Analyzing Atwood's "The Female Body" and Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

Compare and/or contrast two representations of women.

When writing literary works most, authors will agree that it is difficult to write a story without any inspiration. The writers will often have some motive, either from past experiences or something that can inspire an idea for a particular story or essay. Although the story or essay can be fictitious it can still change how society feels about a certain issue. The two works The Female Body by Margaret Atwood and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin romanticizes the view of women in their own opinion, emphasizing ideas such as women being portrayed as common housewives, objects, emotional delinquents, and submissive individuals. The similarities include both authors has their own distinct impression of how women are being depicted in society and the conflicted roles of husbands versus wives or man versus women.

The obvious comparison when comparing these two works is the aspect that they are both written by feminist.

Kate Chopin in 1894

Photoportrait of writer Kate Chopin

English: Author Margaret Atwood attends a reading ...

In The Female Body, Atwood is trying to express her point of view, or sway the readers to understand the properties of the female body. Atwood uses words that she believes society would view the female body. In the first section she refers to the female body as being a “topic” because it is constantly being talked about. “My topic feels like hell.” (Atwood 73) Atwood uses her body assuming that all other females feel the same way. Atwood goes and develops the female body as “a renewable one luckily” (Atwood 75) and that the female body will not always be accepted in society. When the body is young it has uses; “It sells cars, beer shaving lotion, cigarettes…”(Atwood 75). However she mentions that “those things wear out so quickly” (Atwood 75) She explains that society holds a supernatural image...