SOURCE: Coyne Dyer, Joyce.“A Note on Kate Chopin's ‘The White Eagle.’” Arizona Quarterly 40, no. 2 (summer 1984): 189-92.

In the following essay, Dyer analyzes the symbolism in Chopin's little-known late story “The White Eagle.”

Few critics discuss Chopin's fiction written after April 1899—the publication date of The Awakening—with any degree of seriousness. Kenneth Eble writes that her last stories “lack distinction.”¹ Per Seyersted regrets the “tame,” uncourageous nature of the bulk of her final manuscripts.² And Robert Arner observes, “Only a few of her final tales are worth serious discussion.”³ Certainly one aspect of Chopin's fiction that suffers in her late stories is her imagery. Unlike the metaphors in The Awakening (as well as in several excellent stories) that enhance and often expand theme and meaning, those in her final short stories most frequently function either to decorate a sentence or to provide a convenient backdrop.

In “The...