Willa Cather's Response to Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin wrote two novels and hundreds of short stories. Her short stories were well written and became very popular through well known magazines such as Vogue. She mostly wrote about sensitive and intelligent women. She was surrounded by many women living with her through her whole life. Her first novel At Fault was not a huge hit with the public and was not noticed. Kate’s second novel however The Awakening was not well liked at all. It got alot of attention because of how different it was. Many critics brought it down and said it was horrible and very disagreeable. For awhile it is said that the book was banned from libraries, schools, and book stores in Kate's home town.

Willa Cather was becoming a well known female author at this time. She wrote many critical pieces also. Cather had many things about Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening. I found an interesting essay that Cather wrote in response to Kate Chopin’s book. She had many negative things to say about the novel. Cather had published O Pioneers in 1913 as a response to The Awakening. This novel that Willa wrote had many similarities to The Awakening. In both books the social female status was pushed to a different acceptance. Also each story shows women who want to be independent and have a well rounded life but fail at doing so. Cather was just so struck by how Chopin's story was written. It was such a new idea and way of writing especially for a woman. She strongly disagreed with it and thought it was wrong.

“Cather accuses Chopin's Edna of belonging to a "forever clamoring" class of women "that demands more romance out of life than God put into it," and asserts the hope that "next time...Miss Chopin will devote that flexible iridescent style of hers to a better cause"

This was some of what Cather had said about Chopin’s book. She states that Chopin could use some of her intelligence to write something better. She believed that Chopin was a very intellignet woman, but didn't use her intelligence to the best of her abilities. In another essay that I read written by Cather she states "A Creole "Bovary" is this little novel of Miss Chopin's". This is what she called Chopin's novel. Cather said that she had a good style of writing even though it was simple, but had wasted it on this novel. This meaning that Cather believed that Kate could have possibly done a better job writing on a differnt topic or choosing a different theme because this one did not go well for her in Cather's opinion.

"She writes much better than it is ever given to most people to write, and hers is a genuinely literary style; of no great elegance or solidity; but light, flexible, subtle and capable of producing telling effects directly and simply. The story she has to tell in the present instance is new neither in matter nor treatment".

"And next time I hope that Miss Chopin will devote that flexible, iridescent style of hers to a better cause."

After Kate Chopin's death in 1901 her novels were forgotten but her short stoires were to become even more popular. After the horrible reviews on The Awakening that was her last novel that Kate wrote. I think that Kate Chopin was a very intelligent woman who just put her feminine thoughts into her stories through her characters. She fought for her views on feminism and was a great author. Her ideas were extremely different to her society which is why they were not liked. Today her novel The Awakening is very popular and well liked by many readers.

Sources:

http://www.katechopin.org/biography.shtml

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3201780/

http://apenglish.forumotion.net/t185-willa-cather-criticism