2.  Prosperity for the nation, discontentment for
some people
› African Americans  “free” but few real rights
› Women  couldn’t vote, not equal to men
 Women activists started fighting for equality
and independence

3.  1850-1904
 Father died when Kate was 5
 Taken out of school, educated at home by
mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother
 Married Oscar Chopin at age of 20
 Moved to plantation in rural Louisiana

4.  After 12 years of marriage, husband dies
 Runs plantation and raises 6 children on own
 Moves in with mother, who soon died
 Depressed  doctor recommends writing
fiction
 Wrote about Louisiana and radical topics
› Marriage
› Racial prejudice
› Women’s equality

5.  Irony: a contradiction between appearance
and reality
› Verbal irony: someone says something that
contradicts what that person means
› Situational irony: something happens that
contradicts what we expected
› Dramatic irony: the reader or audience is aware
of something the character does not know

6.  Two magazines refused this story because
they thought it was immoral (wicked/wrong)
 Wanted Chopin to make her female
character less independent
 Protagonist = Mrs. Mallard
› A woman unhappy in her marriage
› Told her husband has been killed