Kate Chopin Questions and Answers
Kate Chopin
What symbolism is there in "Ripe Figs" by Kate Chopin?
The ripe figs seem to symbolize the idea that there is a good time for everything, and everything happens in its own good time. We cannot force the figs to ripen sooner than they will; they will...
Kate Chopin
Compare and contrast "Désirée's Baby" and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.
Both stories are at their cores about women in unhappy, unequal marriages. While Mrs. Mallard and Desiree both love their husbands, they are not allowed to be their equals. Mr. Mallard dominates...
Kate Chopin
What is the theme of "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin?
The main theme of the story is that a woman cannot possibly expect both passion and wealth in marriage: she must choose one. Chopin often writes about the untenable choices women had to make during...
Kate Chopin
What is the theme of "Ripe Figs" by Kate Chopin?
Another theme of this story is that patience can be taught. Young people can struggle with patience, and this is the case with Babette; older folks tend to have a bit more patience because they...
Kate Chopin
What are the characters and characteristics in "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin?
The three characters in Kate Chopin’s short story “The Kiss” are Nathalie, Brantain and Harvy. As with much of Kate Chopin’s work, this story sheds light on women’s lives and their place in...
Kate Chopin
What are some similarities and differences between Calixta in "The Storm," Desiree in "Desiree's Baby," and Mrs....
All three of these female characters experience the restrictiveness of marriage in the nineteenth-century, though in different ways and for different reasons. Calixta seems to have been unaware of...
Kate Chopin
Please give a summary of "Athenaise" by Kate Chopin.
This short story by Kate Chopin features the characters Athenaise, who has been recently married to Cazeau, her brother, called Monteclin and another man called Gouvernail. The story starts with...
Kate Chopin
In "Odalie Misses Mass," what does Kate Chopin say about southerners using ironic criticism?
In "Odalie Misses Mass," the main character, Odalie, is a young white girl who goes to visit her an older black woman named Aunt Pinky. At first, Odalie says and does many things that could be...
Kate Chopin
How does the short story "A Respectable Woman" demonstrate the universal truth of pride?
Kate Chopin's short story, "A Respectable Woman," has several themes, to be expected from an author with such strong female protagonists. However, the story may also demonstrate the universal truth...
Kate Chopin
Please give a summary of "Beyond the Bayou" by Kate Chopin.
"Beyond the Bayou" by Kate Chopin features a black woman called Jacqueline, but who is known as "La Folle" (Crazy Woman in French) because of the way that she has drawn "an imaginary line" through...
Kate Chopin
In the story, "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin, what roles do the settings play in the story?
Settings play a key role in establishing the characters of this terrific short story all about the way that a woman is able to manipulate her way into a wealthy marriage, in spite of an incident...
Kate Chopin
In "Odalie Misses Mass," by Kate Chopin, what does the author say about the Southern region? Is she being...
To answer your question, Kate Chopin may have written Odalie Misses Mass as a literary experiment. Chopin wrote in the 19th century, when stories about female friendships were rare. In fact,...
Kate Chopin
Compare and contrast "The Story of an Hour" and The Awakening.
"The Story of an Hour" and The Awakening are joined in being centrally about a middle-class woman coming to an acute awareness of her own desire for autonomy and freedom and having, at least for...
Kate Chopin
Who or what is the protagonist and antagonist in the short story "The Kiss" by Kate Chopin?
Well, I suppose this question depends very much on who you side with when you think about the characters in this short story. The protagonist is the character who is trying to achieve something and...
Kate Chopin
What are the themes in "Athenaise" by Kate Chopin?
The key theme in this short story is a theme that is explored in many of Chopin's works, which is the theme of marriage and woman's role within it. What leads Athenaise to reject her husband and...
Kate Chopin
What is Kate Chopin's writing style in "The Story of an Hour," "At the 'Cadian Ball," and "The Storm"?
Unlike her late Victorian contemporaries, Oscar Wilde and Thomas Hardy, who wrote in a Ciceronian style that emphasizes balance with parallelism and antithesis with opposition for emphasis, Kate...
Kate Chopin
How does Kate Chopin use imagery to depict important concerns in “Ripe Figs”?
