American Short Stories Kate Chopin – 1851 - 1904

Kate Chopin 1851 – 1904 Born in St. Louis, lived her married life in Louisiana Returned to St. Louis when her husband died Turned to writing to support her family and create an identity

Chopin lost most of her closest relatives while she was a young woman. Her father died when she was a child and her husband and mother died close together. After her husband’s death, she was left to raise their five children alone.

She came from a fairly wealthy family; after her husband died she felt the need to write and be more independent, especially since, after her mother’s death, she had no close relatives left.

Her Work Chopin wrote two published novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women

Most of her work shows a female protagonist trying to find her way in the world and make a statement about her role in the family/society and her individual identity.