Societal Boundaries in Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour and Desiree's Baby
As humans, we live our life within the boundaries of our belief systems and moral guidelines we were raised with. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” tells the story of two women who live according to those societal boundaries.
American author Kate Chopin (1850–1904) wrote about a hundred short stories and two novels in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. After her father's death, Kate's family included her widowed mother, her widowed grandmother and her widowed great-grandmother. Perhaps this provides a glimpse of what would ultimately influence Kate Chopin as a writer-- the lack of male role models and men as central figures in her life as she matured. This lack would also prevent her from experiencing what was basically a fundamental social concept of her time--the tradition of submission of women to men in all social spheres, but especially that of marriage (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin)
In 1888, after suffering grief from the deaths of her father, mother and her husband, Chopin turned to creative writing as an outlet. She was not particularly well known as a writer during her life. She began writing seriously at the age of 39, when she would have already experienced many maturing life situations. She found her central focus rapidly, and wrote stories whose intriguing characters and settings often disguised the seriousness of their themes. Not greatly involved in the politics of her time, she was nonetheless influenced by such classic masters as Maupassan...
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Kate Chopin's use of irony in the story is particularly effective. She points out the various aspects that prejudice is unfair to the characters in her story. If Desiree had been the one of mixed race then she could have been considered by as the innocent heroine. Consequently, because Armand is the source of the suspect blood, Desiree becomes totally the victim.
Works Cited
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer. 7. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007.
http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/late_nineteenth/
chopin_ka.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiree's_Baby
When I think about starting over, I am often reminded of Armand in the story of “Desiree Baby”. Armand, the protagonist in the story built a bonfire in the efforts of trying to erase away the memory of his wife Desiree, and his son. Armand’s bonfire symbolizes Armand wanting to start over and forget his past. Throughout the short story many elements of symbolism was used to convey a central message those include discussing symbols of racism, social class distinction, and the symbolic elements involving the difference between the gender roles.
Kate Chopin wrote in a period of time where women were standing up for there right. In other words, women’s curiosity grew more and more while she was taking away there liberties, the more they take away the more the curiosity grew. Kate Chopin was born in 1851 in Catherine O’Flaherty, she was a marry woman with six children and later widow. She stared writing novels, which was offensive to men, that’s why she never had a chance to publish them, after later she finally did. Chopin wrote a lot of fictional stories which help change the point or view of women in society. One of the novels called The Awakening written in 1899, a story of adultery and sexuality which was badly criticizes by other readers of how she portrayed women in the novels. No thought later in the time she was recognizing by the feminist scholar lecture. The next story called The Storm, probably publish at the same time as the novel The Awakening, which in reality she did not intended to publish. The novel The Storm talks about a woman that committed adultery which ones occur, no one got hurt at the end.
Kate Chopin was born February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. She was raised by a single woman; this impacted her views in the family at an early age. She began her own family at a young age; Kate had a different method compare too many women in her time. As time progressed, she developed a bad habit of dressing inappropriately. Soon she started to publish stories about the experiences and stories of her interests such as women’s individuality and miserable
Kate Chopin is very well known for her extremely unique writing. Not only are her works striking of feminism, but the way she approached topics were not easily tolerated at that time especially for her gender. Many of her stories tie into marriage and the unhappiness that it brings. In Desiree’s Baby Chopin says, “And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him…” Comparing the woman’s husband to that of Satan shows the intensity of disgust between the two in the relationship. Strong statements such as these are often seen in “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour.” In Chopin’s life she was married, and her stories lead me to believe that she viewed her marriage as a trap and suffered from lack of privacy and control. Despite how provoking Chopin’s works were she was long ignored by readers and critics until her stories hit the surface in the 1960’s and became more popular. The women in her stories are constantly seeking freedom, lust, and attention.
Living a normal youth, Chopin immediately suffers the loss of her father in 1855, at the young age of five. This is later followed by another extremely difficult year in 1863 when she loses two people she loved very much, her g...
Growing up within a household full of women, writer Kate Chopin could attest to the extreme difference it is to be considered independent vs dependent, as a woman. Accordingly, a theme of feminism and independence was apparent within her writings. However, in her short story, Desiree’s baby, she chooses to do something different. Instead of using independence as a theme, in the favor of women, Kate Chopin greets readers with a socioeconomic difference between main characters, Desiree and Armand. When considering this short story, with the Marxist criticism, a reader may even notice that Kate Chopin’s characters demonstrate economical differences (i.e. class and status) to overall argue how ones social status and economic class leads to mental illness of the lowly and the elite.
Kate Chopin lived from 1851 until 1904. She was born Katherine O'Flaherty and was raised in post- Civil War St. Louis by parents who were on the upper end of society. She married Oscar Chopin, moved to New Orleans, and had six children. After her husband died, Chopin moved back to St. Louis to start her writing career at age 33. She incorporated many taboos about literature into her writing. Some of these taboos were female sexuality, struggles, and triumph over the stereotypes that had been placed on them over the centuries. She was a very popular writer until 1898 when she wrote about even more controversial issues in Awakening. Many people felt that her views were very feminist and her previously loyal fans quickly rejected her writings, causing her to not attempt to write anything more.
