Developing The Storm by Kate Chopin

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Kate Chopin, born as Kate O'Flaherty, was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the third of five children, and was the only child in her family to live past the age of twenty five. Because Chopin grew up during the Civil War, she was separated from her one friend Kitty Garesche, who she had met at the Sacred Heart Academy. Chopin's family held slaves and supported the South. Since St. Louis was a pro-North city, the Gareshe's were forced to move. In 1870, Chopin married Oscar Chopin, who was the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. By all accounts, Oscar loved Chopin. He “admired her independence and intelligence, and "allowed" her unheard of freedom” (Wyatt). After their marriage, they lived in New Orleans where she had five boys and two girls. Oscar died of swamp fever there in 1882 and Chopin took over the running of his general store and plantation for over a year.
Chopin wrote two published novels, and one hundred short stories in the 1890's. “Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana, and her best known work focuses on the lives of sensitive intelligent women” (Clark). One of my favorite stories by Chopin is “The Storm.” The story was written July 19, 1898, and was published in The Complete Works of Kate Chopin in 1969. The setting of “The Storm” takes place in the late nineteenth century at a Friedheimer's store in Louisiana, and the house nearby of Calixta and Bobinot. Throughout the story, Chopin uses multiple conflicts to reveal her belief that nature can sometimes bring happiness in our lives.
When beginning the story, readers instantly hit the conflict of man vs nature. Characters Bibi and Bobinot are out at Friedheimer's store when they notice “sombre clouds rolling with sinister
Thomas 2 intention ...

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...involved with his wife because he writes her a “loving letter, full of tender solicitude” (Chopin 303). Both characters stay with the norm of society by keeping their adultery a secret and living happy lives with their spouses.
Chopin ends her story with “the storm passed and everyone was happy” (Chopin 303). The storm here may represent a start of a new life. As the storm ends, everything becomes better. This relates to life in today's society because not all obstacles thrown at us in life are bad. Sometimes it's the bad things in life that change us for the better.

Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "The Storm." Literature. Ed. Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell. 8th. Boston: Wadsworth, 2013. 300-03. Print.
Clark, Pamela. "Kate Chopin Biography." katechopin.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." vcu.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.

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