There are two short stories which, at first glance, seem to be unrelated in terms of the authors’ use of diction. The first being ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’ and the second being ‘Things that Fly. When one first looks at these two books, they would seem to be as different as two stories can get; however, upon further examination, many similarities between the two can also be found. Theses similarities and differences influence and develop the tone of each story. Three key elements link Kate Chopin’s ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’ and Douglas Coupland's ‘Things That Fly’: diction, connotation, and sentence structure. In Chopins Short story, the diction of the story has a high register. The high register reflects Mrs. Sommers desire to return …show more content…
The first story, ‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’ utilizes long and flowing sentences to develop the distant and dreamy tone of the story, “She went on feeling the soft, sheeny luxurious things- with both hands now, holding them up to see them glisten and to feel them glide serpent-like through her fingers.” (Chopin, 87). The long sentences and smooth cohesion between sentences reflect how Mrs. Sommers is blissfully trapped in a seemingly endless illusion of wealth. In the same way, ‘Things That Fly’ utilizes long and flowy sentences to add to the ‘rambling’ aspect of the conversational and detached tone, “Please God, just make me a bird- that’s all I ever really wanted-a white graceful bird free of shame and taint and fear of loneliness, and give me other white birds among which to fly, and give me a sky so big and wide that if I never wanted to land, I would never have to.” (Coupland, 147). It’s as if the narrator tries to ramble on about pointless details to distract himself from the recent event in his life and wishes to be “free”. In contrast, in ‘Things That Fly’ cohesion between sentences has clearly been ignored, for example: “let me describe what happened today” (143) end paragraph, followed by “Today went like this: I was up at noon; instant coffee…” (143). The disconnect adds to the detached and conversational aspect of the