The Story of An Hour and In the Lake of the Woods - Essay Example

?, The Story of An Hour and In the Lake of the Woods Your First Your Submitted The Story of An Hour and In the Lake of the Woods Art and protest are linked together, intrinsically. Even in ancient times when art would be about the glory of kings and religious verses, writers would manage to intersperse their lines with feelings of protest about social conditions that existed during a particular period of time. The importance of art in the success of certain social movements and in attaining for certain social ills the attention that they deserve cannot be stressed too much. Artists in every age have been the torchbearers of change and have managed to communicate the sentiment of the downtrodden in forms of protest, to the rulers of a community or nation. Forms of such protest can be directed against what an author feels is a social malaise-racial discrimination, discrimination based on gender, corruption, human trafficking and so on and so forth. The manner in which such issues are perceived by the world at large depends greatly upon the way in which they are represented in works of literature by an author. This paper shall discuss two works of literature and how they can be called works of protest art. The paper shall look into The Story of An Hour, a short story by the American author Kate Chopin and In the Lake of the Woods by another American author, Tim O’Brien. The works interrogate normally held notions regarding gender and patriotism. They also question the way in which certain aspects of the society work. This is done in a way that is characteristic of the two authors mentioned. In In the Lake of the Woods, the author Tim O’Brien relates to the reader the story of a man named John Wade. The story revolves around the mystery of the murder of John’s wife and how he himself is suspected to have a hand in the murder of his wife. His wife, Kathy Wade, is found to be missing and the quest for the missing wife who is suspected to be dead forms a major part of the novel’s plot. Another important aspect of the novel’s plot is the political career of the protagonist. John Wade loses an election to the U.S. senate by a huge margin after his involvement in the massacre of an entire village is made public. This turns the tide of public sentiment against him. The issue of public perception is thus introduced at a very early stage in the novel. The novel also explores how the childhood of a person can influence the life of a person at every stage. John Wade is shown to have been very close to his father when he was a child despite his father’s physically and emotionally abusive nature. His father’s death is shown to have been a major event in his life. His childhood sufferings led him to take refuge in an alter-ego, the “Sorcerer” (O’Brien, 1995). This helped him to escape the mundane sufferings of his life. Here, O’Brien makes his readers aware of the escapist attitudes of his protagonist Wade achieves this escape through a repression of his emotions. This aspect of his personality is very important from the novel’s point of view, especially on the thematic front. Later in his life, he is adept at hiding his emotions and feelings from other people, including his own wife. Many of the torments that John faces in his life are put down to the traumatic events that he had to face while he was a soldier in Vietnam. The incident where an entire village is wiped out is based on a true incident that happened during the Vietnam War where the residents of a village named My Lai were massacred. Everybody, including women and children were killed in an inhumane assault that left the international community in shock. The people of Vietnam and the American soldiers who were a part of the operation were left scarred for life in an operation that was the result of a war that stretched on without an end in sight for either party. The tactics that the Vietnamese adopted made it difficult for the American army to pinpoint the enemy to a particular point in space and this led to a great deal of frustration in the soldiers who had to endure a very long time away from home in hostile conditions of war. This novel is a protest against such arbitrary decisions that are made by the people in power. According to the novel, such decisions do not take into account the sufferings that the civilians of the attacked country and their own soldiers have to face. The mentally disturbed condition of john is shown to intensify during the war and as a result of the experiences of the war as related to Kathy in the letters that he sends from the warfront. John, in a rare moment of candor, is able to assess his position that was to a great extent the result of his involvement in the war in Vietnam. He had a momentary glimpse of himself from above, as if through a camera lens. Ex- sorcerer. Ex-candidate for the United States Senate. Now a poor hung-over putz without a trick in his bag. (O’Brien, 1995) He realizes the futility of the war and the destruction that it has caused in his life. At this point in the novel, however, the course of events is irreversible. The trauma that John has had to live through has already made him a mental wreck by this point in the novel. Through techniques of art that make the reader understand the mental condition of John, O’Brien is able to make a compelling case against the use of violence in dealing with conflict that is based especially not in one’s own country. The novel is thus a method of protest for the author against the atrocities that were committed during the Vietnam war and the mental scars that the American soldiers were left with as a result of the war. Chopin’s works, like those of O’Brien, critique an ideology that id held by people in general. The Story of an Hour is, as the title suggests, the account of a series of events that happen in a very short duration of time to a woman who is referred to as Mrs. Mallard. It is only once that she is referred to by her first name, Louise. The story revolves around the supposed death of Brently Mallard and the effect of the false news of his death. The effect of the news of his death is a surprise for the reader because it is a departure from convention and the role that a wife is traditionally supposed to play. The news of the death of her husband causes Mrs. Mallard to introspect upon the nature of her married life and upon the life that she would be able to lead in the future. These ruminations lead her to become happy that the fetters that marriage imposed upon her were lifted. She is happy that she would be able to take her own decisions in life and lead a life where her own subjectivity would not have to bow down before that of anyone. Like other works of Chopin, this work of hers too is a work of art that protests against the social structures that are oppressive towards women and bind their subjectivity. The thoughts that go through the mind of the protagonist turn into an analysis of the very nature of the social institution of marriage that curbs the creative freedom of women and makes them live cloistered and unwholesome existences. The works of Chopin which came out at the fag end of the nineteenth century served to make women aware of their rights to a great extent and enabled them to understand the nature of the institutions that were instrumental in the maintenance of the inferior positions that they held in the family and the society. The existence of the husband becomes a fetter for the individual existence of the women. The man in a relationship is able to maintain his individuality and also impose it upon his wife. This unequal relationship produces disturbing effects and the situation that Chopin talks of in this story is an extreme one where the wife is delighted owing to the death of her husband. It is only the absence of her husband that can guarantee her freedom. Once she sees her husband, she has a heart attack which Chopin ironically calls the “Joy that kills” (Chopin, 2011). The thirst for freedom that Mrs. Mallard experiences is summarized in these lines- When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" (Chopin, 2011). The works of literature that have been under the scanner in this paper contribute to the culture of protest in their own ways. They protest against ideologies that cause the marginalization of certain communities. Their protest needs to be analyzed in great detail since they open the doors to a new society that may be founded on the egalitarian principles that they profess. References O’Brien, Tim. (1995). In the Lake of the Woods. New York: Flamingo. Chopin, Kate. (2011). “The Story of an Hour”. The Story of an Hour: And Other Stories. New York: Pinball Read More