What Gentrification in My Community Tells Us About America’s Affordability Crisis

 is likely to question whether Chopin enjoyed her own independence in widowhood.

In my collage’s central image, I employed Chopin-type irony. Two hands bound with chains are holding an upside-down bouquet of dead roses. I wanted to use ambiguity in art with the image of a bride holding her wedding bouquet, but I featured only hands instead of a full bride to reflect a woman’s loss of identity in an 1890s marriage. In “The Story of an Hour,” the narrator initially refers to Louise as Mrs. Mallard (her husband’s last name) until after Mr. Mallard’s supposed death, at which point she regains autonomy and “self-assertion,” and her sister calls out her