Relationship between Chopin's life and the AwakeningKatherine O'Flahtery Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1851. She was the daughter of Thomas and Eliza O'Flaherty, a prominent Irish-born merchant and his wife. Together, Chopin's parents represented freedom and the American dream. Their ambition and spirit helped make Chopin a unique, independent and intelligent character. His father died suddenly when Chopin was four years old. His death was the result of a terrible accident that claimed the lives of several civic leaders when the key link to the Pacific Railway was being completed and a bridge collapsed. After the death of Thomas O'Flahtery, Katherine's childhood was deeply influenced by her mother and grandmother, wives of French Creole pioneers. As a child, Chopin spent much of her time with the Creole and mulatto slaves of her family, whose dialects she mastered. She studied piano, wrote poetry and read books by famous authors such as Dickens, Austen and Goethe. Although Katherine demonstrated a very independent and responsible personality, she was once nicknamed the Littlest Rebel for tearing down a Union flag. However, despite her free spirit, Chopin became a leading social belle, admired for her wit and beauty. As a beginner, Chopin was an undistinguished student at the convent school named the Académie du Sacré-Cœur de Saint-Louis. She graduated at seventeen and spent two years as a young woman in fashionable St. Louis society. It was then that young Katherine O'Flaherty met Oscar Chopin, a rich Creole cotton postman. In 1870, Kate married Oscar, and for the next decade Kate Chopin continued the demanding social and domestic schedule of a wealthy wife and mother. ...... middle of paper ......r that surrounded the publication of The Awakening, and its harsh reception is what ultimately stopped her from writing. She felt that due to the large amount of controversy and criticism she received because of The Awakening, there was no future for her as an author. Chopin devoted the last years of his life to his family. Katherine O'Flaherty Chopin died of a cerebral hemorrhage on August 22, 1904 at the age of 53. Many believed that Kate Chopin had been denied the recognition she desperately desired and richly deserved. . Besides L'Eveil, other of Chopin's writings are critically acclaimed because they have been neglected. The stories collected in Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie established Chopin as an important author of locally colored fiction. Works cited: Chopin, Kate. Awakening. 1899. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1993.