Today and throughout history, women and girls are constantly struggling to find their own individual freedom from the constriction of female gender roles and stereotypes. Girl by Jamaica Kincaid and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin both focus on this struggle. Both Jamaica Kincaid and Kate Chopin include strong female main characters. Girl presents a young girl being restricted by the thoughts and feelings of her conservative mother while, The Story of an Hour, dives into the feeling of freedom the main character, Louise, loses her husband in an accident. Both the girl and Louise struggle with the roles that are put on them by their parents, men, and society as a whole, that in the end, hinder their freedom. The main character in Kincaids short story Girl, struggles to be herself because of her mothers strict ideas on how a woman, wife, mother, and daughter should act. She is unabl
e to express herself in the various ways she would like, due to her mothers very conservative thoughts on what is lady-like. Similarly, the main character in Kate Chopins short story The Story of an Hour, Louise, is being held down due to the expectations and restrictions that were being placed on her by her late husband. These two short stories work very well together due to the fact that Girl focuses on a young girl longing for freedom, while The Story of an Hour focuses on a grown woman who has finally gained her freedom. Kincaid and Chopins female characters show a yearning for freedom because of their restrictions due to female gender roles and stereotypes. Both of these strong female authors work in tandem and use their writings to enlighten the reader on not only what roles and expectations are put on females, but the struggles and repercussions that stem from these assumptions.