How Did Kate Chopin Influence Writers

Many authors influence the writing field due to a multitude of reasons. Kate Chopin was one of them; a major influence on literature during the mid-late 1800s and very early 1900s due to her different viewpoints and values. She wrote many short stories which explored these ideas she believed in, disregarding the fact that many critics disagreed with what she wrote. This passion is what led her to be one of the most renowned authors after her death. Kate Chopin was born in the town of St. Louis in Missouri on February 8, 1850. She had 2 other siblings at the time of her birth, but would end up having 5 total siblings. She would be the only sibling to live past 25 years old. Kate’s childhood was quite complex as many deaths occured in her life

Chopin wrote 2 official books and nearly 100 short stories during her lifetime, in which encaptured her stances on feminism and her sophisticated and mature, yet steadfastness and full of integrity personality. She received recognition after her death, but some of her stories did publish in various magazines like Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Young People, Youth’s Companion, and also Century. She broke ground in the world of literature by testing social normalities and pushing comfort boundaries of her audiences. She was ahead of her time in the way she wrote and how she felt for things like her stances in the feminist movement, for example. The most renown story by Chopin, The Awakening, is what gave her a title in the late 1890s. The book was a shock to almost everyone who read it as it was not like the standards of living or methods of lifestyle. Critics called out its overuse of adultery, morbid nature, and highly disagreeable at times during the book’s timeline. Because the book follows a main female protagonist, it highlighted her stance on women-based subjects, femininity and opening up women's desires and needs as most women were suppressed during these times. The main theme of The Awakening is about “a tale of a young woman (Kate Chopin) who is struggling to find her true self and her artistic ability”, better known as a kunstlerroman. The plot follows a woman through her adventures in New Orleans with a man, in which, is her love affair. She also published another full-length story, before The Awakening, called At Fault, which follows a woman that runs a plantation after the death of her husband, leaving her a widow, during the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War. This story also deals with social constructs like racism, but also divorce and becoming remarried during this time