Sample 3.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 525.

On the shore of the French Riviera, about half-way between Marseilles and the Italian border, stood a large, proud, rose-coloured hotel. Deferential palms cooled its flushed façade, and before it stretched a short dazzling beach. Now it has become a summer resort of notable and fashionable people; in 1925 it was almost deserted after its English clientele went north in April; only the cupolas of a dozen old villas rotted like water lilies among the massed pines between Gausse's Hotel des Étrangers and Cannes, five miles away.

The hotel and its bright tan prayer rug of a beach were one. In the early morning the distant image of Cannes, the pink and cream old fortifications, the purple Alp that bounded Italy, were cast across the water and lay quavering in the ripples and rings sent up by sea-plants through the clear shallows. (From F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Tender is the Night')

The excerpt is taken from the novel Tender is the Night by F.S. Fitzgerald. It presents a description of a plush hotel situated on the shore. The vivid depiction of the hotel and scenery is created via numerous expressive means and stylistic devices among which are: epithets "rose-coloured", "flushed" dazzling", "deserted"; metaphoric epithet "proud". The latter underlies the idea that the building looks great and imposing. The simile "villas rotted like water lilies" can be interpreted in two ways: on the one hand, a negatively charged adjective rotted stresses a contrast between the beautiful hotel and the putrefied lilies; on the other hand, the comparison with water lilies may hint at the fact that there was something beautiful about these building.

The syntax also adds to the expressiveness of the description. The complete inversion in the opening sentence (which serves as a salient position in the text) allows to put off the most important information ("stood a large, proud, rose-coloured hotel") thus highlighting the object in focus in the given passage. The use of antithesis in the third sentence helps bring together the hotel condition at different times. The contrast created works in favour of modern condition, underlying the growing significance and popularity of the building. The enumeration ("the distant image of Cannes, the pink and cream old fortifications, the purple Alp that bounded Italy") points to the peculiarities of the setting. Connected asyndetically these homogeneous parts of the sentence make the description panoramic.

Numerous references to colours ("rose-coloured hotel", "the pink and cream old fortifications"," the purple Alp") contributes to the pleasant and versatile portrayal of the hotel, which can be perceived as a symbol of luxurious and flamboyant life of rich people visiting it.

Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1850, one of five children but the only one to live through her twenties. Her father, Thomas O'Flaherty, died when she was five, and she spent her childhood among women: her mother, Eliza; grandmother; great-grandmother; and the nuns who ran her school. In 1870, Chopin married Oscar Chopin and moved with him to New Orleans, where they had six children.

Chopin was an independent spirit who smoked cigarettes, walked alone through the city, and argued passionately with others about politics and social problems, much to the dismay of the other New Orleans housewives in her social circle. Not long after the family moved to Cloutierville, Louisiana, Oscar died unexpectedly. Chopin mourned his death deeply but eventually embraced her independence, even going so far as to having an affair with a married man. Chopin soon returned to St. Louis, where she would spend the rest of her life.

Chopin began writing fiction in 1889. She wrote about life and people in Louisiana and focused her attention on love, sex, marriage, women, and independence. She published her first novel, At Fault, in 1890, when she was forty. The novel was well received, and she went on to publish short stories and essays addressing similar topics. She published two collections of short stories, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Arcadie (1897), and became known as a writer with a keen eye for local culture. “The Story of an Hour” was published in 1894 and, along with “The Storm” (1898), is among Chopin's most famous stories. Although Chopin's female protagonists act in unconventional, even scandalous, ways, readers accepted this as simply part of the storytelling and didn't suspect Chopin of moralizing or trying to insert her personal opinions into her work.

In 1899, Chopin published her second novel, The Awakening. The novel, which chronicles a married woman's adulterous affair, shocked readers. Chopin had allowed her support of women's independence and sexual freedom to shine through, which proved to be unacceptable. The publication of this novel marked the beginning of the end of Chopin's writing career, and the novel soon fell out of print, remaining undiscovered until the 1950s.

Today, Chopin is known for addressing feminist issues many years before the feminist movement became a major social and political force in America. When Chopin was writing, the feminist movement had barely begun, and in Louisiana, women were still considered to be their husbands' lawful property. As a result, Chopin's brazen, sensual, independent protagonists were years ahead of their time. “The Story of an Hour” reflects Chopin's view of the repressive role that marriage played in women's lives as the protagonist, Louise Mallard, feels immense freedom only when her husband has died. While he is alive, she must live for him, and only when he dies does her life once again become her own.

Chopin died of a brain hemorrhage in 1904. She was fifty-two.

In "The Story of an Hour," Kate Chopin describes a woman's reaction to the shocking news that her husband has died in a railroad accident and then her dramatic response to discovering that he is actually alive.

"The simple plot and omniscient point of view allow the author to focus on Mrs. Mallard's thoughts. This in turn aids in the expression of the story's theme, which focuses on Mrs. Mallard's desire for autonomy and freedom. What is ironic is that she expects to realize this desire only through her husband's death. Mrs. Mallard is generally presented as a likable and sympathetic character. The delicacy with which her sister breaks the news of her husband's death and the initial reference to Mrs. Mallard's "heart trouble" generate sympathy for her in the reader. This sympathetic disposition toward her is amplified later when she is described as "young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength." "