“The Storm” by Kate Chopin was written in a time when women did not have the same freedoms men had. What makes Kate Chopin’s work very different was the fact that she wrote about things like adultery, which was in its self a controversial topic, but the fact that it was a woman who was writing about it made it an even more controversial. Kate Chopin was born in the year 1851 in St. Louis. She spent years after her marriage in Louisiana, where she became a mother of six. This explains a lot about her writing and the roles placed in her stories.
Kate Chopin, a short story and novel writer of American Literature, was born in 1851 and died in 1904. Her writing career began by the early 1890’s after her husband died and as a result of his death she lost their all property. She lived in an important time period, because in those years, her surroundings were hosting both anti-slavery movements and the Women’s Movement. In general, she focused on women’s lives and their struggles to build an identity for themselves in Southern society of the late 19th century through her literary works.
In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through.
Chopin acknowledges the fact that women should do a certain thing and if they don’t do that certain thing than they will be punished by being yelled at, as shown in the quote, “He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother’s place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his hands full with his brokerage business” (Chopin page 6). Chopin illustrates an example of Edna (the women character in the book) getting scorned at because she was not able to do a “natural” capacity. In “The Story of An Hour” also by Chopin, Chopin conveys the emotion going through this women (main character, the women, that was not named) when she was notified of her husband 's death, but these emotions had to be concealed because it would be deemed unnatural and the women knew she would get punished.
Close Reading of “The Storm” by Kate Chopin Authors use symbols to represent ideas, emotions or state of minds. In The Storm by Kate Chopin, the storm itself is the major symbol within the text. The storm is a form of foreshadowing for events will occur during and after the storm. It also symbolizes a building and release of tension, and a change in atmosphere. The storm functions as foreshadowing because of the characters own interpretation of the storm, which is then reflected in the events that follow.
In the 19th century, a group of people launched the suffrage movement, and they cared about women’s political rights, their property and their body liberty. Born in that age, Kate Chopin was aware of the importance of setting an example for those who were taken in by the reality and poor women to be an inspiration. So we call her a forerunner of the feminist author for every effort she put in advocating women’s sexuality, their self-identity and women’s own strength. When people were ashamed of talking about sexuality, Kate Chopin stood out and call for women’s sexual autonomy.
It almost seems as if she never does anything for herself, only tending to the needs of her children. To further the argument that her kids and the marriage has induced a burden in her life, the narrator notes “she had no time [to look back]- no second of time to devote to the past. The needs of the present absorbed her every faculty” (Chopin 1). Her kids took up
After her father’s death, Kate was raised by her mother, grandmother, and her great grandmother in St. Louis (“Kate Chopin). Which led to her feminist in her writings that was not approved of at the time. She had her education at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis, She was exposed to Catholic teachings and the French who stressed upon the intellectual discipline. Kate was interested in writing, reading, and music. She graduated in 1868 then she got married two years later.
When her husband died, Kate Chopin went and did more than a female of the time should. She overcame the female role. She did more than the role of a wife and mother. She was becoming an
This was so typical of marriages of that time, women were just not treated equally. Paula Anca Farca agrees wholeheartedly that there are touches of feminism and how often in Kate Chopin’s work you can find these themes, “I argue that due to reversals of power, Chopin’s oppressed female protagonists challenge patriarchal structures.(Paula Farca)” Chopin is clearly addressing her feministic outlook in the story “Desiree’s Baby” making sure that the text embellishes the fact the protagonist is scared of her
Chopin demonstrates not only how men treat women, but also how important it was to be white in this post-civil war era. When Armand was the head of his house, he would not let Desiree make any changes to his house. He made sure that she knew that he was the alpha male. This is the thing that Kate hated the most as a woman was having no say in any part of the world. Kate as many other woman, even though they were white, still had no say.
Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies. In 1894, when this story was formed, culture had its own structure on marriage and the conduct towards women. Gender roles play a major role throughout our history. They would decide whether a woman in colonial times would be allowed to join the labor
Women in the 1890s were expected to work at home to keep their husbands comfortable and bear him children. Kate Chopin wrote most of her short stories during this time period. Her stories “A Respectable Woman” and “A Story of an Hour” show a female protagonist who want their freedom and control over their own lives. Her characters pushed the bounds of the roles that society gave them and showed the brutal reality of how women were treated in the 1890s. In “A Respectable Woman” the female protagonist Mrs. Baroda is married and lives on a plantation with her husband, who invites a friend to spend a week or two with them.
The author Kate Chopin is a woman born in the 1800’s who wrote about the individuality of women and understanding a woman’s viewpoint during this time. Women in the 19th century were not culturally and economically accepted, wherefore they were thought as property to be owned by anyone who pleases. An analysis of Chopin’s, “Ripe Figs” will show the use of theme through patience, freedom, and maturity by relating the maturity process to the seasons of the year and the ripening of the figs. The first theme that Kate Chopin provides an image of is patience.
Kate Chopin introduces her main character as “Mrs. Mallard” to signify her being married. However, within her marriage, she loses herself. Being married, she took her husband’s last name and became a wife. In a way it changed her personality. She was no longer her own self, she was someone else’s “property”.
