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DESIREE’S BABY
BY: KATE CHOPIN
KATE CHOPIN
• Catherine (Kate) O’Flaherty was born in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on February 8, 1850
• Kate’s family on her mother’s side was of French extraction, and Kate grew up
speaking both French and English.
• Her early life had a great deal of trauma. In 1855, her father was killed in a railroad
accident. In 1863 her beloved French-speaking great grandmother died. Kate spent
the Civil War in St. Louis, a city where residents supported both the Union and the
Confederacy and where her family had slaves in the house. Her half brother enlisted
in the Confederate army, was captured by Union forces, and died of typhoid fever.
KATE CHOPIN CONT.
• Kate became a widow at age thirty-two, with the responsibility of raising six children. She
never remarried.
• Dr. Frederick Kolbenheyer, her obstetrician and a family friend, encouraged her to write.
• It took decades before critics fully grasped what Chopin had accomplished.
• Kate Chopin broke new ground in American literature. She was the first woman writer in
her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction.
Revolting against tradition and authority; with a daring which we can hardy fathom today;
with an uncompromising honesty and no trace of sensationalism, she undertook to give
the unsparing truth about woman’s submerged life. She was something of a pioneer in the
amoral treatment of sexuality, of divorce, and of woman’s urge for an existential
authenticity.
LET’S DISCUSS SYMBOLISM…
WOW! THAT’S IRONIC
• Are the 3 types of Irony represented in “Desiree’s Baby”?
Situational Irony: The opposite of what we expect to happen in a situation occurs
Verbal Irony: Someone says something but they actually mean the opposite
Dramatic Irony: The reader knows something that the characters do not.
CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE
Using what you know about the symbolism and the irony used in Desiree’s Baby, how
does Kate Chopin explore and challenge the “norms” of society in the 1890’s?
• Cite textual evidence appropriately.
• I will be using the Milestone Rubric to grade your writing.
• Be sure to check for spelling and grammar.