Kate Chopin was an American writer of fiction who lived in the last half of the nineteenth century. She was born in 1850, prior to the abolition of slavery, and married a Southerner named Oscar Chopin in 1870. She then moved to New Orleans and, soon, to his plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Oscar died in 1882, after the couple had had six children together, but during that time, Chopin had become steeped in the Creole culture that she describes quite often in her works. Though she moved home to St. Louis shortly after her husband's death, Chopin's time in the American South, and in southern Louisiana specifically, seems to have greatly affected her. In addition to this, her concerns regarding the plight of widowed women, and women in general, seem to have developed as a result of her own widowhood and the extreme debt her husband left behind when he died.

This story, then, centers around several common subjects of Chopin's works: the lives of women, the lives of slaves, and the Creole south. The only male characters are minor, but Zoraïde, Madame Delarivière, Madame Delisle, and Manna Loulou figure most prominently. Moreover, Zoraïde—the story's protagonist—is a mixed-race slave who must attempt to negotiate her happiness with her white mistress and godmother, Madame Delarivière. Finally, Manna Loulou tells the story of Zoraïde to Madame Delisle, who lives near Bayou St. John, and the story itself is a "half-forgotten Creole romance." Typical for Chopin's stories, she depicts the white people as unable or unwilling to see their black or mixed-race counterparts as fellow human beings rather than possessions. The first time that Zoraïde attempts to refuse Madame Delarivière, the white woman immediately begins to treat her supposedly beloved Zoraïde as a possession rather than a person. Likewise, in the end, Madame Delisle fails to recognize the tragedy of Zoraïde's life or her humanity, sympathizing only with the woman's child rather than the woman herself, a woman who was denied the opportunity to marry the man she loved, who lost him when he was sold away, who was told her own daughter died, and who lost her mind as a result of her overwhelming grief.

There is a whimsical, sleepy, dreamlike tone throughout Chopin’s stories, and “La Belle Zoraïde” is no different. This is emphasized through the story within the story; Manna Loulou tells Madame Delisle the tale of la belle Zoraïde as a bedtime story. Chopin describes the story told in Creole “patois” that can only be experienced rather than described. It is the slow, multicultural drawl combined with the warmth of the Louisiana South that contributes to this overall tone of softness. The “music and charm no English words can convey” is well established through Chopin’s tone work and setting development.

Another important feature of the story to note is the seamless shifts between French-based Creole and English. This, of course, is another indication of Chopin’s time spent in Louisiana. The characters move in and out of speaking to each other with French phrases, even the use of “madame” and “la belle” interspersed with English. Just as Manna Loulou and Madame Delisle move in and out of French, so do Zoraïde and Madame Delarivière. Such multilingual transitions are commonplace in the setting of New Orleans and Louisiana in general.