Who Is Kate Chopin?

Because of her childhood of being raised in an all-woman household it helped mold her feministic personality and view on life with love, faith, strength, kindness, independence, and generosity (Toth, Emily). As Kate became older she met Oscar Chopin a business man who she fell in love with and later at the age of 20 years old were married. Kate’s behaviors, like smoking cigarettes and walking through the city unaccompanied frequently shocked her conservative in laws and this streak of independence however did not bother her husband. Kate later gave birth to five sons and a daughter. Motherhood quickly played into her life as well as societal restraints on women and as she lived personal experiences with this, she began to write books about women’s daily life and fictional writing on how it could be in a women’s way. In 1879, Oscar Chopin’s money lending business was in deep trouble due to financial instability. The family moved to Coulterville, Louisiana where Oscar ran a general store. Kate Chopin’s sophisticated behavior and dress style inspired gossip in the closely knit town. Her husband, worn down by financial worries, died in 1882 with malaria, leaving Kate with an outstanding debt of $12,000 and six children to raise alone. Despite everything that Kate was going through she decided to manage Oscar’s businesses

During the feminist movement many female authors began to write novels about female emancipation. In these novels, the protagonist experiences enlightenment where she discovers that she is living an incomplete life that society has oppressed her into. Before the movement, society forced women into roles that were inferior to men and they were thought of as men’s property. Harold bloom states, “The direction of The Awakening follows what is becoming a pattern in literature by and about women…toward greater self-knowledge that leads in turn to a revelation of the disparity between that self-knowledge and nature of the world” (Bloom, Kate Chopin 43). Moreover, Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal challenge more than a social struggle, which contradicts her literary works. According to Harold Bloom, “Chopin’s novel was not intended to make a broad social statement but rather that it indicates that Chopin viewed women’s independence as a personal matter”(Bloom, Bloom’s Notes 58). In the past, the novel was banned because of its connection to the feminist movement.

     Kate Chopin was one of the greatest and earliest feminist writers in history, whose works have inspired some and drawn much criticism from others. Chopin, through her writings, had shown her struggle for freedom and individuality.

Katherine O’Flaherty, later Kate Chopin, was born to Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 (Deter). Unfortunately, when Mrs. Chopin was four, her father died in a train incident leaving her under the care of three independent widows’- her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother (Deter). Mrs. Chopin’s great-grandmother, Victoria Verdon Charleville, directed her education, “giving her a taste of the culture and freedom allowed by the French that many Americans during this time disapproved of . . . through the art of storytelling” (Deter). Therefore, much of Mrs. Chopin’s success in writing about women pursuing morality, freedom, and political independence can be attributed to Victoria. Furthermore, the teachers at the St. Louis Sacred Heart Academy, a school Mrs. Chopin’s father had previously enrolled her in, “exposed her to Catholic teachings devoted to creating good wives and mothers, while also teaching independent thinking” (“Biography”).

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

Kate Chopin was a influential author that introduced powerful female characters to the american literacy world. She was most known for her brilliant book The Awakening. However at that time it received many negative reviews, causing the downfall of Kate’s writing career. Now the book is such a influential story that it is being taught in classrooms throughout the world. This essay will discuss Kate Chopin’s writing career and the impact her writing has on society.

Kate Chopin was a controversial writer, who wrote about women’s empowerment, sexuality, and relationships at a time when women had no voice in literature, in politics, or even within their marriage. Her short stories were well received by many critics and were published in most of America’s prestigious magazines, such as Vogue and the Atlantic Monthly. "The Storm," a short story about an extramarital affair in the South, is very sexually explicit, especially for the time it was written, in 1898. Unlike most of Kate Chopin’s short stories and both her novels, this story was not published until the 1960s, many years after it was written.

