The Awakening

Kate Chopin began writing regularly as a means of therapy for the deaths of her father, two brothers, husband, mother, and great-grandmother; her controversial treatment of women's confinement and potential independence stemmed both from her rebellious youth and her feministic social convictions. Such sensual depictions of women's social struggles as her famous novel The Awakening and the collection A Night in Acadie were initially censored, but later earned Chopin acclaim for their psychological depth and poignant identification of women's social and personal dilemmas.