Kate Chopin and American Realsism

The author who I chose to read about for this assignment is Kate Chopin. Chopin's writings came about in a very pivotal time in American literature. Romanticism was ending and Realism was beginning. While the Romantics created almost fantasy-like worlds in which they could slip away from reality, Realists used writing to expose the cruelties and injustices of the world for what they were. As I read Kate Chopin's works, I saw that she used elements from both of these styles of writing.

In A Pair of Silk Stockings, a woman suddenly finds herself in what is practically a fairy tale. She has enough money to buy what she needs and also things that she simply desires. As she gives in to each temptation, she falls more and more into a dream-like state that she wishes would never end. The feeling that the story gives readers is similar to that of the stories of the Romantics. However, there is a fundamental difference. The woman in the story is not really wealthy. She is not really one of the women who can regularly indulge in the luxuries she has been allowed to experience for one day. This is where the reality sets in. Chopin describes the world that every woman of her time longed to live in, and then shows just how few got to actually experience it.

Lilacs, another short story by Chopin, is an example of the harsh ways in which the women of her time were judged. The main character, Adrienne, almost has two identities. One is the kind, respectable woman that she is seen as by everyone at the convent she visits every year. The other is the eccentric mistress she is viewed as by her servant Sophie. Adrienne does not tell Sophie why she leaves every year, most likely because she knows the nuns would never approve of her seeing a man who is not her husband. When they discover her secret, she is forbidden to return to the convent. Some may say that she was living a life of sin, but I believe that she was simply a woman living in a society with a very strict moral code. Chopin shows the harsh punishments given to whoever broke that code. This was the reality of the world in which she lived.