The Awakening

Every writer has an influence.   Some are influenced by the ideas that the author has; some are influenced by the style, which the author writes with.   Still others are so intrigued by a writer that they are not only influenced by their way of thinking and their writing, but they actually begin to mimic the author in many ways. This is the case with Guy de Maupassant's influence on Kate Chopin, who is undoubtedly the greatest influence on Chopin's writing.

"Maupassant was born in Châteaude de Miromesnil, Normandy" (Encarta).   He received his education at Yvetot and Rauen and there joined a literary team where he was trained as a writer of fiction by Flaubert, another well know French author (Encarta).   He, like Chopin, wrote many short stories, for which he is remembered the most (Encarta).   Like Chopin, Maupassant's ideas were looked at as "immoral" and "mature," dealing with ideas such as "sex," loneliness, and "depression" (Jones 385).   He questioned the standards of the day, and was therefore rejected by many people as an immoral person (Jones 385).  

Kate Chopin's interest in Maupassant began after her mother died (Toth 181).   At that time she had moved to a new location in the city where she lived and began to make new friends who were interested in the writings of Maupassant (Toth181).   She described vividly how she felt upon reading Guy de Maupassant for the first time:

His writing undoubtedly moved her.   Chopin claims to have felt that he spoke to her "directly" and "intimately" (Toth 181).   She admired him most for the things that made him the writer that he was.   She was intrigued by his escape from "'tradition and authority' and for having ‘entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being and with his own eyes'"(Skaggs 205).     Eventually Maupassant replaced other writers as her primary influence and "literary model" (Toth 205).... [continues]

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