The location I chose is Kate Chopin's House in Cloutierville, Louisiana. This is the family-owned plantation Chopin moved to after Oscar's business. The image is in black and white but, the house has an all-white exterior, apart from green accent pieces, on the windows, and staircase. The property is surrounded by a fence with brick pillars, and a chimney at the tippy top of the house. The house was designated as a National Historic Landmark in April 9th, 1993, due to its influence on Chopin's literary pieces. However, on October 1st, 2008, a fire destroyed the house, with only the chimney surviving. It was later bulldozed and the landmark was withdrawn on December 23rd, 2016, also being removed from the National Register of Historic Places. According to information within the National Historic Landmarks' article titled, "Kate Chopin House", it states, "Chopin began writing in 1888, her experiences in Cloutiervile profoundly influenced both the content and themes of her work. This is seen not only in the geographic setting of her short stories, but also her depictions of the worker culture of the Cane River". This quote helps support my grounds for choosing this location, as it exhibits how Chopin's experiences at this house impacted her works. Especially her literary pieces The Story of an Hour and The Awakening. However, she has written many more stories based on her experiences there, but these are the most known literary pieces. Chopin's literary works The Story of an Hour and The Awakening take place in the South, like her house. These stories depicted the need for self-expression and critiqued, the "general treatment of female sexuality, motherhood, and marital infidelity" (Wikipedia "Kate Chopin"). Her works, particularly, The Awakening, "has been critically acclaimed for its writing quality and importance as an example of early feminist literature of the South" (Wikipedia "Kate Chopin"). It is with my understanding having read both The Story of an Hour and The Awakening that both literary works depict women's struggles as well as their need for independence and self-expression. I believe Kate Chopin used her experiences living on a plantation in 1870, nonetheless as a woman. I believe Chopin's real experiences and relationships are written down in her literary pieces, helping her contribute to her self-expression. Without her experiences in Cloutierville, Louisiana, there would most likely not be any enlightening pieces such as The Story of an Hour or The Awakening, shedding light on women's need for self-expression as well as a critique on societal expectations of women during that time.
Works Cited
“Kate Chopin House (Cloutierville, Louisiana).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Apr. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin_House_(Cloutierville,_Louisiana).
“Kate Chopin House.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/kate-chopin-house.htm. Accessed 1 May 2024.
“Kate Chopin.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 4 Feb. 2024, www.britannica.com/biography/Kate-Chopin.
“Kate Chopin.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin.