Analysis Of Caline

The Circle of Darkness

Through out history, love has always been a factor. Whether is it in the Bible, or history or literature. One example could be Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Both of the main characters are in "darkness" of who they are until they meet each other. They are both instantly attracted to each other. It is like Romeo and Juliet and have found the light, but only to end up back in darkness with out each other. The same thing occurs in Kate Chopin's short story, titled Caline. Waking from the darkened existence of young adolescence, Caline discovers the calling of womanhood; just after a journey of unclear passion, she dozes back, unsuspectingly, into the shadow of her former state.

At the beginning of the story, Caline is awakened by a train, which makes a sudden stop not to far from where she is sleeping in a field. The "sudden stopping which had awakened her" physically which because of her curiosity of this event, caused a young man who was an artist on the train, mentally woke her up to who she was inside. By the description in the first paragraph, Caline is a tall dark skinned Acadian teenager. When Caline checked out what was going on, she realized that the people on the train spoke a different language. The language barrier did not seem to matter to Caline, once she noticed the young artist. Even though there was not a word spoken between to two of them, an attraction went pass words alone. It seems as if words were not even necessary. As the "pleasant-faced youngster" began to draw a "motionless" Caline, infatuation begins to blossom between her and the artist. Before she know it, the boy was gone but she "could never feel the same way after that" incident. Her eyes opened to life in a brand new way. It was as if something new was revealed to her in those few moments with the boys even without the use of words. The situation not only made her curious about herself, but an attraction with the boy, which was something brand new to her that she had never experienced.

Caline was excited about life and she is ready for change after the train event happened. "She walked miles down the track to talk with the flagman," here Caline is willing to go any distance to find out about the "big city" and to venture out there and start a new life. Once she moved to the city, which she enjoyed because of the, "sugar sheds...compressed cotton... graceful boats[...] and noisy tugs that plied the waters of the Mississippi [river]." The story also states Caline is Acadian and she visits the French Market on Sunday afternoons with other young girls. Many years before Caline, the British took over Canada; they made the people move down south to Louisiana. These people are called Acadians. It seems only logical that New Orleans is the big city in the south in which Chopin is referring too.

Once in the city, everything seems to be going well for Caline. She begins working with the flagman's sister. It seems that it is Caline's first job, because she was still living at home with her dad and mom. And also she was sleeping "long and soundly" in the middle of the field as the day was almost over when the train incident happened. When she arrived at the women's house, Caline begins her tasks. She seems to enjoy everything that she is told to do. It could be that she enjoys it, because she grateful for the opportunity of this job. Another reason could be, the opportunity