A Research Paper On Kate Chopin's Life

Research Paper: Kate Chopin
There are many great writers in this world. Some write about their lives and some write from their imagination. There are authors that write short stories and some write novels and some write both. Kate Chopin was a great writer for many reasons. She had many of her short stories and novels published. Many of her short stories were featured in Vogue. According to KateChopin.org (n.d.), “And Houghton Mifflin Published Bayou Folk, a collection of twenty-three of Chopin’s stories.” Her stories were unique for her time period. Amber stated, “Kate Chopin, a writer of the late 19th Century, wrote about feelings. She insinuated that women had a sexual appetite and craved independence. Which made her stories taboo in her

She wrote what she saw in a different way than other authors, which made her stand out. It all began though with the start of her life.
She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA on February 8, 1850 (KateChopin.org, n.d.). Her name Catherine O’Flaherty and she was the second child. She was both bilingual and bicultural. “ From 1855 to 1868 Kate attended the St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, with one year at the Academy of the Visitation” (KateChopin.org, n.d.). Her father then died when she was only five years old. In 1855, he was killed in a railroad accident. Stated by Amber, “Her great grandmother, Madame Charlesville, took a special interest in Kate and taught her French and how to play the piano. She also taught her about the lives of the women, about how ‘women are torn between duty and desire’ (Toth 13). She also taught Kate ‘not to judge people rashly, but to face truths fearlessly’ (Toth 14). The greatest lesson she taught Kate was that a women had to be independent (Toth15).” In 1863 her great grandmother died when Kate was just 12 years old. Soon after that her half-brother died of Typhoid Fever. Kate married Oscar in 1870. ““I am going to be married,” Kate confided in her commonplace book, “married to the right man. It does not seem strange as I had thought it would–I feel perfectly calm, perfectly collected. And how surprised everyone was, for I had kept it so secret!” (KateChopin.org, n.d.).

Brantain is like other men in Kate’s stories such as Brently Mallard in “The Story of the Hour”. He is described as a goodhearted man who loves his eventual wife but yet he doesn’t seem to be wanted by her. There seems to be no sympathy for him though because she tells the story from a female’s view that has her own goals. Unlike some of Kate’s other female characters, Nathalie doesn’t face any traumatic conflict. She acts like a woman who knew what she wanted and would manipulate those around her to get it. Later on in the story when Mr. Harvy decides he doesn’t want to kiss women anymore, she realizes that she has been defeated. Mr. Harvy is the young man who is more dashing and intelligent. Both Brantain and Mr. Harvy represent two different paths of a relationship. One path is full of riches and stability and the other is full of passion and romance. She realizes that the first path will please her because in the nineteenth-century women in the upper class had many affairs. “…Kate Chopin had an affair with a local planter” (KateChopin.org, n.d.). This story was most likely written about the affair she had with the planter. She may have wondered if her husband ever suspected anything of the affair. Then her husband dies and she wants her kids to have a better life and to be surrounded by a “richer” culture (KateChopin.org,