The Difficult Journey in Kate Chopin’s short stories, At Cheniere Caminada and Athenaise :: compare and contrast essay examples

The Difficult Journey in Kate Chopins short stories, At Cheniere Caminada and Athenaise Kate Chopins short stories, At Cheniere Caminada and Athenaise, present the tales of devil innocents, Tonie and Athenaise, taking a journey. They mustiness leave their kinspersons and wander into foreign lands in front returning with a great understanding of themselves and life. The structure, setting, and images of these two stories symbolize the seeming transformation of the characters. In structure, the two stories follow a journey motif. In At Cheniere Caminada, Tonie begins at home and then travels to guanine isle then New Orleans before returning to Cheniere Caminada. He cannot return to his home until he has come to toll with the questions that have risen in his life. For Athenaise, her journey also takes her from her married home. The horizontal surface opens with her at her parents home. She is forced to return to Cazeaus house, that because she doe s not have the answers to her questions, she cannot stay there. She runs away to New Orleans and only when comes back to Cazeau when she finds her answers. Paralleling the journey of these two is the contrast of city and country. Tonie and Athenaise both lie in the country, a place traditionally associated with innocence, a lack of knowledge. In the beginning of both stories, Tonie and Athenaise lack an understanding of love and sexuality. Tonie had no liking to inflame the hearts of any of the island maidens (Cheniere 1). In Part II, the narrator tells the contributor that Tonie had never felt those premonitory symptoms of love which afflict the greater percentage of mankind before they reach the age which he had attained (2). Since the aspiration of his affection, Claire, does not live on Cheniere Caminada, Tonie must travel to Grand Isle to be near her. After he misses the chance to take her as his own when they are alone on his boat (4), he leaves Grand Is le, and we next see him in New Orleans, even farther from his home. totally after he hears the news of Claires death can he return to Cheniere Caminada because this represents the end of his quest.