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).
A woman wrote about Kate Chopin that “She 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” (Chopin). This just justifies how well of a writer she was during this time period. She could mold her stories into a beautiful piece of work in the period of modernism. Kate Chopin was born in 1851 and she passes away in 1904 (Ewell). Modernism is expressed in Kate’s writing when she portrays feminine individuality through her characters. Modernism was a time where there was experimentation of expression and Kate Chopin took advantage of this freedom as a writer. Kate Chopin, through experiencing many personal hardships, was able to view the world around her in a unique and altered manner- extremely unique to her time period- however, these interesting and daring perspectives allowed her to be one of the most memorable of the female writers in the time period of modernism in the U.S. today.
In the mid-nineteenth century, many American men based the worth of a person primarily on his or her race and gender. Kate Chopin often wrote about topics that were extremely sensitive during her lifetime. Men are usually pictured as the person who earns money for the family, as well as the well-educated and the sole structure of the family. Women are illustrated as sensitive, sweet, caring, and faithful. In “Desiree’s Baby,” a short story by Kate Chopin, there are three major themes: identity, racism, and gender roles.
To truly understand the characters of Chopin's stories, one must examine the history of her life. Kate Chopin was born as Katherine O'Flaherty to a wealthy Irish St. Louis family on February 8, 1851. While she was still a young child, her father died in a train accident. Only a few years later her brother died after being captured by Union forces during the Civil War. The loss of all the males in her life, according to Hoffman, led to the intense female relationships she shared with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. As a young woman, Kate treasured her independence. Late 1860's society was highly critical of her because she walked, unac...
Throughout the years many variations of the ideas on race, class, and culture have been presented based upon different factors. In earlier times people’s views were not nearly the same as they are presented today. Ideas that women belong in the kitchen or that African-American’s were an inferior race were common. Those views were very popular during the time of Kate Chopin’s book “Desiree’s Baby.” Chopin’s book explores the controversial areas of race and class as well as touching on the subject of culture. “Desiree’s Baby” shows the life of Desiree from a young child through adulthood. The young Desiree was found by a rich family alone on the streets. Even in a time where race and social class was important the wealthy, a rich couple took in young Desiree without knowing her ancestral background. Desiree lived a good life with the family. The story then switches to when Desiree was a young adult and falls in love with Armand Aubigny. Armand also comes from a wealthy background and still falls for Desiree without knowing her racial background. Eventually, the young couple has a baby but to their surprise the baby comes out with African traits. Armand is not happy and rethinks whether she has African in her background or if maybe she had an affair with a slave. Desiree’s mother offers to have her and the baby come back and stay with them but when Desiree leaves she disappears and is never seen again. Later, Armand finds out that it may not have been Desiree that carries African roots but himself, from his mother’s side. Overall, Chopin’s work looks into the controversial issues of race, class, gender and culture using ironies and the story-line to infer the views of these topics.
“Tell me what it means!” she cried despairingly.” It means,” he answered lightly, “that the child is not white; it means that you are not white” (Chopin, p. 192). Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" is a well-known short story. “In her life, Kate Chopin actively searched for female spiritual emancipation and expressed it in her writing”(Deter, 2000). Throughout the story, Kate Chopin uses symbolism to convey her themes of racial predisposition, unequal gender roles, and social ladder in a society. The characters and the setting in this short story help provide the readers with more understanding of how patriarchal our society is at that time.
...ree for his problems and treats her with disrespect. The issues and problems in Kate Chopin?s stories also connect with issues in today?s society. There still exist many men in this world who hold low opinions of women, are hypocritical in their thoughts, dealings, and actions with women, and treat honorable, respectable women poorly, just as Charles and Armand did in Chopin?s stories. Women in ?Desiree?s Baby? and ?A Point at Issue? strive for personal freedom and equality which equates to modern times in that some women are still paid less for doing the same job as men and in some countries, women still cannot vote. The relationship between men and women in Chopin?s stories still, in some effect, directly apply to today?s world.
Xuding Wang writes in her essay, Feminine Self-Assertion in “The Story of an Hour”, a strong defense for Kate Chopin’s classic work, “The Story of an Hour”. Wang provides powerful proof that one of the pioneering feminist writers had a genuine desire to push the issue of feminine inequality. Even decades later, Xuding Wang fights for the same ground as Kate Chopin before her. She focuses on critic Lawrence I. Berkove, who challenges that Louise Mallard is delusional with her personal feelings of freedom once she discovers the news that her husband has passed away. The story opens with the line “Knowing Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble” (Chopin). [1] Chopin uses allegory to describe