A Comparison of Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” And Don DeLillo’s “Videotape”

Sometimes, a story will force the reader to reflect on one’s beliefs relating to life occurrences. Such is the case with the two stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “Videotape.”
In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard is told of her husband’s death and retreats to her room to ponder what life will be like without her husband. She is saddened at first, yet she quickly realizes that she is finally free to live her own life. She becomes almost overjoyed at this thought and then learns that her husband is in fact still very much alive. With her existing heart condition and the shock of her husband’s survival, she suffers form the “joy that kills,” and dies.
In “Videotape” by Don DeLillo, a young girl unknowingly records on the family video camera the death of a man driving in his car behind her and her father. There is very little emotion expressed by the author when the man is shot, and there is also little emotion felt by the reader. ...