The Boundaries of Society in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Desiree's Child As human beings, we live our lives within the confines of our belief systems and moral guidelines that we were raised with. Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and "Desiree's Child" tell the story of two women living within these social boundaries. American author Kate Chopin (1850-1904) wrote approximately one hundred short stories and two novels in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana, and most of her best-known works focus on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. After her father's death, Kate's family included her widowed mother, widowed grandmother, and widowed great-grandmother. Perhaps this provides insight into what would ultimately influence Kate Chopin as a writer: the lack of male role models and men as central figures in her life as she matured. This lack would also have prevented her from experiencing what was fundamentally a fundamental social concept of her time: the tradition of women's submission to men in all social spheres, but especially that of marriage (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin) In 1888, after suffering the grief of the deaths of her father, mother, and husband, Chopin turned to creative writing as an outlet. She was not particularly known as a writer during her lifetime. He began writing seriously at the age of 39, when he had already experienced many maturing life situations. He quickly found his central focus and wrote stories whose intriguing characters and settings often masked the seriousness of the themes. Not much involved in the politics of her time, she was nevertheless influenced by classical masters such as Maupassan... middle of paper... Kate Chopin's use of irony in the story is particularly effective. He highlights various aspects that prejudice is unfair to the characters in his story. If Desiree had been mixed race, she might have been considered an innocent heroine. Consequently, since Armand is the source of the suspicious blood, Desiree totally becomes the victim. Works CitedCharters, Ann. The story and its writer. 7. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007.http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/late_nineteenth/chopin_ka.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopinhttp://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Desiree's

Topic > The Boundaries of Society in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin and Desiree's Child As human beings, we live our lives within the confines of our belief systems and moral guidelines that we were raised with. Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and "Desiree's Child" tell the story of two women living within these social boundaries. American author Kate Chopin (1850-1904) wrote approximately one hundred short stories and two novels in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana, and most of her best-known works focus on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women. After her father's death, Kate's family included her widowed mother, widowed grandmother, and widowed great-grandmother. Perhaps this provides insight into what would ultimately influence Kate Chopin as a writer: the lack of male role models and men as central figures in her life as she matured. This lack would also have prevented her from experiencing what was fundamentally a fundamental social concept of her time: the tradition of women's submission to men in all social spheres, but especially that of marriage (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin) In 1888, after suffering the grief of the deaths of her father, mother, and husband, Chopin turned to creative writing as an outlet. She was not particularly known as a writer during her lifetime. He began writing seriously at the age of 39, when he had already experienced many maturing life situations. He quickly found his central focus and wrote stories whose intriguing characters and settings often masked the seriousness of the themes. Not much involved in the politics of her time, she was nevertheless influenced by classical masters such as Maupassan... middle of paper... Kate Chopin's use of irony in the story is particularly effective. He highlights various aspects that prejudice is unfair to the characters in his story. If Desiree had been mixed race, she might have been considered an innocent heroine. Consequently, since Armand is the source of the suspicious blood, Desiree totally becomes the victim. Works CitedCharters, Ann. The story and its writer. 7. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007.http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pages/late_nineteenth/chopin_ka.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopinhttp://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Desiree's_Baby