story

story

The Story of an Hour

ELA 10-2

Kate Chopin


"In the time that Kate Chopin (1850-1904) was growing
from a child to a woman, there was an ongoing battle for
women's rights. She was raised in a culture where many
people were holding onto society and values the way they
were, and yet many others were feeling there was need for
change, that change being the Women's Right's Movement.



"It is unknown how Kate's mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother felt about this fight for women's rights, but
one can assume that being the strong women they were,
most likely they had very strong beliefs in women's rights
as well. They had, after all, already been widowed and had
been the "man" and the "woman" in the house for years.
The O'Flaherty women had strong souls and they knew how
to take care of themselves. Safely said, Kate Chopin had a
strong desire to be her own woman. She would make her
own rules.

Kate Chopin - continued


"Having been raised and graduated from a very prestigious Catholic
school, Kate was taught very strict values and guidelines. She doesn't
seem to use those values when living her life, as one would see by her
many affairs after her husband's death, one with a married man. Kate
appears to be a woman filled with passion and desires; she went after
what she wanted and she said what she thought, even when it was
scandalous. Kate does not restrict herself to a certain way of acting,
living, or writing, as is seen in the content of her stories and novels. In a
time that it was not acceptable for women to speak out about sexuality
and independence, Kate screams it in her writing. Her stories brought
on many controversies and was not widely appreciated or accepted until
many years after Kate's death.



"Kate Chopin leaves a legacy behind, though. Along with many very
popular stories, her "unacceptable" literatures have now been published
and are considered masterpieces. Chopin wrote of a time in the...

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