Kate Chopin wrote stories of women in various states of independence from the men in their lives. She had a strong attraction to feminism and wanted women to be freed from the dependence of men. Looking at Chopin's stories we can see how the characters wanted to be strong, independent women. In "The Story of an Hour", when Mrs. Mallard learns of her husband's death she feels liberated and is described as: As he gave himself up, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. He said it over and over again under his breath: 'free, free, free!' The blank stare and the look of terror that had followed disappeared from his eyes. They remained enthusiastic and brilliant. His pulse beat fast and the flowing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of his body. (Woodlief, online) Just from this short quote you can see the independence she wanted the women in her stories to feel without having a man in their life. Kate Chopin was born in 1850, Kate O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri to Eliza and Thomas O'Flaherty. She was the third of five children, but her sisters died in infancy and her brothers, from her father's first marriage, died in their early twenties. She was the only child in her family to live past her mid-twenties. In 1867 Chopin began keeping a journal of poems, essays, sketches, criticism, and more. From 1869 to 1870 Chopin attended debutante parties, learned to smoke, and wrote his first story, "Emancipation: A Life Fable," which is a tale about freedom and restriction. In 1870, at the age of twenty, she married twenty-five-year-old Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy family of Louisiana cotton farmers. (Wyatt, online) From 1871 to 1878 Chopin had five children, Jean, Oscar Charles, George, Frederick and Felix. ...... half of the sheet ...... s. Network. December 12, 2010 "SparkNotes: The Story of an Hour: Important Quotes Explained." SparkNotes: Today's most popular study guides. Network. December 12, 2010. "The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin, characters, setting." Kate Chopin: The Awakening, The Storm, Stories, Biography. The Kate Chopin International Society, November 1, 2010. Web. December 13, 2010. .Woodlief, Ann. "The Story of an Hour" Virginia Commonwealth University. Network. 12 December 2010. .Wyatt, Neal. "Kate Chopin Biography." Virginia Commonwealth University.1995. Network. December 12. 2010. .