Sample Review

"The Storm": Calitxa's Betrayal

     When reading Kate Chopin's "The Storm", one can only vision a typical soap opera. Take The Young and the Restless for example; it's one of the most well watched soaps operas around. As in many soaps there's drama, mystery, suspense and deception. "The Storm" captures it all. You have Calitxa, the wife who would want to be seen as loving, caring and devoted to her marriage. But as they say in the real world "when things seem to good to be true they usually are". And of course, there is the clueless and easygoing husband Bobinot. They share a four-year-old son together named Bibi. Clueless to the fact that his wife isn't happy in this marriage Bobinot run to the store to fetch some groceries while Calitxa stays home performing her wifely duties. "She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine." Noticing that a storm is about to hit, she "got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors."
     While preparing for the storm, Calitxa get a visit from a former lover Alcee. "May I come and wait on your gallery till the storm is over," he says. She says yes but waiting is not all he does. "Alcee's arm encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him." The love scene gets more passionate than ever and Calitxa commits the ultimate sin adultery. There is no time to lay and enjoy the moment; "the rain beat softly upon the shingles, inviting them to drowsiness and sleep. But they dared not yield." Towards the end, the storm dies down; Alcee rides of giving Calitxa one last smile. Bobinot and Bibi return without the slightest idea of what just happened. Looking innocent as ever, Calitxa greets both husband and son with kisses of joy. "Oh, Bobinot! You back!" Like in many soaps, dumfounded as ever, the husband begins to explain his whereabouts while the storm was going on not noticing any difference in his wife.
     The unkept secret of deception and betrayal isn't the only shocking part of the story. What tickles me is Alcee too is married. And he returns home to write his wife Clarisse a letter. "It was a loving letter, full of tender solicitude." How funny is this, Alcee writing a loving letter when he just finished loving someone else? He tells his wife who is away with the kids to stay as long as she likes. He states that he is getting along just fine, and he was. Clarisse on the other hand, "was charmed upon receiving her husband's letter." For she was in no hurry to get back home because she had nothing that great to return to. "Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while" Who could this be, Alcee could quench Calitxa's thirst but couldn't keep the flame burning in his own marriage.
     Kate Chopin has written many great works and in many of them nature plays an essential role. Take "The Story of an Hour" for example, when she uses the season of spring to represent happiness and rebirth. She describes the tops of trees, "that were all quiver with new spring life." In "The Storm" the name speaks for itself. The word storm represents conflict and disaster. "The rain beat upon the low, shingled roof with force and clatter that threatened to break an entrance and deluge them there."
     "The Storm" is a great story with compelling drama. It captures all the elements in many of today's sex scandals and television shows. The best part is no one finds out there for no one gets hurt. Of course you will have the holier than thou reader who would call Calitxa a whore or unfit mother but who are they to judge nobody's perfect.