Kate_Chopin_and_the_Creole_Culture

Kate Chopin and the Creole culture: The Creole culture is a very fascinating mixture of different people from different racial backgrounds. These are the descendants of Spanish and French settlers from the Old World that came into the New World, also mixed with the descendants of African slaves and Native Americans. The natives who were born in the original colonies in the New World were the ones known as the Creoles. The world Creole as said by Garcilaso de la Vega came from the Negroes referring to a Negro born in the Indies. It is also said to be a Spanish term coming from the word “Criollo.” In Louisiana, it was used to refer to the Spanish and French descendants who had been born in the colonies, making them natives. Nowadays Creoles are still known as descendants from mixed settlers and Africans and Native Americans. Creoles also have their own language. It was developed by slaves; it is a mixture of French and African languages, still spoken today. Creole cooking was also influenced by their ancestors; it is influenced by the French Caribbean, African and from other European countries. The creoles also were an immense influence in music. They created Jazz. It was born in New Orleans, it got to be very popular and known nationally. Kate Chopin was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1850. Her parents Eliza and Thomas O’Flaherty (Kate Chopin’s original last name) had five kids, all died as the years passed. When Chopin was around 20, she was an only child. Chopin had a rough life. Apart from losing her brothers and sisters she also lost most of her family in her early life, all most in tragic accidents. Chopin studied in Sacred Heart Academy, it was a religious school she was quite popular in her school. She was at the top of her class and won medals. Chopin also grew in the Civil war causing her to lose not just family but friends she made in Sacred Heart academy. At the age of twenty Chopin married to Oscar Chopin. Oscar Chopin came from a wealthy family. Both had a French Catholic background. They moved to New Orleans and had seven children. Oscar C. was not a good business man and they were forced to move into a more convenient house. Later Oscar died of Swamp flue leaving Kate with the kids and the store they owned. She later moved with her mother Eliza and her children. Her mother died the next year. To make a living Kate began to write. The Awakening was inspired by a true story in New Orleans of a woman in the French Quarter. But her first novel was At Fault and was published in 1890. She was a rapid writer and did not revise her work. She died in august 22 1984 of cerebral hemorrhage.