What Is Kate Chopin's Oppression

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Gender Equality: The Oppression of 19th Century Women Kate Chopin's short story, “The Story of an Hour” focuses on the role of 19th century women and their ever-progressing rights which is outlined by Chopin in the form of tone, imagery, symbolism, and theme. In the story the protagonist, Louise Mallard's, role in life was to live in the shadow of her husband, where she was only able to cook, clean, and keep quiet. This role shifts for her when she catches news of her husband’s tragic passing. All her dreams of life outside the shadows and her hope for freedom from constant oppression from not only her husband, but the society that forced her into this role, were finally becoming reality to her. However, what Louise was yet to find is that…show more content…
Through Chopin’s use of literary elements, she was able to tell a story of love, loss, and oppression which all to place within an hours time. Kate Chopin, also known by her birth name as Kate O'Flaherty, was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850 to parents Eliza and Thomas. Her brothers and sisters did not fare well in life as none of them lived past the age of 25. Kate was a sort of only child in this sense, and in 1855, at the wee age of five and a half she was sent of to a Catholic boarding school. Two months later, her father passed in a tragic train accident, possibly similar to the accident she alludes to at the beginning of her story. For the next two years she was to live at home with three different generations of maternal influences; her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all widows themselves. Possibly, the people in her life the developed her strong view about women’s right, as she experienced…show more content…
Mostly, by leaving things open-ended and for the reader to have enough sense to pick up on. Her imagery and symbols were rock solid, as she guides the reader through a theme in which any human being with a soul could relate to. The tone of the story was dim as the hope for women seemed at the time, there was light for but a minute, but the sight of an oppressor stomped out the fire upon entry. The fire suffocated by thousands years of human indecency, it seems as we are supposed be the smartest species, yet somehow with all our knowledge so many time throughout history it is used for bad. For all the brains we have we seem to be so stubborn and continue to free one people, move on, then to continue to oppress another. This story mirrored feelings of all people, as anyone can pick up, read the story and understand, relate, and be affected in someway or another. The openness of it all made it that much better, in the sense that it truly can and will affect any reader with a soul and heart for human compassion. Maybe that is what makes us so great, from all the mistakes we make, as a species we seems to always have compassion, the ability to put ourselves in another’s shoes and relate. One day, hopefully, all people will have and feel freedom, everyone might have that hope and glisten, and those of us that already have it, should fight for those who do not as we all
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