Author and Current Event

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics women earned less than men in 99% of all occupations for which data is available. In virtually every field that women choose to enter, they can expect to earn less over their lifetime than their male counterparts. This means that over 47 years of full-time work for women who are high school graduates will lose an estimated $700,000. Women college graduates will lose approximately $1.2 million and professional school graduates will lose an average of $2.0 million. Women discrimination still occurs in the workplace today. It affects the jobs we get, salary, and the promotions we get. Some women still work in a discriminatory environment which makes it challenging to be successful. 68 % of women also agree that this still exists today. Many women throughout history like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony have fought for our rights. Feminist movements support gender equality and are against women discrimination.

Kate Chopin is an American feminist fiction writer. She wasn’t an activist but she had strong beliefs and ideas and expressed it through her writing. From when Kate was a child there was a continuing battle for the rights of women. She was raised in a house full of strong women. During this time women were run by society but not her. She did and said what she wanted and never held back. We can see this in her writing. Chopin wrote about sexuality and independence from men, when it was strictly unaccepted and looked down upon. She never held back. She wasn’t afraid to stand out and be her own person. Kate Chopin fully believed that women should be treated equally. If Kate Chopin were still here today I know she would be angry that over a hundred years have passed since she died and there is still discrimination against women today. Chopin stuck by what she believed in. With her short stories and novels Kate symbolized women’s rights. It is her fearlessness and bravery that keeps her remembered today.

Research Project: Literary Analysis

Kate Chopin started her career as a fiction writer in the year 1888. Chopin successfully wrote many short stories and for over the next fifteen years published over one hundred stories, essays, and sketches in literary magazines. Her poems, short stories, and novels allowed Kate to share her feelings and beliefs. Kate Chopin wrote life as she saw it.  Her writing was shaped by her true life events, like loss of family members, constant moves, her writing career, and her thoughts on society. During the winter of 1898 Kate Chopin turned to poetry. She wrote many poems about love, nature, and sexuality but only one was published. Three months after “The Awakening” the poem “I Opened All the Portals Wide” by Kate Chopin, was published in July of 1899 in The Century Magazine. A year after the death of her husband Oscar, Kate moved back to St. Louis with her children and lived with her mother Eliza. Her mother died not far after the death of her husband. Chopin was believed to be depressed. She was encouraged to write to help her find comfort. I believe that the poem was written about her mother Eliza. The poem starts with the line “I opened all the portals high”. The word portals mean a gateway which leads me to believe that Kate may be referring to a gateway to heaven. The next line reads “To swallows on the wing”. Swallows are thought to be carriers of the soul from earth to heaven. The bird symbolizes her mother. Then it says “It matters not what now betide: I've had the taste, the touch, the breath, the scent and song of spring.” The swallow is the harbinger of the spring season. It appears every spring to announce its arrival. The bird brings the season of spring. The swallow and spring represent Eliza. Kate is saying that it does not matter what becomes of her. She’s going to be fine. She’s had the taste, the touch, the breath, the scent and song of her mother. Then it says “Oh, fair, sweet spring! Abide with me, in joy the whole time long; bring all thy life, thy light, with thee”. Fair is used as describing something as beyond good. The author is saying her mother was a wonderful person. The word abide in this poem means to remain or continue. Kate wants her mother to stay with her. She enjoyed the time they had together while her mother was still alive. When it says “bring all thy life, thy light, with thee”, I think she means for her mother to take Kate with her to heaven. The poem ends with “I fain would keep thy taste, thy touch, thy scent, 0 spring! thy song”.  In this last line of the poem, Kate is indicating that she loves her mother and will never forget her. It is not a known fact that this poem was written about her mother but I strongly believe that Kate Chopin wrote this short poem about her mother when she was grieving from her loss.

Literary Movement

In 1899 Kate Chopin wrote her most famous novel The Awakening. This famous novel remains to be a significant title in feminist literature. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin’s character Edna leaves her husband and children to rediscover herself. During this time the scandalous novel created such a big controversy because Edna questions the idea of marriage, has sexual desires, and becomes entirely independent of her husband. Not only was the book but author Kate Chopin was far ahead of her time. In the nineteenth-century according to society, being a woman meant to be compliant, domestic, raise children and be obedient to their husbands. Edna has an affair leaves her family and chooses instead to practice a physical and sexual awakening. Through this novel Kate Chopin turned society’s expected roles down. Kate Chopin may have not been a social reformer but she was historically significant as a writer. She wanted to demonstrate the truth about women’s lives and the relationship with their husbands as she understood it. Kate Chopin was one of the first authors to openly write about women’s sexuality and their hidden lives. The feminist movement fought for women’s rights just like Kate Chopin’s writing did. Kate Chopin believed women should have rights, the right for women to be their true selves and the right to be free from men and society. Kate Chopin will always be a major figure in feminist literature. Kate Chopin you go girl!!

Works Cited:

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: Late Nineteenth Century - Kate Chopin." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/chopin.html

Jhirad, Anna Reid. Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening. PBS. 1998. 16 Oct. 2008.URL:http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/interviews.html

Walker, Nancy. Kate Chopin: The Awakening (in the Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism series), New York: St. Martins, 1993.

Author Biography/Contribution

Kate O'Flaherty Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1951 to parents Eliza and Thomas O'Flaherty. Her father was a successful St. Louis merchant and died in a train accident when she was only 5 years old. Kate’s mother raised her along with her grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of them widows. Kate O'Flaherty grew up surrounded by smart, independent, single women. She attended The Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic boarding school in St. Louis and was top of her class. Two years after graduating she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. After their marriage they lived in New Orleans and then in Coulterville. Kate and her husband had 6 children, 5 boys and 1 girl. Oscar died of malaria in 1882, leaving Kate in over $12,000 of debt.  Kate took over the running of his general store and plantation for over a year. She then sold up and moved back to St. Louis to live with her mother. Unfortunately, her mother Eliza died the following year. To support herself and her young family, she began to write and began her career as a fiction writer in 1888. She was successful and wrote short stories about people she had known in Louisiana. Over the next fifteen years, until her death in 1904 she published over one hundred stories, essays, and sketches in literary magazines.  Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890, followed by two collections of her short stories, Bayou Folk in 1894 and A Night in Acadia in 1897. Chopin’s second novel, The Awakening was published in 1899. The novel caused commotion and was immediately condemned nationally by male critics. She wrote about women's roles in marriage and feminine identity. Kate’s writing was far ahead of her time and is considered one of the first feminist writers.  Her poems, short stories, and novels allowed her not only to declare her beliefs for herself, but also to question the ideas of individuality during her time. On August 22, 1904 the first feminist writer passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage. Even though she has passed her writing will never be forgotten.

Sources:

Chopin, Kate. The Vogue Stories. The Online Archive of Nineteenth-Century Women's Writings. Ed. Glynis Carr. Online. Internet. Posted: Fall 1999. http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/KC/biography.html

Werlock, Abby H.P., ed. "Chopin, Kate." The Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts on File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=&iPin=CANov0192&SingleRecord=True.

Inge, Tonette Bond. "Kate Chopin," Dictionary of Literary Biography. American Short Story Writers 1880-1910, volume 78. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel. Ann Arbor: Edward Brothers, 1989, pp. 90-109.

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: American Naturalism: Kate Chopin (1851 - 1904)" PAL: Perspective on American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide.URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/chopin.html