Suggestion 1:
I just finished reading the short story, Regret, by Kate Chopin. The main character is a 50 year old woman named Mamzelle Aurlie. She is not married and lives on a farm with her dog Ponto and several people who work for her on her farm. The third line of the short story describes the a solitary life Mamzelle leads since “...she was quite alone in the world, except for her dog Ponto...her gun (with which she shot chicken-hawks), and her religion.” Mamzelle is not unhappy but rather she is content with her life. She never married but she does not regret her decision until her life changes and it makes her rethink her decisions.
I was drawn to the story when I read the detailed description of Mamzelle’s love life. Chopin tells the reader that Mamzelle “had never thought of marrying. She had never been in love. At the age of twenty she had received a proposal, which she had promptly declined, and at the age of fifty she has not yet lived to regret it.” After reading this paragraph, I immediately wanted to continue reading and find out if she ends up regretting her choices.
The focus of the short story is on Mamzelle and her feelings and emotions about her life as a single woman. All of a sudden, she goes from living a lonely isolated life to one in which she is caring for four young children. I felt Mamzelle’s mood though the descriptive language. Chopin says she “contemplated” the children and she “looked with a critical eye upon” them and she “surveyed” them. She clearly was not taking this lightly but she wasn’t sure what to do. I felt myself caught up in her situation. Mamzelle was not nurturing but rather stiff and professional. I laughed when her solution was to just go ahead and feed the children because food makes everything better .
The focus of the short story is on Mamzelle and her feelings and emotions about her life as a single woman. All of a sudden, she goes from living a lonely isolated life to one in which she is caring for four young children. I felt Mamzelle’s mood though the descriptive language. Chopin says she “contemplated” the children and she “looked with a critical eye upon” them and she “surveyed” them. She clearly was not taking this lightly but she wasn’t sure what to do. I felt myself caught up in her situation. Mamzelle was not nurturing but rather stiff and professional. I laughed when her solution was to just go ahead and feed the children because food makes everything better .
After Mamzelle decides to feed the kids, I wanted to see what her next steps would be. I was anxious to see if she would warm up to them and actually enjoy having them with her. Mamzelle’s quiet existence was suddenly interrupted when four children abruptly entered her life. As time went on, she developed a routine with the children and got used to having them around. She enjoyed having them run around her house and having them laugh and snuggle with her. At the end of two weeks, she saw her neighbor approach her home to pick up the four children. Mamzelle was surprised to see her and was even agitated. She was alone again and the “excitement was all over.” I was sad for Mamzelle to see her back to where she started because she was enjoying herself. I almost hoped that there was a way for her to continue a close relationship with the children. I really felt for her.
Chopin wants us to have a understanding of what it means to be lonely and the feeling of regret. I really enjoyed this short story because it made me think about consequences and how both small and large decisions have such a great impact on our lives. We are constantly making decisions for ourselves and they are not always the right decisions but we have to live with them. We may regret them but we still have to deal with the decision.
Link to the short story: http://americanliterature.com/author/kate-chopin/short-story/regret
Link to the short story: http://americanliterature.com/author/kate-chopin/short-story/regret
No comments:
Post a Comment