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False Gems And The Story Essay

In this way, we can understand how ignorance is certainly bliss. In "The Story of an Hour," Louise is at first frightened by the prospect of being single, but as she becomes more comfortable with the idea, she likes it. We read that as she is thinking of her future, she opens and "spread her arms out to them in welcome" (636). She becomes aware that she is no longer her husband's prisoner. Symbolism is important in both stories as well. In "The False Gems," the most obvious symbol in the story is the gems serving as a symbol for the Lantins' marriage, which is false. Mr. Lantin is completely unaware of how false his marriage is but he should have realized that something was different when he things were running better than smoothly. In "The Story of an Hour," death becomes a symbol of life for Louise. She becomes aware that there would be no "powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and...

With her husband dead, she is free to become a free and happy woman.
The False Gems" and "the Story of an Hour" are tales that teach us that the truth about life is sometimes more difficult to face than we might imagine. Mr. Lantin can enjoy the riches of his wife's infidelity but he must also live with the fact that she was not faithful to him. Louise can toy with the idea of being single but when that opportunity is taken from her, it is more painful than she can bear. In short, these stories demonstrate how the truth hurts.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul, ed. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company. 1990.

A de Maupassant, Guy. "The False Gems." The Collected Stories of Guy de Mauspassant. New York: Avenel Books.…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lauter, Paul, ed. Lexington D.C. Heath and Company. 1990.

A de Maupassant, Guy. "The False Gems." The Collected Stories of Guy de Mauspassant. New York: Avenel Books. 1985.
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