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Kate Chopin: Underneath the Sensuality

© Susan Jensen

Although Kate Chopin is well known for some of her tales ("The Awakening," "The Story of An Hour"), she wrote a number of others which were deemed too unconventional for publication. Several of these were scheduled for publication in a volume titled "A Vocation and A Voice." The collection was slated for publication in 1900, but the even was cancelled. Now, however, the collection can be readily found in any library.

The collection contains 23 stories, many of them very short. "The Story of An Hour" is included in the text as well as other well-crafted stories. Among these is the title piece, "A Vocation and A Voice." The story concerns a young lad who decides to take up with two gypsies who are travelling about the countryside. The boy is wholesome and moral and is often repelled by the gypsies' ways. Still, he travels and as he does, he becomes more and more fascinated with the gypsy Suzima. She is the mother he never had, coddling and doting on him. One day, however, he comes upon her bathing. At the sight of her nakedness, he feels his senses come alive. "Her image...ate into his brain and into his flesh with the fixedness and intensity of white-hot iron" (26). This awakening to his desires scares the boy and he parts from the gypsies. He retreats to a monastery where he lives in peace and harmony untilt he day he hears a familiar tune, sung by the lustrous Suzima. Despite his morality, he "followed the voice of the woman" (36).

This intense sensuality is typical of Chopin and was the cause of the shock her work inspired in her day. Today, it seems tame. Underneath the sensuality is a very talented writer who digs deeply into the human experience and shows us ourselves.

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