Kate Chopin (Overall)

Question 1

In medias res

Answer 1

A stylistic technique that Chopin uses that was influenced by Guy de Maupassant. Essentially the equivalent of a cold open – starting the story in the middle of the plot.

Question 2

Kate Chopin: Themes

Answer 2

• Women’s search for selfhood, self-discovery, identity
• Women’s revolt against conformity
• Women’s understanding of sexuality
• Women’s understanding of motherhood, pregnancy, and childbirth
• Wealth
• Race
• Religion

Question 3

Kate Chopin: Childhood

Answer 3

• Born in Missouri
• Bilingual and bicultural (French-American)
• Went to a religious private school, forming deep bonds with family members, nun teachers, and friends
• Father killed in a railroad accident
• Her family had slaves in the house during the Civil War

Question 4

Kate Chopin: Marriage

Answer 4

• Settled with her husband in New Orleans
• Married into a wealthy family
• Had five sons and a daughter
• Widowed at 32, left with her six children, never remarried

Question 5

Kate Chopin: Late Life and Death

Answer 5

• Published A Night in Acadie, Bayou Folk (both collections of short stories), At Fault, and The Awakening (both novels)
• Died shortly after visiting the St. Louis World’s Fair, perhaps of a cerebral hemorrhage due to heat and exhaustion
• Seen today as an essential American author
• Mostly forgotten after her death, but rediscovered by scholars and praised beginning in the 1950s

Question 6

Kate Chopin: Characters, Time, and Place

Answer 6

Most of Kate Chopin’s short stories are set in the late nineteenth century in Louisiana, often rural Louisiana. Most of the characters, like most of the people living in Louisiana at the time, are Creoles, Acadians, “Americans” (as the Creoles and Acadians call outsiders), African Americans, Native Americans, and people of mixed race. Except for some of the Creoles, most of the characters are terribly poor, because the area has yet to recover from the devastation of the Civil War.