Reena’s Exploration Challenge #115

Welcome to another week in a space to be yourself!

Hats off to all those who responded to last week’s prompt, despite the gut-wrenching nature of the provocation! Evil is never an easy subject to talk about. Real evil is different from the caricatures we see on screen stories. I like the streak of strength and positivity that ran through it all – a willingness to look ahead, and refuse to be broken by the force.

Before I go on to the next prompt, allow me to share a development in this week. My e-book “When Time Stopped” is up on Kindle. Do have a look, and post a review if you find it worthwhile.

India

PROMPT

This week, I take you back to 1894 – “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, published in Vogue. Some of you might be familiar with it. For those who don’t I give a gist below.

Because of Mrs. Mallard’s heart condition, everyone basically tiptoes around her and treats her carefully. When her sister and family friend discover Mr. Mallard got killed in an accident, they take time to gently tell Mrs. Mallard that her husband has died. Mrs. Mallard cries her eyes out, then goes to her room to be by herself and locks the door.

Inside, she seems terrified of some knowledge that’s coming to her and finally realizes that it’s her freedom. Even though she and her husband loved each other, and she’s truly saddened by his death, she feels liberated and free for the first time. She looks forward to the days ahead instead of dreading them.

While Mrs. Mallard is having this epiphany, her sister keeps trying to check on her. Finally, Mrs. Mallard comes out of her room, newly resolved, and she and her sister start to go downstairs. Suddenly, the very not-dead Mr. Mallard comes in. When Mrs. Mallard sees him, she has a tremendous shock and dies.

Mrs. Mallard’s marriage is kind of– she’s lost in the shuffle. She’s lost herself. That’s why, even in the midst of her grief over her husband’s death, she can’t stop thinking about the potential such a sad event has to change her life in a positive way. It’s not even the idea that her husband was mean to her, because he sounds nice; it’s the concept that being tied to another person, no matter how great or awful he is, keeps you from being yourself.

So what are we supposed to think? Does “The Story of an Hour” suggest that it’s impossible to be tied down, or that we can’t really be ourselves for long?

Source: https://www.shmoop.com/story-of-hour/

The prompt is to write something in a similar spirit – it could tell the story of a year or day or hour or minute – something that brought about a change in the life of a protagonist, family, community, nation or the world.

As usual, there is no restriction on length or format of the piece. Write a post on your blog, and copy-paste the link here.

If you are choosing a pingback, please check if it has worked. There have been instances of pingbacks not working in the past. Tag it ‘Reena’s Exploration Challenge’ for easy location in the blog roll.

LAST WEEK’S ROUNDUP

Jim Adams at