In the short story "Ripe Figs," Chopin demonstrates different perspectives on the passage time. Time seems to pass slowly for young Babette; on the other hand, time seems to pass quickly for her...
Kate Chopin
Where can there be comparisons of significance between Chopin's The Awakening and "The Story of an Hour"?
Both "The Story of an Hour" and The Awakening are feminist pieces written by Kate Chopin. Both texts explore the idea of women's roles in society and how women resist these roles and standards...
Kate Chopin
Which female character in Chopin's stories possesses true love for her husband? Calixta, Louise or Desiree?
I think one can argue that both Calixta and Desiree truly do love their husbands. However, one would be hard-pressed to make the same argument about Louise Mallard. When Louise learns of her...
Kate Chopin
Share your ideas about the main characters in Kate Chopin's "Ripe Figs."
Unfortunately I had to edit your question to focus on just one question. You are not allowed to ask multiple questions. You have picked a rather intriguing story to focus on. I think "Ripe Figs" is...
Kate Chopin
How can I compare and contrast the settings of "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour"?
The settings of both "The Story of an Hour" and "The Storm" are domestic, as both stories take place within the home and from the perspective of the housewife. Both Louise and Calixta are married,...
Kate Chopin
In the story, "the storm" and "the wall paper", how does the author view love/hate relationships according to their...
In "The Storm", Kate Chopin's main character Calixta lacks the understanding of what marriage is in terms of sexuality. She lives life as it is expected of her, and the relationship in her marital...
Kate Chopin
Please contrast Kate Chopin's protagonist Calixta in "The Storm" and the protagonist Desiree in "Desiree's Baby." I...
Well, if you need help in identifying differences between the two characters, clearly a major difference between Calixta and Desiree is the way that Desiree is faithful to her husband and Calixta...
Kate Chopin
In Kate Chopin's "A Night in Acadie," what is an example of binary opposition?
The Kate Chopin story "A Night in Arcadie" opens with binary opposition representing binary system. Binary opposition (BO) is used in contemporary literary criticism by structuralist,...
Kate Chopin
How is gender defined in Kate Chopin’s works?
I think that any potential answer to this question is going to be larger than the space here will allow. Chopin's understanding of women's identity and, basically what it means, to be a woman is...
Kate Chopin
In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and “Desiree’s Baby” the stories involve the reader in the experiences of...
Kate Chopin is able to write complex short stories in brief lengths for several reasons. In both of the examples listed, Chopin uses a third person limited point of view and spare figurative...
Kate Chopin
Compare the protagonists in the stories "The Story of an Hour" and "Désirée's Baby" by Kate Chopin.
Kate Chopin wrote in the Victorian Age of the nineteenth century. Her subjects shocked the readers; often, her stories were not published because of the subject matter. Racism, marriage, women's...
Kate Chopin
How do the women of "Désirée's Baby" and "The Story of an Hour" suffer for the prejudice of their time?
Kate Chopin is definitely immensely skilled at depicting the plight of women in her world and the various ways in which they are disadvantaged, ignored and disempowered. In "The Story of an Hour,"...
Kate Chopin
Can someone give me a good thesis answering this question: "What actions are expected of individuals within society?"...
I am not quite sure what you mean by "hook-up" sentence. Are you referring to a "hook" which is the initial sentence of an introduction (used to grab the attention of the reader), or are you...
Kate Chopin
In "Odalie Misses Mass," what is Kate Chopin saying about the South using muckraking? What is she trying to...
Muckraking is considered investigative writing meant to expose social ills or corporate and political corruption. In her short story "Odalie Misses Mass," Kate Chopin exposes some of the social...
Kate Chopin
How are marriage, love, and lust separated out in “The Story of an Hour” and in “The Storm”? Explain your examples.
Both of these short stories reflect the historical context of women in the late 1800s. At this time, marriage provided a means for a woman's survival, since few opportunities existed for them to...
Kate Chopin
Discuss specific examples of Kate Chopin's word choice in "A Respectable Woman."
To be able to complete this assignment about the author's word choices in the short story "A Respectable Woman" by Kate Chopin, it is important to understand the story's progression and ambiguous...
Kate Chopin
Based on Kate Chopin's short stories, "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour," what are her views on marriage?
