Kate Chopin Research Paper

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty, is considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century. She was born 8 February 1851 in St. Louis, Missouri to Thomas and Eliza O'Flaherty. Her father, a wealthy businessman, was an Irish immigrant that was killed in a railroad accident in 1855 when Kate was only at the tender age of five. Her mother was left to raise Kate; however, she did not raise her alone. Her mother sought the help of the elderly women in the family. She lived in a house “run by vigorous widows: her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother” (Toth, 187). These women were very big on teaching her so survive on her own. They focused on self-sufficiency and made sure she knew how to handle the world without a man. Kate attended to school at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Louis and this is where her interest in journalism became evident. She was always interested in reading classical novels, poetry, …show more content…
Even her hometown of St. Louis disowned her for writing it. After being denied into the fine arts club, Kate proposed a written public apology. Kate's friends supported her and encouraged her to write again. This led to her last story, Charlie. Although written in 1900 , it wasn't published until long after her death. After writing Charlie, Kate disappeared from the public eye. Four years later, she passed away at the age of fifty-four.
Fifty years after Kate’s death, The Awakening finally began to get the attention it deserved. The French noticed the book first and by the sixties, Kate's popularity became more and more profound, due to many feminist writers. The story was a template for sexual liberation and acceptance. Although she liberated women, Kate did not consider herself a feminist. She stressed that she was not interested in the woman's suffrage movement; however her published and unpublished works told a different