Essay about Kate Chopin

Submitted By amleeparker
Words: 872
Pages: 4
Open Document
(1)

Kate Chopin Authorial Profile
Alyssa Lee
Parker University
American Literature
Jason Carney
February 2015

Kate Chopin (February 8, 1850 – August 22 1904) was an American author of feminist realistic fiction short stories and novels. She was apart of the Abolishonist movement as well as the emergence of feminism, and lived through the Civil War.
Chopin was born and raised in Saint Louis Missouri by her father, a successful businessman who immigrated from Ireland, and her mother, of French Canadian descent. Chopin was the third of five children, but her sisters died in infancy and her brothers in their early twenties (Wikipedia, 2015).
At the tender age of 5 1/5, while at a Catholic boarding school, her father died in a train accident. She spent the next two years at home with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of whom were widows. It was during that time that she was surrounded by educated, independent women who taught her of their French heritage (Wyatt, 1994).
In 1870, at the age of 20, she married Oscar Chopin and moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. There, Chopin and her husband had a loving relationship and 7 children within the first 8 years of marriage (Wyatt, 1994).
By 1879, her husbands business failed and the family moved to Cloutierville, Louisiana to manage several plantations and a general store. After her husband’s death in 1882, Chopin was left with a large amount of debt, but continued to run his business for the next two years. She then sold the business and moved back to Saint Louis at the urging of her mother. Unfortunately, her mother died the following year (Wikipedia, 2015).
Due to depression after the loss of her mother and husband, a family friend encouraged her that writing would act as a therapy as well as a source of income (Wikipedia 2015). Although she had been writing her whole life, this started Kate Chopin’s career in published writing.
Chopin published many very successful short stories for the local newspaper. Included in those are the stories of Desiree’s Baby and At the ‘Cadian Ball.
Desiree’s Baby is set in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period. The main character Desiree, who was adopted at birth and knows nothing of her heritage other than she looks white, marries a wealthy plantation owner. Their marriage begins lovingly, but after she has their first child, a son, they come to realize the baby is part black. This embarrasses and infuriates her husband and leads him to banish Desiree and their child from the estate. Broken hearted, she walks out into the bayou in her nightgown and disappears with the baby eluding that she and the child perish there. Her husband then burns all of her belongings along with the baby’s cradle. Afterwards, he came across a letter from his mother addressed to his father stating that she was the one born to the race of slavery (2). The contents of this story are clearly meant to highlight the issues of slavery and the segregation of the races.
At the ‘Cadian Ball is about a party for young Cajun singles to find marriage suitors. The story starts out with Bobinot day dreaming about the beautiful vixen Calixta who is the most desired. To her, all the men are boring except a hard working plantation owner named Alcee. He shows up to the party distressed and late after loosing most of his crops to a tornado a couple days before.
Show More

Related Documents: Essay about Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin Oppression

Vidianis Fernandez Ms. Paterso They poster child for oppression In the short story called “ The Story Of An Hour” ,Kate Chopin, portrays Mrs.Mallard as a victim of oppression. Oppression is defined as the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. In the late 1800’s women were often victims of oppression. Since the beginning of time women had been regarded as the inferior of men. Simple things like voting, owning property or just simply having an opinion where…

Words 582 - Pages 3

Kate Chopin The Storm

A journey of past lovers going through a storm together. “The Storm” by Kate Chopin shows Calixa and Alcee going through a storm of their past feelings. Through the storm they lust after each other even though they are married and have different social classes. The storm shows their emotions going on a roller-coaster. In Chopin's short story the author uses the setting to show the emotions of the characters. When the storm begins, Bobinot and Bibi were at Friedhemier's store. Bobinot calls his son…

Words 441 - Pages 2

kate chopin Essay

same characteristics of loneliness and isolation; each trapped in their own particular set of circumstances. While each of their stories varies greatly in content, their struggles remain akin and very comparable. In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, the author portrays how someone can be trapped in an unproductive and unsatisfying reality because of other’s thoughtlessness, exploitation, and domination. When combined with the modern society’s belief, presumably the later half of the 19th century…

Words 975 - Pages 4

Kate Chopin Research Paper

Kate Chopin was born in 1850 into an Irish Catholic family in St. Louis Missouri. Her childhood was not as exciting. She was the only one of her four siblings to survive, she was sent to boarding school, and her father died when she was just a little kid. She later grew up with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother and chose to go back to boarding school where she excelled. Her rough life took her on the path that not many have traveled or would even want to travel. She began to write to…

Words 620 - Pages 3

Kate Chopin Research Paper

Kate Chopin was a feminist author who was born on February 8, 1850, and wrote many short stories and novels. One such short story is “The Story of an Hour,” which about a woman named Mrs. Mallard who was in an unhappy marriage and how she had an unusual reaction to her husband’s death. It is evident through Mrs. Mallard’s feelings about her husband, how she felt when her husband died, and how she felt oppressed by her husband that she did not love her husband. Mrs. Mallard told the reader that she…

Words 394 - Pages 2

Kate Chopin Research Paper

A woman from South Louisiana became known all around the world. Kate Chopin was well-known for her ways of writing and topics. Her works were either loved or hated. Chopin lived in a time where women's rights were controversial, economic troubles and racism existed. Living in this time, helped her writing well. Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, Chopin became educated on modern feminist. Chopin received counseling from her mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and nuns. She gained her knowledge…

Words 584 - Pages 3

Kate Chopin: The Story Of An Hour

Kate Chopin: “The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin is an American Feminist writer from the 20th century, publishing one of her many scandalous novellas, “The Story of an Hour” formally named “Dream of an Hour” published in 1894 by Vogue magazine. This story was written in an era where woman’s input was worthless and invalid. The women’s priority and dedication was meeting her husband’s necessities and the household demands. Also, that is the time where the story in the novel took place. The protagonist…

Words 285 - Pages 2

Kate Chopin Research Paper

Alexis Washington 1719381 w1719381@hindscc.edu 769-232-7018 Frustration Author's background Kate Chopin is considered an early feminist writer due to her writings. In her writings, Kate brought power to women by surfacing some of her thoughts about her marriage. She was unafraid to put her life experiences into words and distribute them amongst the world. Though society frowned upon Kate's writings, she continued to write even more stories. "The Story of an Hour" is one of Kate's popular…

Words 463 - Pages 2

Kate Chopin Essay Final

back to what seems to be a typical marriage in the nineteenth century. The twists and turns in this short story lead up to an expecting outcome. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” is a short story that contains various ironies that connect the reader to the story and give the reader insights and knowledge that even the characters do not know. Chopin uses literary irony to engage readers. Literary irony is the expression of one’s thoughts by using language that normally signifies the opposite.…

Words 1026 - Pages 5

Emotion and Kate Chopin Essay

Through observing the author's diction in the passage, we can see Kate Chopin wrote this story to give readers a vivid picture on how things can affect you and make your heart become very ill. Something was told in this story and it had a great affect on a lady named Mrs. Mallard. She feels grief, freedom, and then grief again within the story.When Mrs. Mallard hears the news about her husband she suddenly felt grief. She has great pain about hearing about her husband. “She wept at once, with sudden…

Words 581 - Pages 3