Kate Chopin

• 1850: born Kate O’Flatery in St. Louis
– Raise by her mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother (after her father’s death)
– Attended Sacred Heart Academy
– Skeptical of religion because of tragedies in her life that occurred around religious holidays

• 1870: married Oscar Chopin, moved to New
Orleans, had 7 children
• 1882: Oscar dies, Kate moves home, writes stories & books to support her family
• 1890: first novel, At Fault
• 1894: short story collection, Bayou Folk
• 1897: 2 nd short story collection, A Night in Acadia
• 1899: The Awakening (deemed controversial)
• August 22, 1904: Chopin dies after a cerebral hemorrhage

• 19 th century (turn of the century)
– Industrial Revolution (lowest class of women go to work for the first time)
• Southern Louisiana
– in/around New Orleans
• Cultural forces: American, Southern, &
Creole

French Creole - Caucasian people descended from some of the first Europeans to arrive in New Orleans.
…descendants of early European colonists in Louisiana began to refer to themselves as “Creoles” to distinguish themselves from
Europeans just arriving in New Orleans.
…distinguished established New Orleanians from Americans who arrived in droves after Louisiana’s admission to the union in 1812.
Just to reduce confusion, we’ll call these descendents of early
European settlers “French Creole” although some descendents of early Spanish settlers called themselves “Creole” as well. http://www.datacenterresearch.org/pre-katrina/tertiary/creole.html

• Driving forces of the Industrial Revolution
• Women work for the first time
– Middle-class women are expected to stay at home and look pretty
• Women’s suffrage movement is gaining power
– Women who supported the movement were deemed unfeminine and rebellious

• Has its own set of standards
• Technologically behind the North
• Still suffering the effects of the Civil War
• Women are more subordinate
• South takes longer to develop industrially and socially because of antebellum values

• Catholic in a Protestant country
• Considered elite members of society
• Lived according to European society
• Very conservative
• Committed to husbands & children
– A woman belonged to her husband & the male had absolute control over the family
• Deep personal & religious commitment to fidelity
• No hope of feminist movement taking hold

• Romantic Movement / Romanticism
– Emphasized imagination & emotions
• Realism
– Reflects life as it actually is
• Naturalism
– Frankly represents life’s details
• Local Color writers
– “regional literature” - fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. (Creole)

• Independence
• Awakening (figurative)
• Social Constraints
• Men vs. Women = perception & roles
• Solitude
• Self-expression
• Suffering
• Death/suicide
• Love/romance/sexual relationships

Art
Birds
Clothes
Houses
Sleep
Food
Swimming
The moon
Sea – ocean, gulf
Music

• Edna Pontellier
• Leonce Pontellier
• Robert Lebrun
• Adele Ratignolle
• M. Reisz
• Alcee Acrobin

• Victor Lebrun
• Mariequita
• The Colonel
• Etienne and Raoul Pontellier
• Mrs. Highcamp
• The lady in black
• The two lovers

1987
1988
1991
1992
1995
1997
1999
2002
2004
2007
2009
2014

• Chapters 1-15 quiz: Friday, 2-19-16
• Chapters 16-29 quiz: Tuesday, 2-23-16
• Chapters 30-39 quiz: Friday, 2-26-16
• Submit the focused reading/quote & question Thursday (18), Monday (22), and
Thursday (25).