Chopin, Roethke, and Mark Doty

¶ … Chopin, Roethke, and Mark Doty

We all know time is important and we all know we have a limited amount of it but these facts do not prevent us from becoming bogged down with the minutiae of life that rarely matters. In our age, we are blessed with fascinating modes of communication but more important that speaking or even doing is making something significant from that act. In other words, we may think we're contributing to life because we are active on Facebook or Twitter but the real matter we should be concerned with is the impact our work has on the world around us. Writers often address such important issues in way that illuminate the hard realities we often miss. Three such writers are Kate Chopin, Theodore Roethke, and Mark Doty. They attempt to illustrate the importance of time and how we spend it with three very different perspectives. In "The Story of an Hour," "Root Cellar," and "Golden Retrievals," these writers use imagery, setting, and the theme of time to move us to unfamiliar places to remind us of universal truths. When we look at ourselves and how we spend our time within the context of a larger universe over which we have no control, things look different and sometimes better.

In "The Story of an Hour," Chopin works with imagery and symbolism to enhance the story. The most powerful symbol is the house because Louise never has the opportunity to leave it. It is her small world and this represents her society. This story was penned when women were still rather oppressed. It was not unusual for women to act in a role of submission to their husbands. While Louise's house is her home, it is also her prison. She can look outside and only imagine what it must be like out there. Brently's hands "folded in death" (636) are a symbol of the "long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely" (636). As Louise considers her future, she opens and "spread her arms out to them in welcome" (636). Her "pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body" (636) as she feels alive for the first time.

The season is spring and it is fitting for the story, as spring is often associated with rebirth. Louise soon experiences a rebirth the news of her husband's demise. We read when she looks outside, the trees are "all aquiver with the new spring of life" (635) and she enjoys the "delicious breath of rain" (636) in the air. The emerging blue sky symbolizes wide-open opportunities for Louise. Freedom is everywhere around her. In that small house, she sees the endless future and in what can only be a moment of uncontrolled joy, she experiences the pleasure of being alive and having a bright future. She drinks in an "elixir of life through that open window" (636) in the here and now. It is as if she is alive for the very first time and this awakening gives her hope. In her future, she sees "spring days, and summer days" (636) and realizes her life from here on out belongs to her and not her husband; they are "her own" (636). We read it was "only yesterday she has thought with a shudder that life might be long" (636). Now, in this moment, it all seems remarkably short.

Chopin concludes the story with irony just to keep us guessing. While many believe that Louise dies from the joy of seeing her husband alive and well, we have a mind to consider otherwise. Louise has just experienced the most wonderful revelation of her life: freedom. She thought she was free from everything that held her down and held her back. She was a new woman already to embrace her new life. Her husband standing before her alive and well means certain death to that future and that life. Louise was not overjoyed, she was crushed and the thought of returning to the way things were simply too much. The time she had to enjoy that taste of freedom was short but we can know she would not have traded it for anything. As a result of this strange ending, death becomes a symbol for life. We should never consider ourselves dead before our time but we should also never take time for granted.

Because of the swirling emotions and sudden change Louise experiences, Chopin makes time important to this story. Louise, as a married women saw her future as long and uneventful. As a single woman with opportunities abounding, the future is whenever it is, is too short and it begins now. Louise takes complete advantage of her happiness and it is a good thing she does. Had she spent another moment in morning, she would have had less time to be joyful in that small slice of time. She did now know what her future held but we can almost bet that it does not include a sudden resuscitation of Brently. Here Chopin is emphasizing time. More specifically, an hour of time. This hour belongs to Louise and no one else and that joy was no doubt the most refreshing thing she experienced. Time is important and how we choose to spend our time, especially the here and now is important too, because we never know what is around the corner, much like Louise did not know. Regardless of not knowing what her future held, she changed in that short amount of time and we read she walked downstairs like a "goddess of Victory" (636). Here we can even say that grieving, while important, should not be all-consuming. Time is important and almost as important as what we do with it. Whatever the case, we should not waste it with things that do not matter. Louise had no idea of her fate and any knowledge would have robbed her from the most glorious experience of her life. With Louise, Chopin encourages us to enjoy freedom and embrace joy, from wherever it comes and for however long it lasts.

Time is looked at from another perspective in Theodore Roethke's poem, "Root Cellar." Here, we are taken on a sensory journey that is teeming with life. It demonstrates how we should celebrate life, regardless of circumstances. The cellar is dark and it smells of "Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks" (Roethke 9). Nevertheless, it is bursting with life. In fact, the speaker of the poem tells us nothing would "give up life" (10). The use of vivid imagery to help us see everything in the cellar. For example, "Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark, / Shoots dangled and drooped, / Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates" (Roethke 2-4). The speaker also tells us "even the dirt kept breathing a small breath" (11). The sensory information allows us to see everything from the shoots dangling "obscenely" (4) like "tropical snakes" (5) to a stinky manure "pile" (9). We feel as though we are there with the speaker and we are also aware that nothing outside the cellar matters to anything in it. Here, time goes on with or without human care or attention. With this notion, the speaker is demonstrating how very little humanity impacts life in the universe. Life goes on with or without us and this poem points this out quite well. While the forces f life fight for life in the cellar, there should be mistaking the fact that there is no need for humanity to become involved. We are pulled into this world and submersed in its urgency.

Another poem that likes to pull humanity away from its comfortable place in the universe is Mark Doty's "Golden Retrievals." The imagery and setting are important to the development of this poem where the speaker of the poem, a dog, lives only in the moment. The value of living in the moment hinges on the speaker's ability to capture every nuance, which this speaker does. As we might expect, the speaker is immediately attracted to what is within his field of vision. "Ball and Sticks capture my attention / seconds at a time," (1-2) he confesses, but a "bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel" (3) are even better. However, his attention is not with them for long. The scene in this poem shifts from the thought of a rabbit or squirrel to the speaker sniffing the wind, only to follow where the next scent take him. This could be "muck, pond, ditch, residue / of any thrillingly dead thing" (5-6). We can easily associate these images with a dog and while it seems strange to be distracted so easily, the speaker of the poem does not agree. In fact, it seems sillier to be consumed with a past that cannot be undone or a future that is far away. Those are the things from which we should allow ourselves to be distracted.

The setting is also important in this poem, as we know all we need to know: the dog is outside. Walking with his owner, he considers the absurdity of the human mind, sinking in the past "thinking of what you can never bring back" (8) or thinking about tomorrow. It is only a few seconds before our speaker is distracted by his "work / to unsnare time's warp" (10-1) and pull his owner from it back into the here and now. We do not need to wonder if the dog believes humanity is wasting time thinking about the past. He is convinced the best way to live it is to live in completely in the moment. The superior creature, man, does not have a handle on this notion quite yet. Sometimes we need other creatures of the universe to show us the way because we become too involved in all it means to be human. Too involved, it seems, that we miss much of the joy that lies before us. Nothing escapes this creature's attention and he could not be happier than where he is. There is no worry over where else he could be or even where he thinks he should be. There is no time for that because there are things to accomplish right here and now that will be gone all too soon.