Second Essay-I had to compare and contrast between 2 characters in 2 different stories

This is the second essay that was revised, (not completely I must add, I don't like the way I ended it) that I included in my portfolio in my English class.

Absolute power corrupts. When people live in a dictatorship, whether it is real or imagined it leaves no room for growth. In Sandra Cisneros' "Eleven", the teacher's subjugation of Rachel makes her unable to stand up for herself. In comparison, Kate Chopin's' "The Story of an Hour" tells how Mrs. Mallard feels the subjugation of marriage as a noose around her neck and lives her life in repression of her own desires. It seems to reason, that if one represses emotion or allows external power to control him/her, it can lead to a loss of one's voice.

When uncomfortable things happen, one's reactions to those events reveals a great deal about that person. When Mrs. Mallard is told by her sister and brother-in-law about her husband's death, it was a bitter sweet moment. Mrs. Mallard was filled with grief for the loss of her companion but relieved at the freedom that came from her husband's death. It was only at that time she hoped that "life be long" and looked forward to, "a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely." One can picture Mrs. Mallard standing taller and throwing the yoke of marriage from around her neck as she imagines a life lived only for herself. In contrast, when Rachel's teacher continues to insist that the ratty sweater is hers she wants only to be, "like a tiny o in the sky, so tiny-tiny you have to close your eyes to see it." Her teacher has made her feel so powerless that she feels minuscule, and wants to disappear. Inside she is screaming that the sweater is not hers. Rachel wants to cry and in that moment feels like she is three and not eleven. In essence both Rachel and Mrs. Mallard relinquished their power to a person in whom they trusted.

Many times people in society are pigeon holed into what is "socially acceptable"; everyone has a role to play. Mrs. Mallard's role was dutiful and obedient wife, however she was not happy in her role. When her sister Josephine tells her of her husband's death she, "wept in wild abandon" and then retreats to where she presumably would be alone with her grief. On the contrary, she feels such a freedom due to the death of her husband that she throws open a window and "drinks in the very elixir of life". Rachel on the other hand is the adolescent girl when asked a question is not assertive enough to say the sweater is not hers. The teacher places it on her desk to make her take ownership of the sweater. Rachel distances herself from the sweater and the situation. She begins to retreat inside of herself and eventually feels as if she is regressing in age; wanting only to be 102, "anything but eleven".

Who knows what these kinds of imbalances of power may do to one's self esteem. Mrs. Mallard loved her husband, but in her love for him she had ignored who she was and what she wanted. She had lost her voice, her sense of self and it is only in her husband's death that she finds a release from ties that bind. Rachel is young and the young heal quickly but a continued pattern of not standing up for one's self could become detrimental in the long run.