"The Storm" by Kate Chopin is a super short, super sexy story and by far my favorite thing I read this semester.
I think that the last line of "The Storm"-- "So the storm passed and everyone was happy" -- means exactly what it says it means. I like the idea that something so big can happen between two people and they can keep it as their little secret. I'm sure for other people they would read this and think, "That's impossible! Surely they would feel guilty and nothing would ever be the same again."
When I was in fourth grade I stayed home from school and went to the mall with my Mom. Later on that evening while we were eating Mexican food I confessed that I felt a little guilty for staying home from school. My Mom told me that guilt was optional. It's true and I hope these two characters never really feel bad for what they did. What would be the point? They did it. They may never do it again. So why beat themselves for a selfish moment of passion. I don't think her sleeping with Alcee means she loves her family any less.
I don't think Chopin is advocating adultery. I don't think she's implying that marriage doesn't mean anything. Perhaps she just saying that infidelity doesn't have to. Regardless she must have known that this story was controversial for it's time because according to the text she never even tried to get it published. It suggest that readers would have been "outraged by other aspects of the story, from Calixta's frank enjoyment of her sexual encounter with Alcee to the fact that they suffer no consequences for their adulterous act."
I was also wondering if perhaps things weren't that great before the storm for Calixta and her husband Bobinot. When Bobinot and the son Bibi were walking home from the store after the storm Bobinot was worried that Calixta would be angry at how dirty the boy was. Maybe Calixta was super uptight and all she needed was little "me time" with another man. And Alcee and his wife were obviously having some problems since she was living away from him and "more than willing to forego" "their intimate conjugal life." Maybe after the heated affair Alcee and Calixta loosened up a little and they really were happier with their significant others.
You do a really good job of pointing to specific instances in the story to support your reading -- for example, you notice that Babinot is nervous coming home.
ReplyDeleteThis, though, is probably the best part of the post:
"I don't think she's implying that marriage doesn't mean anything. Perhaps she just saying that infidelity doesn't have to. "
That seems to be a really careful reading of that last line, given all that leads up to it. Can you give the reader a little more support that Calixta's marriage is meaningful, just as the her infidelity (and infidelity in general, you might argue) doesn't completely destroy that meaning?