# Odalie Misses Mass explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Kate Chopin.

## What happens

On the Feast of the Assumption, Odalie Chotard insists on visiting her elderly friend Aunt Pinky on the way to mass. When she discovers that Pug, Aunt Pinky's caretaker, has gone to church, Odalie chooses to stay and care for the old woman, missing mass herself. She reminisces with Aunt Pinky about their shared past, eventually falls asleep, and wakes to find that Aunt Pinky has died peacefully.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sacrifice and Redemption

Odalie sacrifices attending mass to care for Aunt Pinky, a selfless act that leads to a peaceful final moment.

### Freedom and Confinement

Aunt Pinky is physically confined to her chair and dependent on others, while Odalie chooses to stay, reflecting themes of duty and constraint.

## Character check-ins

### Odalie

A thirteen-year-old girl who misses mass on the Feast of the Assumption to stay with Aunt Pinky.

### Aunt Pinky

An elderly, formerly enslaved woman who is cared for by Odalie and dies peacefully at the end of the chapter.

### Baptiste Padue

A young boy who refuses to stay with Aunt Pinky, hiding in the cotton field.

## Key lines

> Odalie sprang down from the mule-cart, shook out her white skirts, and firmly grasping her parasol, which was blue to correspond with her sash, entered Aunt Pinky's gate and proceeded towards the old woman's cabin.

Odalie jumps off the cart, adjusts her white dress, and walks into Aunt Pinky's yard carrying a blue parasol that matches her sash.

_Introduces Odalie's determined and self-conscious entrance._

> But at the threshold she turned to inquire, bluntly: 'W'ere's Pug?'

Before leaving, Odalie abruptly asks where Pug is.

_Highlights Odalie's bluntness and the beginning of her decision to stay._

> She leaned back and laughed with wild abandonment.

Odalie laughed heartily, completely letting go.

_Shows Odalie's youthful joy when Aunt Pinky mistakes her age._

> But she spoke low and trod softly as gentle-souled women do, in the presence of the dead.

Odalie's mother whispered and walked quietly, as is customary around someone who has died.

_Reveals the quiet dignity of the moment when Aunt Pinky's death is discovered._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/odalie-misses-mass
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters