Worn Path and the Storm

¶ … Worn path" and "The Storm"

Two descriptive short stories, the Storm, by Kate Chopin and a Worn Path are both having a feminine figure at a central place on the their stage. In both stories setting and tone are capital for the development of the action. Nature also plays a major role and it is a character in itself.

For Phoenix Jackson, an old black woman, all the elements in the nature represent obstacles to overcome on her journey through the pinewoods, "on a big frozen day in the early morning"(Welty, "A Worn Path") to reach town where she goes to get medicine for her grandson, while for Calixta, the main character in "The Storm, nature works as an accomplice. The ages of the two women are reflected in the season chosen by the two authors: the old granny, Phoenix Jackson, makes her journey in winter, when everything is frozen and still, while the scenes described by Kate Chopin in "The Storm" are happening in the middle of an exploding nature in spring, everything is bursting with life and the storm instead of becoming a real threat, leads Alcee Laballiere, an old boyfriend to her doorstep. The sudden and threatening storm not only brought Calixta's old boyfriend to her house, but kept everyone away from the house and was a decisive element in the course the action would take.

Chopin's choice of verbs and adverbs show a rhythmic action that is developing gradually, rapidly and according to the ages of the two characters: Calixta and Alcee. Clothes on the porch are "grabbed" and "snatched," at the beginning of the story Calixta is "sewing furiously," being "greatly occupied," she gets up "hurriedly" when she finally notices the imminent storm.(Chopin, the Storm) So, by the choice of such words to describe actions, the tone is set high and the rhythm is always vivid. Phoenix, the old black woman on her way to town walks "slowly," "moving a little from side to side, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grand-father clock" (Welty, a Worn Path). The same technique of choosing the verbs and adverbs to describe action is used by Welty for the developing action when describing the moves of her heroine, this time with the intention of creating a slow tone and a peaceful rhythm.

The two women have both blue eyes, but Phoenix' eyes were "blue with age" while Calixta's "liquid blue eyes" "still retained their melting quality." The colors play also an important role to the set of the stories: Calixta is "dressed in a white sacque," her bedroom reveals a "white, monumental bed"(Chopin, the Storm). The old Phoenix "wore a dark striped dress" and "walked slowly in the dark pine shadows"(Welty, a Worn Path).

Welty's and Chopin's short stories' main feminine characters, although different in age, skin color, social status, appearance, have something in common: they are both strong, powerful women, who know what to do when they want something. Old Phoenix was fighting her own physical weaknesses and the hostile nature and pursued her way to town with stubbornness. That would have been a serious trial even for a young person, as the young hunter she encountered pointed out. After having helped her get up, he expressed his amazement at the long way she wanted to go: "Why, that's too far! That's as far as I walk when I come out myself, and I get something for my trouble." Calixta, on the other hand, although her actions are not destined to a higher purpose, a difficult to reach target, is perceived like a strong woman from the description of her family and home. She appears to manage very well her household and her family: husband and son, on a small farm, out in the country.

The two women are driven by love in both short stories, but in old Phoenix' case love means giving everything in her power to bring her grandson his medicine from town and even buy him a present for Christmas at the cost of her very life, while in Clixta's case, love means both ways. Love means working hard for her family and household, but it also means throwing herself in the arms of her old boyfriend out of love for life itself, out of passion.

Both authors of the two short stories keep out of being judgmental towards the characters. There are no commentaries regarding the white people's attitude towards the old black woman struggling to get her ill grandson medicine on a cold December day in Welty's story and Chopin's story is also lacking any moral stand towards Calixta and Alcee's passionate encounter during the storm. Phoenix is however closer to a saint in her dedication to a cause, while Calixta is a human being who abandons herself at some point to the voice of desire and allows a few moments of surrender to the carnal pleasure that takes hold, regardless of her and her accidental companion's marital status.

Welty's story is full of imagery, thorny bushes come to life and grab old Phoenix' dress, she dreams of a little boy bringing her a slice of marble cake, at a moment of rest, a scarecrow, in the "dead cornfield" is believed to be a ghost, cabins are compared with "old women under a spell sitting there," the road going down is described as being "dark as a cave" (Welty, a Worn Path). In Chopin's story, there are a very few things left to imagination; everything is down to earth, real life is pulsating through every scene. There are the chickens who "huddled on the porch, moments before Alcee's arrival, the "plows and a harrow piled up in the corner" that suggest life with its every day activities, the cotton sheets on the floor, Calixta was gathering "nervously" while "Alcee flung himself into a rocker," all signs of normal life in a household in the country. There is little that could be described as mystical in "The Storm," everything is down to earth and as close to the human nature as possible. Only the "monumental bed" with "its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious"(Chopin, the Storm). There are two possible meanings intended to be attached here: the mystery of life expressed by the sexual act between husband and wife and the mystery of the forbidden act provoking the two characters to commit adultery.

The hearing sense is not forgotten in both stories, too, for the completion of the picture. Sounds, or the lack of them, are important. At the beginning, old Phoenix' cane "made a grave and persistent noise in the still air." Even the noise of the cane on the frozen ground is grave and this is making the story's tone setting round right from the first paragraph.