The Feminist Movement By Kate Chopin And Boys And Girls By...

For millennia, women have been perceived as lesser beings compared to men. Many women tend to fall into a sense of entrapment brought on by the superiority complex of men. The feminist movement, which began in the late nineteenth century, works to disprove this false perception. The movement describes a fight for political, cultural, and economic rights equal to that of men. Two short stories, â€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin and â€Å"Boys and Girls† by Alice Munro, relate experiences from female perspectives, highlighting oppression against women. The authors use different techniques to show the protagonists’ similar struggle for liberation in their male-dominated environments. While Alice Munro uses the voice of a young girl to†¦show more content†¦Through this voice, the author captures the readers’ sympathies and furthers their understanding of injustice against women. Kate Chopin expresses an opinion similar to Alice Munro’ s in her piece, â€Å"The Story of an Hour.† Using the metaphor of a heart disease, Chopin illustrates how marriage can serve to subjugate women. She shows the underlying control men have over women with this symbol. In Chopin’s story, the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard, has just discovered the news of her husband’s death. Chopin states, â€Å"Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death† (para. 1). Mrs. Mallard’s sister, Josephine, and her husband’s friend, Richard, are the ones who inform her, and they are cautious of her condition. Mrs. Mallard soon realizes the significance of the death of her husband when Chopin writes,â€Å"There would be no more powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature† (para. 10). While Chopin keeps her accusation gender neutral, she makes it apparent that Mrs. Mallard’s husband imposes private will upon her. This is evidence of female oppression. After processing the news of his death, Mrs. Mallard expresses a surge of liberation as â€Å"her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood