and Maggie await Dee's arrival, Mama imagines what it would be like for her to be introduced alongside an imagined celebrity Dee in a Johnny Carson-like high audience show, a situation in which she would get to travel in a luxurious limousine. She knows it is mostly a dream, and she knows that there is some pretentiousness and vanity in such shows, much of it scripted. Mama thinks that in the TV spotlight, it is people of such attributes as slender build ("hundred pounds lighter" than she is) and fair-skin ("like an uncooked barley pancake") that are preferred. She displays inappreciation for staring straight into a ("white") stranger's eyes, and she was raised to be wary of whites. She marvels that Dee can look anyone in the eye, without hesitation. It is indeed a new generation of blacks, and more are coming. Mama knows that TV leaves out a lot of reality. She is a good example of reality, and she is proud of her bucolic strength: "In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands....I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." Unlike this era, such comparisons between masculine and feminine strength seem to have been quite common.
The visit, by Dee, to such close blood relatives that she had not seen for years, is notably short. Mama and an intimidated Maggie are astounded by the glamorous, brilliant, luxurious attire and jewelry on Dee. They are also awe-struck by the appearance of her, "short, stocky," companion from the other side of the car. Dee starts by uttering, "Wa-su-zo. Tean-o." Although, nothing further is mentioned about those words, some, with some knowledge of African languages would know that it stands for, "Wasuze otya nno?," 'How was your night,' in the Luganda east African language. The man starts with the Arabic-Islam greeting, "Asalamalakim," which Mama, at first, thinks is his name. Dee says she is no longer Dee, but now goes by the African names, "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." No explanation of these African names is offered, aside from Dee's dubious mentioning that they attach her to her indigenous African heritage, and displace names given to her by "oppressors," this in reference to her legacy of slavery. Walker does not tell us that Leewanika is probably a misspelling of the name of southern African King Lewanika who collaborated with the British. Neither does Walker elaborate further on the other names. "Ngero," in Luganda, means "stories" or "tales," "Wangero" meaning, "the one associated with stories/ tales." Kemanjo is probably a misspelling of some African name, or it is not a common African name. Mama gets to learn that "Asalamalakim" is Hakim-a-barber, probably a mishearing of the Arabic Islam names, "Hakim Akbar." The paradox here is that the Dees and Hakims of this world are disdainful of their black-African heritage that is closest to them. Compared to the African culture of the Deep South, adopting African names is only a token of African culture. This ambivalence becomes even more profound as Dee attempts to plunder her family of valuable crafts, such as quilts (put together over ancestral generations) and a churn handed down from previous ancestors. Dee likely wants to keep these valuables, as tokens of her heritage, as souvenirs, displayed in her home. Dee even belittles Maggie who owns some of them, saying she was only capable of putting them to "Everyday use," and laughingly saying that, "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's" (also meaning that she has a good memory). Both Mama and Maggie get disturbed and angered by Dee's demeanor of disrespect, insulting, selfishness, and aggression. Maggie still wants to give in to Dee, over the quilts that she really wants. But Mama strongly declines and throws the quilts into Maggie's lap. Dee and Akbar leave shortly, soon after Dee implying to Mama that she did not understand the value of heritage and that Maggie should elevate herself out of the southern black rural environment. It is in this last incident that Mama gets to appreciate the strength and value of her younger daughter against the seemingly foreign brash mannerisms of her older sister.

Miroslav Šolti

091055

HUMOUR AND IRONY IN «THE KUGELMASS EPISODE» by Woody Allen

HUMOUR AND IRONY IN «THE KUGELMASS EPISODE» by Woody Allen

“The Kugelmass Episode” delivers a satisfying glimpse into the world of adultery, along with plenty of humor to clinch the attention of the reader. The story’s plot revolves around an affair the main character wants to have, and the humor the story delivers allows the reader to clearly understand the significance of the story and why the humor is vital to the main character’s actions.

"The Kugelmass Episode" uses humor and comic situations to poke fun at people and situations and to show the absurdity of human desires and pursuits. The humor in the story can be classified as satire, which is the ridicule of ideas, institutions, particular individuals, or humanity in general to lower the reader's esteem of them and make them laughable. Allen does not seem to offer heavy moral lessons in his story, but his humor does expose human failings and critiques modern humanity's particularly crass pursuit of bodily satisfaction, material wealth, and fame. The story is a parody of a number of types of people and situations. The characters are broadly drawn and have stereotypical traits. Kugelmass is an ironical portrayal of a middle-aged Jewish man undergoing a sexual crisis; his wife Daphne is a satire of an over-the-hill, unrefined and materialistic Jewish wife; Emma is a satirical imitation of shallow, celebrity-seeking, and untalented actor; and Persky makes a parody of Jewish speech and manners as well as cheap entertainers.

