Kate Chopin

The Feminist View of Kate Chopin

Kate O’Flaherty Chopin was born February 8, 1851 into a prominent family in St. Louis. Her father was an Irish immigrant and was a successful St. Louis merchant who was killed in a train accident when Kate was only five. That only left her, her widowed mother, widowed grand-ma, and a few brothers and sisters… “A community of women who stressed learning, curiosity, and financial independence”(seyersted, 20) On June 9, 1870, two years after graduating from the Academy, Kate Married Oscar Chopin. They were married for twelve years. During this time, Kate gave birth to five boys and one girl. ”Devoted herself to her family and household, she still managed to reconcile the needs of her own being. She dressed unconventionally and smoked cigarettes long before smoking was approved for women by society”(20) When Oscar died in 1882, Kate and her kids moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother. Not long after her mother also died. This was ...