Kate Chopin Biography

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Biography of Kate Chopin Kate Chopin was a famous author during the late eighteen hundreds publishing many famous short stories and novels such as The Awakening and Bayou Folks. She has often been referred to as “a pioneer in the amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential authenticity” (Seyersted 1). She led the way for feminism and was praised after her death once her style of writing became more accepted. Chopin wrote about the passion that other authors during her time would not dare to speak of. Her life greatly influenced literature today and the censorship that follows. On February 8, 1850, Katherine O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Thomas O’Flaherty and Eliza Faris. She was their second born child and later in life became known as the famous author, Kate Chopin. Growing up in the South with and Irish father and a Creole mother, she was bilingual with English and French. (Ewell) Kate experienced much loss at a young age, three of her family members died by the time she was thirteen. The first death was of her father on November 1st, 1855 from a train accident leaving her mother to raise the children with the help of Kate’s grandmother and great grandmother. When she was thirteen, her great grandmother and half brother passed away a month apart. Her great grandmother was rumored to be a great influence on her from her story telling and encouragement. (Ewell) During her school years Chopin attended St. Louis Academy of the Sacred Heart, there she was encouraged to write and express herself. After she was finished in school, she was thrust into the debutant and party scene. She wrote in her diary that she did not wish to go to the parties, only to stay home and be alone. (Deter) Kate eventually met her husband, Oscar Chopin and married when she was nineteen. They had six children in their first ten years of
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