Chopin shorts & Belles Demoiselles

Reading Questions for Chopin shorts & “Belles Demoiselles”:

Please use full paragraphs to a nswer 4 of the following 5 questions.

1. The local color movement in American literature is “a derivation of realism that emphasized the folkways, speech patterns, manners, and traditions of a region” (Perkins 630). Both Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable were well known for their local color stories depicting life in along the Mississippi River and in the bayous of Louisiana. For a few minutes, think about their depiction of that world. What sort of place is it? What is the terrain like? What are the people like? What things are most important to them? What are their values? How do they interact with each other? What are their attitudes towards life and each other and the world around them? Why do they do the things they do? Write a paragraph in which you name and discuss the three most important characteristics of the river/bayou world that you see in these stories.

2. In both “Beyond the Bayou” and “Ma-ame Pelagie,” the central female character must overcome a personal barrier for the sake of someone else, yet these characters are very different. Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting La Folle and Ma’ame Pelagie.

3. Why are “Desiree’s Baby” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” important stories? What do they tell us about ourselves and the world we live in? How and why do we connect with them? Choose one of these stories and write a paragraph exploring your answer to these questions.

4. The Colonel is the protagonist in “Belles Demoiselles Plantation,” and over the course of the story, he is struggling with an important question. What is the question that the Colonel must answer for himself in “Belles Demoiselles Plantation”? Why is it such a struggle for him? What are the competing interests? How does he answer it? Why does he answer it in that particular way? What is Cable trying to say in this story? Write a paragraph exploring your thoughts. Be very specific in your answer.

5. Literary devices such as irony and foreshadowing are important in both Chopin’s stories and Cable’s story. Write a paragraph discussing irony and/or foreshadowing in one or more of this week’s stories. Give examples of the irony and/or foreshadowing and think about how it creates meaning in the story or how it affects the reader—why does the author use that particular device in the story?