“Katherine Chopin is considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century.” She is often given credit for introducing the modern feminist literary movement (“Kate Chopin”). Kate published more than 100 short stories, 3 novels, and one play within twelve years. In this research paper I will be discussing a few of her works; The Awakening, Desiree's Baby, Respectables Woman, and what critics have to say about her works. Kate Chopin was born to her maiden name as Katherine O’Flaherty on February 8, 1850 (Kate). Kate was born to a French mother who was a descendant of creole and aristocrats, named Eliza Farris, and her father an Irish immigrant who became a prosperous merchant, named Thomas O’Flaherty (Bloom). Kate grew up knowing …show more content…
Kate Chopin attended the Academy of the Scared. She played the piano and fluently spoke french. SHe was influenced greatly by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Zillio, and George Stand, but most of all influenced by Guy de Maupassant. A story by him titled “Solitude” expressed a melancholy wisdom that Kate found highly compelling and inspiring (Bloom). After she finished school she entered St. Louis society, where she met her husband, Oscar chopin (“Kate CHopin. Although she didn't start publishing her works until after her husband's death. She published more than 100 short stories, 3 novels, and one play (“Kate Chopin”). She used her home for a place where aspiring writers and artists could have a place to come work (“Kate Chopin” Research Guide to Biography and Criticism). The first true documentation of her writings was a common place book a nun assigned to her (Kate) Kate published her first poem “If i Might Be” in 1889. That same year she published two short stories “Wiser Than God” and “A Point at issue.” In 1890, she published her first novel “At Fault”, and attempted to publish “Young Dr. Goose” that year Kate) In 1893, she published published one of her most popular short stories “Desiree's baby”. In 1894, shepublised a twenty one short story collection “A Night in Acadie” published in 1897 (Kate). In 1899, Chopin published her first novel, “The …show more content…
The Awakening had a huge impact in Feminism. Many people who reviewed her story who who were male did not agree with the awakening, because the fear of there being a change in the “shifting social order”. WOmen were still having to live and uphold the stay at home mother type of roles at that time, and were increasingly starting to choose jobs and work that were outside the home. Women who were wrote during that time had and expectation to stay with “Lady like” subjects in their stories and Kate did the exact opposite of that. Although a lot of people believed the book to be banned at that time, it never was banned at all, it had just fallen into obscurity for about 70 years
Kate Chopin was an American author and short story writer. She is considered among the most vital ladies in nineteenth-century American fiction. She was born on Feb. 8, 1851, in St. Louis, Missouri, and died there on Aug.
Kate Chopin was a feminist American short story and novelist. She is known as an advocate of feminist authors of the 20th century. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Brontes influenced her writing. She grew up in a household full of women; including her mother, great-grandmother and the female maids her mother owned. Kate spent a lot of time up in her attack reading.
After Mr. Chopin’s death in 1882, Kate sold their family business and began writing to support her family, mother, and herself. Kate Chopin’s second and most successful
Born Katherine O’Flaherty on February 8, 1851, in St. Louis, Chopin was the daughter of a prominent Irish merchant and an aristocratic French-Creole mother. Chopin’s roots in, and familiarity with, two distinctly different cultures were important on both a personal and creative level throughout her life. As a member of a slave-owning family and an elite social circle, Chopin was exposed to people of diverse color and background, many of whom provided the basis for her later writings.
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1851, into a wealthy Catholic family in St. Louis Missouri. As a little girl, her father died a few years later in 1855 and was raised at home with her other sisters and mother, strong willed and prominent women who believed in self sufficiency. Soon, on June 9, 1870, Chopin married a man named Oscar. She graduated from St. Louis convent school. In the meanwhile, Kate was soon busy by the occupations of a being a mother and wife to the prestigious business man, Oscar whom she married. Throughout this escapade of life, Kate was forced to relocate often due to her husband’s change of business. Although, it was difficult to build upon these circumstances, Kate managed a small farm and plantation farm to keep things running. Even through these circumstances, Kate pulled through only to discover that all these locals would soon be her inspirations and se...
