Eng 1102 - Kate Chopin Research

Gregory Shedd

Engl 1102

3 March 2011

T. Long

Kate Chopin

Chopin was born just a few years before the civil war. There were a lot of events happening throughout Kate Chopin's life. She also had published many works of art through out her life. Kate Chopin was born in 1851 and died in 1904. "American author Kate Chopin (1850–1904) 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" (katechopin.org). Kate Chopin worked hard during her life. Most of her stories were well known by American readers because of her magazine fiction. One of her most well known stories is Desiree's Baby. Desiree's Baby is about an adopted daughter who marries into a wealthy plantation owner's family. They live in southern Louisiana together on Armand Aubigny's plantation. They are quite devoted to each other it seems throughout the story until they have their first child. The child comes out quadroon; quadroon is "a person having one-fourth black ancestry; the offspring of amulatto and a white." (dictionary.com) Because of the way the baby looks and how Desiree was adopted, Armand comes to the conclusion that Desiree is part black. He goes out on a rampage and banishes Desiree from his family. He tells her to leave with the baby and never to come back. After she is gone with the child he discovers a letter from his mother to his father explaining that Armand is part black. Armand is probably more psychologically disturbed because of his roots being white and French. His mother probably had an African root in her somewhere. Armand was never able to see his mother since she lived in France, so she might be black or have a hint of black in her. Desiree's race is never really determined in the story after she is banished.

"Kate Chopin stated that the only true subject for great fiction is ‘human existence in its subtle, complex, true meaning, stripped of the veil with which ethical and conventional standards have draped it.' Armand moves out of the conventions that have governed his life, and Chopin strips him of the veils that have hidden his real self" (Foy).

The story was written in the civil war era. Kate Chopin was born in the civil war era. Her stories relate to how she was raised throughout her life. Kate Chopin was born in Missouri. She had a very diverse family. Her father was from Ireland and her mother was from a French culture. She grew up speaking both languages so therefore she was bilingual and bicultural. "She was bilingual and bicultural--feeling at home in different communities with quite different values--and the influence