Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin (1851-1904)

Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.

From 1892 to 1895, she wrote short stories for both children and adults.  These were published in magazines such as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, the Century, and Harper's Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included "Desiree's Baby" (published in 1893); "The Story of an Hour" (1894), and "The Storm "(1898).

Writing Style

Chopin's different lifestyles throughout her life provided her with insights, understanding and also allowed her to 

analyse 

the late 19th century American society.  Many of her stories were based on her life in Louisiana, and her portrayals of individual women

. 

Her writing style 

emerged from Guy de Maupassant.

"...I read his stories and marveled at them. Here was life, not fiction; for where were the plots, the old fashioned mechanism and stage trapping that in a vague, unthinkable way I had fancied were essential to the art of story making. Here was a man who had escaped from tradition and authority, who had entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being an with his own eyes; and who, in a direct and simple way, told us what he saw..."

However, Chopin went beyond Maupassant's technique, 

and gave her writing a flavor of its own.  She put much focus on women's lives and their continual struggle to create an identity of their own within the boundaries of the patriarchy.  In The Story of an Hour, Mrs. Mallard allows herself time to reflect upon learning of her husband's death. Instead of dreading the lonely years ahead of her, she stumbles upon another realization all together. "She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome"

Not many writers were bold enough to address such subjects during the mid to late 19th century.