Sex wasn't spoken of by women when Kate Chopin wrote "The Storm". In 1898 the idea of raising your social status or interrelation between higher and lower classes was unheard of. In this story the protagonist a poor, married, women named Calixta has an affair with Alcee", a rich married man. Calixta's husband, Bobinot leaves on foot to pick up some shrimp for dinner. During that time Alcee" separated from his wife, visits Calixta during the beginning of a heavy storm. With Bobinot's absence and the unexpected arrival of Alcee", accompanied by the storm, Calixta has an affair. Calixta, for a moment was joined with a class she desired to be, but wasn't a part of. Chopin portrays her alter self through Calixta, subtly showing her discomfort in lack of sexual authority.
While Calixta's husband uses his feet for transportation, Alcee uses his horse. Back then to own a horse was a sign of wealth and social status. "Alcee rode his horse under the shelter of a side projection- (113). After the storm and the affair were over, Bobinot along with Bibi return home barefoot. This is when Bobinot "scraped the mud off Bibi's bare legs and feet with a stick" (115). The manor in which this situation was taken care of is completely different than any member of the upper class would have handled it. This shows that their family is of the lower social class. The fact that Calixta is apart of this class, allows us to believe that this fling could have made her, for a moment, be apart of something she wasn't, and never will be. Her "Snow White" complex, where her true inner self is found by the "prince charming" like man is seen in this story. Which draws up a question as to why Chopin wrote Calixta as a poor women and not rich or equal to Alcee's status? .
Chopin believed the most civil form of rebellion of the time, literature. Chopin portrays the attitudes she wishes she could express through Calixta. The sexual openness shown by Calixta in Chopin's time is considered that of a whore.
