Kate Chopin example essay topic

Biography 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). During the 12 years that she was married, Chopin spent 9 years in New Orleans and the following three years in Cloutierville in Natchitoches Parish (Inge, 3). She was an extremely unconventional woman for her era. Not only did she write about a forbidden subject, female sexuality, but she smoked cigarettes and would go on long walks through the streets of New Orleans by herself, both of which were not common practices during the nineteenth century (Inge, 3).

Kate Chopin enjoyed the variety of cultures that surrounded her in Louisiana; she was involved in the lives of the wealthy Creoles and the poor sharecroppers. Tragedy struck her in December of 1882, when her husband became ill from swamp fever and passed away (Inge, 3). Shortly after his death, Chopin became involved with a man by the name of Albert Sampite, a married man (Anderson, 1). A lot of inspiration is thought to have come from this relationship because so many of the characters in her stories are married individuals who become sexually involved with a single partner resulting in a relationship that ethically could never survive. She left Cloutierville in 1884, partly because of her relationship with Sampite, and moved back to St. Louis to be close to her mother (Inge, 3). Kate Chopin's family doctor had a huge impact on her career as a writer.

It was he who encouraged her to begin reading and eventually writing fiction because he had found her letters to him so well thought out. She returned to Natchitoches Parish in 1887, and began writing in 1888 (Inge, 3). She published her first two stories the following summer. Throughout most of her years as a writer, Kate Chopin was constantly faced with public denunciation and critical abuse for writing unethical and immoral stories. In 1893, she wrote two stories for the popular woman's magazine, Vogue.

Her work proved to appeal to adult women, and for the next seven years wrote 16 more stories for the magazine (Katherine, 6). Before the end of her career, Chopin wrote almost 100 short stories and sketches, and two novels, the majority of them based in Louisiana (Inge 3). The two most successful works include her novel "The Awakening" and her short story "The Storm", which was not actually published until 1969 instead of when it was written on July 19, 1898 (Inge, 22). Chopin died on August 22, 1904 from a cerebral hemorrhage.

During her lifetime, Kate Chopin did not receive the recognition that she deserved as a pioneering American woman's fiction writer. It was not until well after her death, in the late 20th century when she was recognized for her achievements.