Kate Chopin was an incredible woman. Most recognized for her unbelievable writing capabilities, she succeeded in many other areas as well. She was known as a “domestic goddess”. She was born Katherine O’ Flaherety in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8th1851. Born into a Creole family, her heritage was a huge part of her life. Her mother Eliza Faris, came from an aristocratic French Creole family, and her father, Thomas O’ Flaherety was an Irish immigrant whom worked very hard and became prosperous before his early and unexpected death in a horrific train accident. She was raised by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who were all French Creole descendants. She spent time with her French Creole grandmother, due to the fact that they both an interest in musica

l arts and reading in both English and French. She was brought up to be a proper Southern young woman and was taught to support the confederacy at a young age. Although she spent most of her life in New Orleans, she is well known for her stories of Louisiana and her Cajun and Creole life. She enrolled in the catholic school Sacred Heart in 1864 and graduated in 1868. She was married the same year of her graduation at the age of 19 to a Creole cotton trader, Oscar Chopin. She was viewed by society at her young age as being beautiful, fun intelligent and clever. She and her family lived in a typical New Orleans home. In 1879, Oscar's business failed, and the family moved to a Louisiana plantation called Nachitoches. The widowed Chopin moved back to St. Louis with her six children in 1882 because of her husband’s death due to swamp fever. She longed for being a great mother, wife and neighbor and she did succeed although her outlook on life soon died along with her husband. His death impacted her greatly as she became really depressed. It was now that she realized she needed to support her 6 young children all on her own thus becoming a writer. She began to read a medley of books now from Darwin to Sarah Orne Jewett, she felt it a necessity to help mourn the loss of her husband. Her first attempts at writing were brief sketches for a local

newspaper which were short descriptions of her life in Louisiana. This soon faded because it was not her passion. She longed to write of more risky topics such as she would write in her diaries, letters and the fiction she would read. The most intriguing subject for Chopin was female subjugation and freedom. She was quickly accepted and praised as a “local color writer. However after her publication of the infamous book “the Awakening” in 1899, success in her writing career quickly and drastically declined. It shocked and amazed critics which was a major “awakening” for them because many of her previous works were shadowed and not as well known. Chopin was severely criticized for depicting a

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