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Comparing Kate Chopin Short Stories

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Kate Chopin’s short stories are different and intriguing compared to other authors that I have read. Throughout this essay, I will be analyzing Kate Chopin and two of her short stories. Chopin’s stories have always stood out to me because she shows me a different perspective about things. She wrote two published novels and over one hundred short stories. It has been difficult for Kate Chopin’s literary works to reach fame because of many critics deteriorating her stories, “...lauded as a detached, ‘objective’ writer...she had no causes, no opinions…” (Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou 15). Despite everything, she overcame these challenges and produced some of the great stories we read today. While writing and publishing her short …show more content…

Sommers, who is the main character, is married and has children. Her family is very poor and does not have extra money for anything. One day, Mrs. Sommers gets fifteen dollars and plans to spend it all on her children by buying them new clothes and shoes. Mrs. Sommers is usually good at finding deals but today she is tired and does not have the energy to look for savings. While taking a break, her skin rubs across some silk stockings that she finds a liking to, “...something very soothing, very pleasant to touch” (Chopin 310), she then decides to buy them for herself and quickly changes into the stockings. Mrs. Sommers buys new shoes, a pair of gloves, and a nice lunch for herself, as well. She has not done or bought something for herself in a while and enjoys it. Mrs. Sommers then goes to a theater for rich people and enjoys the entire thing. Afterward, she sits on a cable car heading home and thinks about the nice day she has had. Mrs. Sommers does not want the day or temporary lifestyle to end, she longed “that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever” (Chopin 316). The character analysis of Mrs. Sommer is that she is a woman caught between two roles, being a mother and doing stuff for her children or having a day to herself and enjoying her time alone. At the beginning of the story, she is frugal and careful of what she buys and the cost of it; “Mrs. Sommers was one who knew the value of bargains” (Chopin 309). Towards the end of the story after buying the stockings, Mrs. Sommers becomes more selfish and careless about her spendings, “...wanted an excellent and stylish fit...did not mind the difference of a dollar or two more in the price so long as she got desired” (Chopin 312-13). The touching of the stockings against her skin and the buying of them leads Mrs. Sommers to have “an experience which simultaneously embraces her and

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