Kate Chopin

1. Kate Chopin Her Story

2. Kate Chopin • Born: Feb 8, 1850 in St. Louise, Missouri • Original name Kate o’Flaherty • She was third of five children born to Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty. • Dies in St. Louise, Missouri on Aug 22, 1904

3. Her education • In 1855 at 5 ½ she was sent to The Sacred Heart Academy (a Catholic Boarding School in St. Louis) • Following an accident that killed her father she was sent home and her great-grandmother taught her. • She was well versed in French, music, and the gossip on St. Louis women of the past. • She returned to Sacred Heart Academy when she was eight years old.

4. Kate back story • She was raised by strong women. • Women who used their intelligence to stake a position in society both legally and socially without a man. • It was not until Kate turned 16 that their were any married couples in her home. • This is despite the fact she had lots of brothers, sisters, cousins and boarders in their home. • She had many loved ones die on certain religious holidays which made her skeptical of religion (Wyatt).

5. Kate and Children in 1877

6. Kate and Marriage • In 1870, at the age of 22, she married Oscar Chopin, twenty-five, and the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Lousiana. • He was French Catholic in background as well as Kate. • By all accounts he adored his wife, admired her independence intelligence, and “allowed” her unheard freedom. • After their marriage they lived in New Orleans (Wyatt).

7. Kate and Marriage Cont… • She birthed Five boys and two girls all before she was twenty-eight. • Oscar was not an able business man, and they were forced to move to his old home in a small Louisiana parish. • Oscar died of swamp fever there in 1882 and Kate took to running his general store and plantation for over a year (Wyatt).

8. Kate Chopin’s writing Some facts about her writing. One of her more famous writing is “The Story of an Hour” • Among her more than 100 short stories are "Désirée's Baby" and "Madame Celestin's Divorce.” • The Awakening (1899), a realistic novel about the sexual and artistic awakening of a young mother who abandons her family, was initially condemned for its sexual frankness but was later acclaimed.

9. Kate Chopin’s writing • Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890, followed by two collections of her short stories, Bayou Folk in 1894. • The Awakening was published in 1899, and by then she was well known. • As a writer, Kate Chopin wrote very rapidly and without much revision. • She usually worked in her home surrounded by her children (Kennedy).

10. The Awakening • The Awakening caused an uproar and Chopin was denied admission into the St. Louise Fine Art Club based on its publication. • She was terribly hurt by the recation to the book and in the remaining five years of her life she wrote only a few short stories.

11. Kate Chopin interesting facts • She was the 3rd of 5 children, but her sisters dies in infancy and her brothers (from her fathers 1st marriage) in their early twenties. • She was the only child to live past the age of twenty-five. • Her father was killed two months after she was sent to boarding school (@ 5 ½ years old) when a train on which he was riding crossed a bridge that collapsed (Wyatt).

12. More interesting facts • Kate’s great-grandmother, Victoria VerdonCharleville (who educated her) was a smart independent woman. She has been the first woman in St. Louise to obtain legal separation from her husband , and raise her five children (Wyatt). • Summarize verbally Awakening…and how Story of an Hour are similar.

13. Works Cited • Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. Literature : an introduction to fiction, poetry, and drama. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. • Wyatt, Neal. "Biography of Kate Chopin." Biography of Kate Chopin. Virginia Commonwealth University, 1995. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.