In the two short stories that I decided to compare and contrast, these two stories are very similar in their depiction of how women were treated in the past. Women were treated as if they were not good enough to do a man's job and traditionally had fewer rights than men. The two women in the stories had similar experiences of oppression by men, but had different outcomes, mainly because the authors of the stories differ in terms of gender. Gender difference plays a huge role in how stories unfold. “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin; and “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck are the two short stories compared and contrasted. In “The Story of an Hour,” the author talks about a married woman who discovers that her husband has been killed in a train accident. Her first reaction is devastation and she begins to cry hysterically, then she goes into her room and thinks about her new found freedom. She looks out the window and sees all this new life and thinks about what hers will be like. As a new independent woman, she is now free. The feeling of freedom from marriage excites him at first, but does not last long. She discovers that her husband is still alive and all this new freedom is taken away from her, giving her a fatal heart attack. In the story of “Chrysanthemums”, there is a married couple typical of the “time”, where women had to take care of the house and men had to work all day. Elisa Allen, Henry's wife, loves working in the garden on her chrysanthemums. She is a very strong and beautiful woman, but she wants to do more on the business side of their relationship. She unfortunately knows that this is not expected of a woman. In Chopin's Store...... middle of paper ......n Hour" was about a woman who realizes she can live for herself when she finds her husband is died Then she discovers that he is not really dead and she has a heart attack, because she has lost all this newfound freedom "The Chrysanthemums" is about a woman who wants to be treated as an equal by her husband or. by men in general In the story she is portrayed as a strong woman Ultimately she forgets how much she wanted to be equal and just does what a male dominated society thinks she should. she should do. Both women have similar backgrounds, such as being a woman when men ruled society and when marriage was not equal for women. The endings of these stories are different due to the gender of the authors and. from the period in which they lived. Women know that in today's society, they are much more equal than men; in marriage and the workplace.