Kate Chopin's From Slavery

Imagine yourself getting up very early in the morning to go work on the plantation. It’s summertime and as the day goes on, the beating sun gets hotter and hotter burning your skin. You begin to sweat all over your body, you feel light-headed and weak because your body is running out of water and energy. There’s very little rest until the work gets done, so you try to work as hard as your body can take in order to not get in trouble with your owner. A slave has to listen to everything their owner says or else they will face major consequences. Could you envisage what it would be like to live as a slave? Being owned by someone? Having to work dawn to dusk everyday? In the late 19th century, slavery was a common theme expressed in the works of

Before this time, authors didn't write about the harsh realities of life. Naturalism and Realism opened the door to expose the true grit of human existence and the injustice that some face through factors beyond their control. Kate Chopin grew up during the Civil War. Her and her family lived in St. Louis Missouri on the border of both Confederate and Union states. Her family sided with the Confederates, because her brother enlisted in the Confederate army during the war and was captured by the Union then later died of typhoid fever. Having grown up during this significant time period when slavery was being abolished may have inspired her to write about it in some of her works. Kate Chopin may be thought of as a regional writer, a type of realism, interested in the customs, language, and landscapes of the northern Louisiana countryside and downriver New

The author uses this quote to show the fear and shameful attitudes of those who had black children. White people did not want biracial kids during this era and if they happened to, they wanted nothing to do with the child. After Armand realizes his child is part black he begins to treat his slaves worse than ever before. Chopin uses the phrase, “And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves,” (Chopin, 1893, p.423) to express Armand’s behavior toward the slaves. During this time, slaves receive the brunt of their master's emotions. Chopin shows in this quote that he was taking all his emotions out on the slaves, because at the time he thought that the child's ethnicity was his wife's fault. Kate Chopin portrays Armand’s aggression and anger after learning about the race of his child by comparing him to Satan. Desiree’s husband then wants nothing to do with the child and kicks his wife accusing her of being black and she takes the child with her. At the end of the story while Armand was going through all of Desiree’s stuff he found a letter from his mother to his father, saying “But above all, night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand,