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Kate Chopin, An American Writer

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Kate Chopin, an American writer, known for her vivid portrayals of women’s lives during the late 1800s. Her fiction works usually set in Louisiana, which contributed too much of her description of women’s roles. During Chopin’s time, Louisiana was in the midst of reconstruction and was having racial and economic issues. (Skaggs 4) Louisiana is the setting for many of Chopin’s stories, and they depict a realistic picture of Louisiana society. Kate Chopin published two novels and many short stories. Most of Chopin’s work challenged whether or not women should continue to follow the traditions of their time. Skaggs stated that critics described Chopin as a “feminist, a local colorist, a regionalist, a romantic, a neotranscendentalist, an …show more content…

As the exhaustion of liberty finally sets in, Mrs. Mallard loses it all in an instance.
“Chopin is considered a regional writer, and her setting often plays as important a role in the story as do her characters,” such as in “The Storm,” the hurricane leaves Calixta alone causing the events that follow (Jaroff 1). The “Storm” discusses a woman trapped inside an old, wooden cabin during a storm. The woman seems fragile and scared. For example, the woman’s son says, “Mama’ll be ‘fraid…Maybe she got Sylvie helpin’ her this evenin’” (Chopin 1). As she awaited the storm to pass in the store, Calixta was at home gathering all the clothing from the lines, when a man showed up that she had not seen since her marriage. In “The Storm,” it describes a married woman who has never been alone since her marriage. Implying that her marriage is confining her. Although she married at a young age, she never lost sight of her cheerfulness. The women were crying for their families to come home safe and sound from the storm, but as she looked out the window, the man came and put his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. As they begin to have an affair, it was almost as if they are trying to go against the traditions. During this time in history, women could not just be “free,” so Chopin begins to argue that freedom is crucial. Women should be able to make their choices as to how they want to live. The “storm” signifies a disaster, but in

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