Page 1104 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

There would be no 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. A kind intention or a cruel intention make the act seem no less a crime

as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

Do you believe it is true that “men and women believe they

have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow creature”?

Can you give an everyday example?

2. Though people grieve differently, grief seems to take a general

path from the first bereft stages through acceptance and,

finally, moving on with life. How does this story, compressed
though it is in time, reflect those stages?

Topics for Writing

Journal Entry or Essay 1: The Grieving Process

Grief is a part of human life. If an important person or animal in your
life has died, how did you handle the grief? What is your grieving

process, and how did you move through it?

Essay 2: Love and Freedom

Women in the era in which “The Story of an Hour” is set were

expected to marry. Because society did not give women much choice
in those times, perhaps it is natural that Louise Mallard does not

realize that freedom is what she wants until she believes her husband

is dead. What about you? If you had to choose between love and

freedom, which would you choose and why?