I think that in the two stories specified, Chopin views marriage as an institution that inhibits individual desires, specifically those of women. Calixta and Louise Mallard are both repressed, to...
Kate Chopin
What kind of assumptions can be made about Babette's past in "Ripe Figs"?
In Kate Chopin's 1892 short story "Ripe Figs," very little is made explicit about the two characters, Babette and Maman-Nainaine. The term "Maman-Nainaine" translates to grandmother, but Chopin...
Kate Chopin
1. Based on your reading and notes, select one of Chopin's defining characteristics as an author (imagery, diction,...
1. Kate Chopin's feminist theme is prominent in "The Story of an Hour." Chopin's 1894 short story echoes many of the points feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton made in her "Declaration of...
Kate Chopin
Can we do research on Kate Chopin's story Charlie and The Christ Light through psycho feminism view? im a researcher...
I'll be happy to provide whatever help I can (feel free to "message" me). Let me say for now that there are three things that I always try to do when beginning to develop a research project on a...
Kate Chopin
How do Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an Hour" and "Désirée’s Baby" show women in search of their identity?
Both short stories by Kate Chopin center around women who have an experience that changes how they perceive their own identity. Interestingly, as the stories open, neither woman has been...
Kate Chopin
(a) How is Bruce, Alceé's manservant, important and what information does Alceé give him that he provides to...
In Chopin's short story "At the 'Cadian Ball," Bruce, the manservant of the Laballières, tells Mademoiselle Clarisse that Alceé Laballière has gone to the Cajun (Acadian) ball. He explains that...
Kate Chopin
What overall feeling do you get when you read The Locket by Kate Chopin? Does this mood change at all throughout the...
The feeling I get when I read this short story is one of mystery. The author sets the stage for this right from the very beginning when she describes the locket as some sort of good luck charm....
Kate Chopin
What similarities do the women in Wharton's story "The Other Two" and in Chopin's story "At the Cadian Ball" exhibit...
In both "At the Cadian Ball" and "The Other Two," we meet women who arrange, manage, and control their men. They are self-possessed people who know how to get what they want. A more negative...
Kate Chopin
What strategies do Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman use to undermine the patriarchal repression of female...
Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were contemporaneous American authors who published around the same time period. Kate Chopin's first story, "Emancipation: A Life Fable," was written in...
Kate Chopin
How do the similar settings of “The Storm” and “The Story of an Hour” inform the feminist message of both stories?...
Both stories take place during the late nineteenth century during a time when women had many fewer rights than men, especially in marriage. A married woman lost her legal identity, as it became...
Kate Chopin
Analyze how author Kate Chopin's word choice reflects Babette's mood in "Ripe Figs."
The story "Ripe Figs" by Kate Chopin is very short, but it is packed with vividly descriptive words that tell us a great deal about Babette's character and moods. Maman-Nainaine tells Babette that...
Kate Chopin
Through her work, what is Kate Chopin trying to convey?
I think that the basic idea of Chopin's work is to express what it means to be a woman. Writing from the age of 37, Chopin is able to bring out the unique dynamics and conditions that govern being...
Kate Chopin
What themes does Chopin address that relate to societal changes in the late 19th century?
In addition to the ideas raised earlier, Chopin examined the changing perceptions of women towards their social roles in her short story, "The Story of an Hour." Chopin takes the notion of a...
Kate Chopin
I am trying to write a thesis statement to argue how different the story would be set in todays world with DNA...
Please repost your question with the specific Kate Chopin story to which you are referring. This will give you the best possible answer from one of our superb eNotes editors.
Kate Chopin
Would you please guide me to a new approach and views of feminism that can be applied and new on Kate Chopin's...
Concerning your plans to analyze Kate Chopin from the feminist point of view/feminist literary theory, it is every critic's goal to discover and relate something new. It is a particularly...
Kate Chopin
Are the stories of Kate Chopin, the American writer, psychological?
Many of Chopin's stories are highly psychological. In my opinion, this is no better seen in the short story, "The Story of an Hour." Mrs. Mallard's extreme emotional roller coaster upon hearing...
Kate Chopin
What is the relation between the stories "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin?
I think that one can find a couple of links between both of Chopin's short stories. The depiction of women being able to act on their autonomy or consider a life where this freedom is activated is...