Kate Chopin was born Katherine O’ Flaherty on February 8 of 1851. She was an only child, and when her father pasted away Kate developed a strong and close relationship with bother her mother and her great grandmother. During this time Kate also became an avid reader of different fairy takes, different genres of poetry as well as some religious writings.
In 1870, Kate married her husband Oscar Chopin at the ripe age of nineteen and the settled in New Orleans. By the age of twenty eight Kate had already had all of her children. She had five boys and one girl whose names were Jean, Oscar Charles, George, Fredrick, Felix, and Lelia.
In 1882, Oscar Chopin died of what was called swamp fever, leaving Kate “$12,000 in debt (approximately $229,360 in 2005 dollars)” (Wikipedia 1) Kate tried to keep her husband’s plantation above water, however the debit was too much and business was not good at all. Since her efforts weren’t as great in keeping the plantation in business alive Kate sold her life that she had in Louisiana and she settled in St. Louis.
“Kate Chopin initially wrote a number of short stories, which were published in various magazines. She liked her writing to be spontaneous, and she generally wrote her stories all at once, with little or no revision.” (Gradesaver 1) A lot of Kate’s short stories and writings dealt with marriage. Usually the characters in all of her stories faced choices that women in her time period were faced with: what the society excepted of them and what the women desired for themselves. If you have ready any of Chopin’s stories you will notice that the women in her stories always choose the path in which the desire the most, not what is really excepted of them.
“Her life came to an end on August 22, 1904, after she suffered a stroke while visiting the St. Louis World’s Fair.” (Gradesaver 1)
Work Cited:
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“Kate O’Flaherty Chopin”, A Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, Vol. I (1988), p. 176
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“Kate Chopin.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 12 Jun 2008, 13:08 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 17 Jun 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kate_Chopin&oldid=218851095>.
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GradeSaver. “GradeSaver: ClassicNote: Biography of Kate Chopin.” www.gradesaver.com. 17 June 2008. GradeSaver. 17 June 2008 http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/authors/about_kate_chopin.html.
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Toth, Emily. “Kate Chopin’s Secret, Slippery Life Story.” Southern Quarterly 37.3/4 (Spring/Summer1999 1999): 45. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. [Library name], [City], [State abbreviation]. 17 June 2008 <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=10006437&site=ehost-live>.
