When Madame Valmondé arrives at L’Abri, she uses visual imagery to describe the house:
“The roof came down black and steep like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house. Big, solemn oaks grew close to it, and their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a pall.”
Chopin’s word choice in this section helps her build a dynamic image of the L’Abri plantation. This is the first time L’Abri is described, and because it is the setting for most of the short story, it is a vital element of how the story builds toward its conclusion. Chopin uses imagery to build the short story’s tone, and some of her descriptive language even foreshadows the story’s climax. She characterizes the oaks beside L’Abri as "solemn," indicating that some misdeed or dark act has taken place within the plantation. Additionally, she suggests that the house is shadowed as though it is covered by a funeral cloth.
Through imagery, then, Chopin controls and reveals the story’s rising violence without directly addressing it. Significantly, Chopin does not openly state that something has gone wrong at L’Abri. Instead, she sparks the reader’s imagination by richly tapping into visual imagery to describe the setting. She uses vivid, layered descriptions of the house and surrounding yard to create a feeling of unease. The story’s tone and setting are thus both dependent on Chopin’s use of descriptive language and imagery.