Using these characters, Allen also satirizes literature and high art, material pursuits, Jewish culture, and the entertainment industry. One of Allen's techniques in his satire is to present a serious situation or moment and then undercut its importance with an absurdity. The entire fantastic situation of being transported into a fictional realm is undercut by characterizing it in mundane terms. The cabinet Persky uses for Kugelmass's amazing journeys is cheap and "badly lacquered." When it malfunctions, Persky crawls under it and bangs it with a large wrench; the problem, he reveals, was with its transmission. Allen undercuts serious romantic moments often by using colloquial expressions and incongruities. Emma is dazzled by Kugelmass's modern dress, which he tells her he got on sale. She is enthralled by stories of New York, and he talks about O. J. Simpson's "rushing records." Throughout the story, situations and people are mocked, practically everything they say and do reduced to complete silliness.

Much of the humor of "The Kugelmass Episode" comes from his characters' manner of speech, as they use a lot of slang. The tone of the language emphasizes the New York setting and Jewish characters. Persky in particular uses extremely colorful phrases and one can almost hear a Brooklyn Jewish accent. When Kugelmass is skeptical of his transporting cabinet, he tells Kugelmass "It's the emess," then asks for a "double sawbuck" to transport him to Madame Bovary. Kugelmass, a literature professor, uses colloquial language most of the time, and when he and Emma become close begins to call her "sugar" and "cupcake." At first Emma speaks in the "same fine English translation as the paperback," but by the end of the story she is telling Kugelmass that "watching TV all day is the pits." Over and over, weighty and important matters are made absurd by the way the characters talk about them, bringing them into the realm of the ordinary and mundane. So, the most impressive quality of this short story is definitely the humour that Allen applies in such a subtle way making the story enthralling and well worth reading.

Aleksandar Đorđević

090970, D

«THE KUGELMASS EPISODE»

DRAFT  

"The Kugelmass Episode" starts with Kugelmass, a middle-aged, unhappily married humanities professor seeking the advice of his analyst, Dr. Mandel. He is bored with his life, and he needs to have an affair. His analyst disagrees, however, telling him "there is no overnight cure" for his troubles, adding that he is "an analyst, not a magician." Kugelmass then seeks out a magician to help him solve his problem.

A few weeks later, he gets a call from The Great Persky, a two-bit magician who shows him a a cabinet that can transport the professor into any book, short story, play, or poem to meet the woman character of his choice. When he has had enough, Kugelmass just has to give a yell and he is back in New York. At first Kugelmass thinks it is a scam, then that Persky is crazy, but for $20, he gives it a try. He wants a French lover, so he chooses Emma Bovary. Persky tosses a paperback copy of Flaubert's novel into the cabinet with Kugelmass, taps it three times, and Kugelmass finds himself at the Bovary estate in Yonville in the French countryside.

Emma Bovary welcomes Kugelmass, flirting with him as she admires his modern dress. They drink wine, take a stroll through the countryside, and whisper to each other as they recline under a tree. As they kiss and embrace, Kugelmass remembers that he has a date to meet his wife, Daphne. He tells Emma he will return as soon as possible, calls for Persky, and is transported back to New York. His heart is light, and he thinks he is in love. What he doesn't know is that students across the country are asking their teachers about the strange appearance of a "bald Jew" kissing Madame Bovary on page 100.

Their affair continues for some months. Kugelmass tells Persky to always get him into the book before page 120, when the character Rodolphe appears. During their time together, Emma complains about her husband, Charles, and her dull rural existence. Kugelmass tells her about life back in New York, with its nightlife, fast cars, and movie and TV stars. Emma wants to go to New York and become an actress. Kugelmass arranges it with Persky that the next liaison with Emma is in New York. He tells Daphne that he will be attending a symposium in Boston, and the next afternoon, Emma comes to New York. They spend a wonderfully romantic weekend together, and Emma has never been as happy. Meanwhile, a Stanford professor, reading Flaubert's book, cannot "get his mind around" the changes that have taken place to the novel: First a strange character named Kugelmass appears, and then the title character disappears.

When Persky tries to return Emma to the novel, his cabinet malfunctions, and she is forced to stay in New York. Kugelmass finds himself running between Daphne and Emma, paying Emma's enormous hotel bills, and having to put up with his lover's pouting and despondence, and the stress begins to wear him out. He learns too that a colleague who is jealous of him, Fivish Kopkind, has spotted Kugelmass in the book and has threatened to reveal his secret to Daphne. He wants to commit suicide or run away. But the machine is fixed at last, and Kugelmass rushes Emma to Persky's and eventually back to the novel. Kugelmass says he has learned his lesson and will never cheat again.

