Kate Chopin
1850-1904
Naturalism in “The Storm”
“ So the storm passed and every one
was happy” (Chopin 143).
See Holman and Harmon Handbook for
more.
Sometimes naturalism is used in exchange
for “realism,” but should refer to literature in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries in
America, France and England.
Basics of Naturalism
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Literary use of Scientific Determinism
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All that happens is determined by natural
forces
One thing happens, causing another thing,
causing the next thing to happen . . .
There is no free will; we cannot choose; we
just react to natural forces and events.
Naturalism's Determinism

People's actions are determined by
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Physical, mechanical forces
Biological forces
Economic and social forces
Subconscious (psychological) forces
Environmental forces
Naturalism gives less attention to

Personal responsibility

Personal freedom or choice

Personal ability to change

The human soul
Chopin's “The Storm” lets us investigate some of
these aspects of Naturalism and Realism. The
story, and Chopin's other writings, go beyond
Naturalism, as she is concerned with characters
who seek to break out of their social and
environmental circles. “The Storm”, however, is
enlightening in its suggestion that natural forces
may not be controllable.
Look for natural forces

The affair is framed by the storm
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The rain that tries to force its way under the
door (139)
The lightning that “filled all visible space
with a blinding glare and the crash seemed
to invade the very boards they stood upon”
(140).
Can the two resist?
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Do they weigh the moral question of the
affair?
Is the affair planned?
What sudden occurrence throws them
together? Could it be prevented?
The force of the storm, and Chopin's
presentation of the affair as sudden, with no time
to think or choose, points to the idea that Chopin
would say the affair is
Natural
Inevitable
A-moral or at least not immoral.
The story points out that Chopin had an affair
after her own husband died. Her writing reflects
her belief that affairs are not harmful to marriage.
In making this literary argument, Chopin is
writing as a Realist as well as a Naturalist.
She is challenging traditional belief with what she
perceives to be a realistic vision.
Do you agree that the story is realistic?
Feminism
One reason we might NOT say Chopin is a
Naturalist is due to her celebration of women
who seek to find their own identity and
refuse to conform to the social norms laid
out for them.
In “The Storm” Calixta is not the typical
weak heroine who is swept away, or
overpowered by a lover. Instead, she
participates in the affair as fully as Alcee,
and has no regrets.
Or, and here the question will be left for you to
answer,
Does Chopin believe affairs are natural and
inevitable?
Does Chopin believe that it is as UN-realistic to
expect fidelity from women as men?
How do you see Chopin's presentation of men
and women as more realistic than the traditional
social view of her day?
How do you see her presentation of men and
women as less realistic?
"The Storm" themes
• Unlike most of Kate Chopin's short stories
and both her novels, this story was not
published until the 1960s, many years after
it was written. Apparently Chopin did not
submit it to magazines because she
understood that no editor at the time would
publish a work as sexually explicit as this
one.
• Per Seyersted, a Chopin biographer, writes
that "sex in this story is a force as strong,
inevitable, and natural as the Louisiana
storm which ignites it." The conclusion of
the story, Seyersted adds, is ambiguous,
because Chopin "covers only one day and
one storm and does not exclude the
possibility of later misery. The emphasis is
on the momentary joy of the amoral
cosmic force."
• In this story, Seyersted says, Kate Chopin
"was not interested in the immoral in itself,
but in life as it comes, in what she saw as
natural--or certainly inevitable-expressions of universal Eros, inside or
outside of marriage. She focuses here on
sexuality as such, and to her, it is neither
frantic nor base, but as 'healthy' and
beautiful as life itself."