Wyatt, Neal "Biography of Kate Chopin" English 384: Women Writers. Ed. Ann M. Woodlief Copyright: 1998, Virginia Commonwealth University. (26 Jan. 1999) http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/katebio.htm
As you begin to read my review you will start off by hearing my voice throughout the first couple of lines. The words that I chose to start my review speak for all African American women/girls today who feel exactly the same way that I do. I focused my review on a young poet who talks about the consistent hardships that black women go through in America. By choosing that spoken word poem it really overall explains how it is for a lot of black women and girls. I wanted to focus on this topic because it is an important matter that needs to be told. It also reaches home for me because that is who I am. So, as you read my review I want you as the reader to hear every word loudly and take inconsideration the importance of this review.
Throughout history writers have offered readers lessons through themes and often symbolized. In the story, “The Storm” by Kate Chopin is quite different from “The Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid; both have a different theme, symbol, throughout the stories. “The Storm” in Kate Chopin 's story can symbolize a number of different things: temporary, fleeting and quick action, and without consequences.
Many works of literature Chopin writes about reflects and even parallels on her life growing up in St. Louis during the Civil War. Many tragic events occurred in her life starting with the death of her father in an unfortunate railroad accident; the only male role model in her life. Thirteen years later, her beloved great-grandmother passes away. She was the only child left as her sisters had all died in infancy. Also, Kitty Garesche, a girl who she went to school with most of her life made the decision to become a nun. In this, Kate lost her only female friend. All of the trauma in her life gave her a headstrong personality that she so often draws back to while writing.
Elizabeth Fox Genovese of Emory University shared in a PBS interview that “She [Kate Chopin] was very important as one of the earliest examples of modernism in the United States or, if you wish, the cutting edge of modernism in American literature” (PBS – Interviews). Kate Chopin published At Fault, her first novel, in 1890 and The Awakening, her last novel, in 1898 (Guilds 924). During these years Chopin wrote numerous other works and most, like At Fault and The Awakening, centered around upper-middle class Creole or French women involved in womanly uncertainties; such as, extramarital affairs, acceptable behavior in society for females, duties as a wife, responsibilities as a mother, and religious beliefs. Chopin was an extraordinary woman, and no indication was made, during the investigation of this research paper, reflecting her having regrets regarding her position as a wife or mother. This document is an attempt at comparing the issues the main characters experienced and presenting Chopin’s unique skill in writing about the culture she observed during her years of living in Louisiana. The tragedy of this author’s existence is that during her life the literary world did not recognize such exceptional skill.
Kate Chopin was one of the most influential nineteenth century American fiction writers. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri on either one of three dates: February 8, 1851, February 8, 1850, or July 12, 1850, depending on the source. She once said that she was born in 1851, but her baptismal certificate states February 8, 1850 as her birthday (Inge, 2). There is also an indiscretion regarding the spelling of her name. Her full name is Katherine O’Flaherty Chopin, but one source spells her first name with a ‘C’ (Katherine, 1). Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was an Irish immigrant who became a successful merchant in St. Louis. Her mother, Eliza Faris O’Flaherty, came from a wealthy aristocratic Creole family (Inge, 2). Kate Chopin was a student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis. Here she learned the Catholic teachings and great intellectual discipline. She graduated from this French school in 1868 (Inge, 2). On June 9th in 1870, she married Oscar Chopin. Together the couple had six children: Jean (1871), Oscar (1873), George (1874), Frederick (1876), Felix (1878), and Lelia (1879) (Inge, 3).
Kate Chopin was a woman and a writer far ahead of her time. She was a realistic fiction writer and one of the leaders and inspirational people in feminism. Her life was tragic and full of irregular events. In fact, this unusual life had an enormous effect on her writings and career. She depicted the lifestyle of her time in her works. In most of her stories, people would find an expansion of her life’s events. In her two stories “The Storm” and “The Story of One Hour” and some of her other works she denoted a lot of her life’s events. Kate Chopin is one of those writers who were influenced by their life and surrounded environment in their fiction writing, and this was very clear in most of her works.
When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.
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 has actually been elevated above that of the man, suggesting a much more radically feminist reading than Howard cares to persue.
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. “Kate Chopin.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, Sep2013. Academic Research Database. 1 Nov. 2013