The late 1800s were not a time of feministic literature being acceptable. The Victorian Era occurred at this time, where feministic ideas were not often written about, published, or even allowed to be talked about. During this time, men dominated and woman were expected to be submissive in all forms. Kate Chopin, however, took it upon herself to write short stories that went against these beliefs. Her stories show women challenging the restrictions of the traditional norms by fulfilling and satisfying their sexual desires. She used stories to change roles of women in society, the limitations and being oppressed. Kate Chopin uses her fiction to create social change.

One of the most popular female authors who help validate our deepest desires and values is Kate Chopin. Raised in the Midwest during the late 1800s by a house full of strong women, she was considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century. Her writing was prescribed by her doctor to overcome bouts of depression after the sudden death of her husband, which left her penniless and overwhelmed with their six children. When she wrote, it was autobiographical, capturing the tales of a woman unfulfilled by the mundane yet highly celebrated "feminine role," and her painful realization that the constraints of her gender blocked her ability to seek a more fulfilling life (“Kate”). Although she was not recognized for her groundbreaking

    Kate Chopin was an extraordinary writer of the nineteenth century. Despite failure to receive positive critical response, she became one of the most powerful and controversial writers of her time. She dared to write her thoughts on topics considered radical: the institution of marriage and women's desire for social, economic, and political equality. With a focus on the reality of relationships between men and women, she draws stunning and intelligent characters in a rich and bold writing style that was not accepted because it was so far ahead of its time. She risked her reputation by creating female heroines as independent women who wish to receive sexual and emotional fulfillment,

“Love and passion, marriage and independence, freedom and restraint.” These are the themes that are represented and worked with throughout Kate Chopin’s works. Kate Chopin, who was born on February 8, 1851, in St. Louis, was an American acclaimed writer of short stories and novels. She was also a poet, essayist, and a memoirist. Chopin grew up around many women; intellectual women that is. Chopin said herself that she was neither a feminist nor a suffragist; she was simply a woman who took other women intensely seriously. Chopin believed women had the ability to be strong, individual, and free-spirited. She herself reached out, in

A Woman Far Ahead of Her Time, by Ann Bail Howard, discusses the nature of the female characters in Kate Chopin’s novel’s and short stories. Howard suggests that the women in Chopin’s stories are longing for independence and feel torn between the feminine duties of a married woman and the freedom associated with self-reliance. Howard’s view is correct to a point, but Chopin’s female characters can be viewed as more radically feminist than Howard realizes. Rather than simply being torn between independent and dependant versions of her personality, “The Story of an Hour’s” Mrs. Mallard actually rejoices in her newfound freedom, and, in the culmination of the story, the position of the woman

I have decided to focus on the works of one of the most controversial and influential authors to emerge during the realism and naturalism movement, Kate Chopin. Chopin was a feminist writer who frequently focused on the difficulties of being a woman in that time

Chopin uses to read novels, poetry, and classics as well as religious topics. Chopin husband Oscar died 12 years later after their married. Oscar leaves her with six children and financial debt, that was passed on to her. As consequence, she decided to move with her kids to her mom house. However, her mom also died a year later. As a result of her losses she fell into depression, making her life more difficult. Chopin was advised by her doctor to put her feelings and thoughts into writing. Chopin took the therapy to her heart and started writing inmiadiatly. As a consequence, she emerged as a successful writer with a brilliant professional career, that also provided her a source of income for her family.

Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on February 8, 1850, to an affluent family. Chopin’s life had a great deal of trauma, losing her father in a railroad accident and her beloved grandmother dying shortly after impacted her life. Kate spent the Civil War in St. Louis, a city where residents supported both the Union and the Confederacy and where her family had slaves in the house. Chopin married at an early age of nineteen to a wealthy French man in 1870 and the two settled in New Orleans. Kate Chopin’s writing career began with her life and experiences in St. Louis, New Orleans; she wrote short stories, novels and so on. “At Fault” was Chopin’s very first novel, a book about a religious widow in love with a divorced man, which was not typical in the nineteenth century. Kate Chopin was a daring writer, she wrote many controversial stories and books about women freedom, sex, and extramarital affairs. For example, Chopin wrote short