Chopin's title, "The Storm", refers to the nature, the storm can be seen as symbolic of feminine sexuality and passion, and the image of the storm will be returned to again and again throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, BobinÔt and his young son Bibi decide to wait out because of the approaching storm at the store whereas BobinÔt's wife, Calixta, is home alone. Calixta being unaware of a storm is approaching:
             She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm. But she felt very warm and often stopped to mop her face on which the perspiration gathered in beads. She unfastened her white sacque at the throat. It began to grow dark, and suddenly realizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors. Out on the small front gallery she had hung BobinÔt's Sunday clothes to air and she hastened out to gather them before the rain fell. (306)
             Calixta's action which is unbuttoning of her jacket foreshadows the sexual encounter to come whereas her action indicate something greater. She does ignore the storm's approach even though she is married and she has a husband and a child. She is also unaware of the sexuality and passion, which she carries within her. However, her sexuality is repressed by the society's view of women. In this quotation housework and her husband Sunday clothes are illuminating the society in the form of the church. Alcée Laballière enters the yard and he is looking for a shelter because of the coming storm. The reader's first impression is that he is the man of the world; on the contrary BobinÔt's presentation is very different. "BobinÔt... was accustomed to converse on terms of perfect equality with his little son" (p305). BobinÔt is presented as a very simple man and he is also equal with his l...