But Kugelmass is at Persky's door again three weeks later. He is bored and wants another affair. Persky warns him that the machine has not been in use since the earlier "unpleasantness," but Kugelmass says he wants to do it, and asks to enter Portnoy's Complaint. But the cabinet explodes, Persky is thrown back and has a fatal heart attack, and his house goes up in flames. Kugelmass is unaware of the catastrophe, but soon finds that the machine has not thrust him into Portnoy's Complaint at all but into a remedial Spanish textbook. The story ends with Kugelmass running for his life "over a barren, rocky terrain" as the "large and hairy" irregular verb tener ("to have") races after him on its spindly legs.

Aleksandar Đorđević

090970, D

Parental Responsibility in "Teenage Wasteland"

In Anne Tyler's "Teenage Wasteland," the reader gets an extremely in-depth view into the difficulty and significance of parenting through Daisy's desperate attempt to save her son from his seemingly out-of-control, downward spiral. Consumed and overwhelmed with the dream of making Donnie a well-behaved, intelligent kid, Daisy's actions in the story become, in many ways, desperate and hurt Donnie in the end rather than help him, eventually leading to his mysterious disappearance at the end of the story. Thus, by means of this counterexample, Tyler creates a theme illustrating the importance of keeping one's head clear and focused when parenting, showing us that using common sense and logic is often better and more effective than solely using idealism and hope.

Central to developing this theme is the character of Cal, who enters the story about halfway through as an individual who is intended give Donnie "some academic help and a better sense of self-worth;" however, as the plot unfolds, Cal appears to provide Donnie with more of an escape from school and family life than with a means to confront it head on  by providing a party house and a cool adult to make the escape possible.

Therefore, to the rational, clear-minded parent, the initial observations listed above and those that Daisy observes when she first walks in Cal's door should be a clear indication that sending one's child here would not be a good idea; yet, Daisy, in her disparity to salvage what she can of a kid who "had talent, was smart, and was good with his hands" at one time or another, ignores all these warning signs and lets Cal tutor Donnie, thus, becoming blinded by the seemingly quixotic desire to correct Donnie's faults. In essence, her optimism overcomes her rationality and common sense and gives Daisy a mindset ignorant of Cal's fallibility or the possible danger he may present to children (i.e. child molestation, assault, etc.). As a result, she foolishly lets Cal, and indirectly, Donnie, overrun her life and control her decisions. For example, when Cal calls Daisy and discusses with her how Donnie does not like the lack of trust given to him by his parents, Daisy agrees with Cal and goes along with his accusations that they "expect the worst from him" and that they "don't understand how [not being trusted] hurts," admitting that he's right rather than supporting her reasons for finding him untrustworthy (such as his drinking and smoking habits). Furthermore, this trend continues even after one of Donnie's teachers call to say that his grades are slipping to F's and after Daisy learns that some of Cal's other students have been knifed, sent to boarding school, or taken out of the program; she simply remains quiet about any qualms she may have or submits herself to the reassuring responses of Calvin. By the end of the story, when Donnie gets expelled from school from having cigarettes and beer in his locker, it appears as if it is too late to help Donnie and Daisy's now-belated, but newly discovered opposition to Cal in his defense of Donnie regarding the expulsion is almost useless. Even though they put Donnie in public school and stop the tutoring sessions, the child "gathers no friends, joins no clubs," and is "defeated and exhausted". Soon after, he disappears, never to be heard of again, and the story reveals the enormous and devastating impact Daisy's quixotic, blinding hopes had on Donnie. In the end, her good intentions and change of thought are too late and she ultimately becomes a failure by the normal standards of parenting.

In conclusion, from "Teenage Wasteland," we thus learn that truly it is the parent who should have the most influence on a child and that submitting that responsibility to another can often have disastrous consequences. Thus, in the true style of Anne Tyler, this story provides valuable insight into family values and provides us with lessons for us all to learn. 

Jelica Djokovic, D, 090952

Anne Tyler "Teenage Wasteland" Review

 **DRAFT**

Anne Tyler’s “Teenage Wasteland”, chronicles the anguish of Daisy, the mother of, Donny, an obstinate and misunderstood teenager, as she attempts to ascertain and resolve his intensification of delinquent behavior. Donny’s difficulties both academically, and socially, have resulted in the principle of the school advising Daisy to seek professional support for Donny. As the story progresses, Donny remains alienated from his mother in spite of her apparent misguided efforts to help and too understand him. Adolescence is a most difficult time for the teen and the parents. The teen feels pressure from his peers, parents and teachers that can be overwhelming. He sees nothing but His own pain and cannot begin to envision His parent’s point-of-view. Conversely, parents often times either cannot, or refuse to try to understand what the adolescent is facing. The result, as in the story, is each placing the blame on the other for the turbulence in their lives with no positive outcome.

