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Comparison Of An Hour And A Pair Of Silk Stockings

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Both A Pair of Silk Stockings and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin, were written from a third person point of view, making the story less subjective and more objective. As a result the reader is unable to put him or herself into the story. The narrative structures of A Pair of Silk Stockings and The Story of an Hour differ in that the setting, the time and overall story plots are completely different. There is one similarity that sticks out, both protagonists are selfish. There is really strong symbolism and imagery in both stories which puts the reader inside the story. The narrative structure of Chopin’s A Pair of Silk Stockings indicates that the story takes place in a big city, most likely New York or somewhere similar. This can be assumed because Mrs. Sommers visits a department store, goes to a shoe department store, a magazine stand, and eats at a fancy restaurant. The fact that she mentions how the shoe store is across from the department store and only a few feet away there was a magazine display and the restaurant was on the same corner. Maybe it was a downtown area with lots of shops and restaurants and the theater. The story starts out with her finding the money and spending a couple of days contemplating what to do with it. She “walked about apparently in a dreamy state” trying to figure out what to do, …show more content…

Chopin’s description that the stockings “glide serpent-like through her fingers” (Chopin, Vogue 7, 1897) in relevance to her temptation to start buying things she doesn’t necessarily need, can be seen as a reference to sin. This serpent imagery can be seen as a temptation from Satan to indulge carelessly in fancy materialistic items. At first Mrs. Sommers is practical but her exhaustion from having forgotten to eat seems to cloud her better judgement and her exhaustion, from her poverty stricken life, leads to her indulgence and misuse of her

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