Kate Chopin's Treatment Of Women In The 1800s

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Kate Chopin is well known for her feminist views on life in the 1800s. Kate expressed herself through her many novels and short stories. Kate Chopin used events in her life as an inspiration to write short stories and novels. Some of these events were tragic and heartbreaking, however Kate Chopin used these experiences in her own life to convey the struggles not only she was going through, but also what other women at that time were going through. Two books in particular that Kate Chopin used to mirror current or previous events that happened in her life are, The Awakening and The Story of an Hour. The Awakening focuses on Edna Pontellier, the main characters, struggle between feminism and the predominant view of women in the 1800s. The Story …show more content…

Louis, Missouri in 1850, to her parents, Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty. Her mother descended from a French family, while her father had an Irish background. Kate was the third of five children, but was the only child to live beyond the age of twenty-five. Kate experienced a lot of trauma in her life when both of her sisters died in infancy and both of her brothers died in their early twenties. As a child, Kate was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy, which was a catholic school in St. Louis, Missouri. Shortly after, Kate’s father was killed in a tragic train accident, where the bridge the train was going across collapsed. After this, Kate lived at home with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, whom were all widows. For her early years, Kate was mentored by mostly women, mainly her mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and the nuns at The Sacred Heart Academy. Her great-grandmother taught Kate french, making her bilingual, and encouraged her to write and be artistic with her thoughts, eventually leading to Kate’s storytelling. Kate’s great-grandmother died three days before christmas in 1863, this was the same year her best friend Kitty was banished because of the civil war. Kate’s brother died on Mardi Gras Day and her father died on All Saints Day. These deaths led to Kate having a strong distrust towards religion even though she was raised

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