It seems that Donny is determined not to make peace with his mother. With the advent of a tutor, Calvin Beadle, Donny appears to be making positive improvement both in mood and social outlook, though he remains estranged from his mother. At school, several of the teachers said they had “…noticed how his attitude’s changed:” however, Tyler informs us that, “At home, Donny didn’t act much different.”
One issue with Donny was that he wanted his parents to trust him, yet he did not want to take responsibility for his actions, always laying the blame on someone else. When his mother questioned him about the beer found in his locker, which led to his expulsion, Donny’s response was “It wasn’t my fault. I promise.” Instead of admitting his wrongdoing, he laid the blame on someone else: “It was a put-up job! See, there’s this guy that doesn’t like me.”

Daisy, as do many parents at times, worried more about how she looked in someone else’s eyes than about her son: “…before her children were born, Daisy had been a forth-grade teacher. It shamed her now to sit before this principal as a parent, a parent who struck Mr. Lanham, no doubt, as unseeing or uncaring. Like Donny, she was thinking more about herself than she was about finding a mature and responsible solution to their problems and saving their increasingly deteriorating relationship.

Contributing to the decimation of Daisy and Donny’s relationship is Cal, Donny’s tutor. Instead of being an authoritative figure, as the psychologist leads Daisy to believe, he is really just an adolescent in disguise; an adult who, like Peter Pan, never wanted to grow-up, and never did. As the young girl in the story, Miriam said “…gosh, he’s not like a grown-up at all!” He surrounded himself with children professing to help them when in reality, what he was doing was satisfying his own immature needs at the expense of the children and their family’s.

In any relationship, it is essential that both parties commit equally to the nurturing of that relationship and take responsibility for their own actions. Understanding and communication play an indispensable role in achieving a healthy appreciation of each other’s needs and subsequently, a satisfying and happy family life, unlike the family in this story.

Jelica Djokovic, D, 090952

Emotional repression and marriage in '' The Story of an Hour'' by Kate Chopin

   Chopin presents Mrs. Mallard as a sympathetic character with strength and insight. As Louise understands the world, to lose her strongest familial tie is not a great loss so much as an opportunity to move beyond the "blind persistence" of the bondage of personal relationships. In particular, American wives in the late nineteenth century were legally bound to their husbands' power and status, but because widows did not bear the responsibility of finding or following a husband, they gained more legal recognition and often had more control over their lives. Although Chopin does not specifically cite the contemporary second-class situation of women in the text, Mrs. Mallard's exclamations of "Free! Body and soul free!" are highly suggestive of the historical context.

Beyond the question of female independence, Louise seems to suggest that although Brently Mallard has always treated their relationship with the best of intentions, any human connection with such an effect of permanence and intensity, despite its advantages, must also be a limiting factor in some respects. Even Louise's physical description seems to hint at her personality, as Chopin associates her youthful countenance with her potential for the future while mentioning lines that "bespoke repression and even a certain strength." Although neither her sister nor Brently's friend Richards would be likely to understand her point of view, Louise Mallard embraces solitude as the purest prerequisite for free choice.    

    Mrs. Mallard’s life had been devoid of emotion to such an extent that she has even wondered if it is worth living. The repression of emotion may represent Mrs. Mallard’s repressive husband, who had, up until that point, “smothered” and “silenced” her will. Therefore, her newfound freedom is brought on by an influx of emotion (representing the death of the figure of the repressive husband) that adds meaning and value to her life. For, though Mrs. Mallard initially feels fear when she hears of her husband’s death, the strength of the emotion is so powerful that Mrs. Mallard actually feels joy (because she is feeling). Since, this "joy that kills," ultimately leads to Mrs. Mallard's death, so that one way of interpreting this is that the repression of Mrs. Mallard's feelings is what killed her in the end. She realizes how after her husband’s apparent death that she was "free, free, free". This shows how her life would change and she is now a new person and removed from the repressed life she faced before. No evidence is given in the story about how she is repressed, but her reaction of his death and her new found confidence and freedom is enough. This repression of herself that she dealt with she was now removed from and would be able to be free.

    Kate Chopin negatively portrays marriage in the story as being the “blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature”. Instead of the story being about a poor wife who has just lost her beloved husband, the reader now can perceive the situation for what it is. A wife finally free of the domestic servitude called “marriage” she was trapped in. The main character Mrs. Mallard is liberated from husband Bentley Mallard through his death, because when he was alive, he would use his “powerful will” to bend hers.