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How Does Kate Chopin Affect Literature

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Kate Chopin research report

Kate Chopin is most known for her literary works such as, At Fault, Beyond the Bayou, Her Letters, The Story of an Hour and Lilacs. As any one could imagine, her life events greatly impacted her writing. You see tragedy, independence, happiness, and freedom within her works. Catherine (Kate) O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1850. She was the second child of Thomas O’Flaherty and Eliza Faris. Her father, Thomas, was from Galway, Ireland and her mother, Eliza, St. Louis. Kate’s family of her mother’s side was of French descent and Kate grew up speaking both English and French. She was not only bilingual but bicultural. The influence of French life and literature if evident throughout …show more content…
As a child, Kate was mentored by women- her mother, her grandmother her great grandmother, as well as by the Sacred Heart Nuns. Much of the works Kate wrote as an adult draw on the nurturing she received from women as she was growing up. Her early life was filled with a great deal of trauma, In 1855. Her father was killed in a railroad accident. In 1863, her beloved great grandmother passed away. Kate lived in St. Louis during the Civil War. Her half-brother enlisted in the Confederate army, and was captured by Union Forces. He died of typhoid fever. At nineteen, through social events held at Oakland, a wealthy estate near St. Louis, Kate met Oscar Chopin of Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Oscar had a French father that took him to Germany during the Civil War. Kate and Oscar were married in 1870 and resided in Louisiana. Between 1871 and 1879 they lived in three different New Orleans homes and Kate gave birth to five sons. Sadly, in 1882, shortly after purchasing a general store in Cloutierville, Oscar died of malaria- Kate became a widow at the young age of thirty-two, with the responsibility of raising six children. She never …show more content…
Again, thus reflecting on her life there. Reviewers have called this book, pleasant and charming, as stated in the New York Times and Atlantic. The book is set in the Cane River country of Louisiana where Chopin had previously lived for several years. In these stories, her characters challenge the limits of their socioeconomic station and rebel against the social expectations of their time period. The best known story in Bayou Folk, “Desiree’s Baby,” which was previously published in Vogue. Desiree, a lovely young woman who grew up with foster parents, marries a successful plantation owner, Armand Aubigny. But, when their newborn child is born exhibiting African American skin coloring, Aubigny claims Desiree’s unknown parentage is to blame, but as Desiree wonders away from the plantation the reader learns that her husband’s racial identity is also ambiguous. Another very well known story in this collection, “At the Cadian ball,” features the dashing and beautiful, Alcee Laballiere, Chopin’s fictional portrayal of her very own lover, Albert

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