In The Story of an Hour, Katherine Chopin composed: “She whispered a short prayer that life might be long. Only yesterday he had thought with a shudder that life could be long. (Chopin, 369) The protagonist of the story was happy to live alone instead of living with her husband, whom she did not love. This quote is significant to the writer because she lost much of her family to death. Chopin feared having to live her life alone in the period of realism literature. The period of realism in America lasted from about 1860 to 1890 and believed that characters were more vital than the setting, writings were about everyday life, and authors wrote about their personal experiences. The deaths of her father and mother ignited Kate's passion for writing short stories. Katherine Chopin's father was killed in a train accident when she was just four years old. Her father's death was one of the cases that kicked off her writing career. He used the idea of ​​death and the thought of his father, who he never knew, in many of his stories. In The Story of an Hour, she transferred what she felt about her father's death to the main character, Louise Mallard, from her short story. Mrs. Mallard had just lost her husband in a train accident and knew she did not adore him with all her heart. Kate Chopin wrote taboo tales that challenged society's principles. He wrote one of the most unnatural books in American literature during the period of realism, The Awakening. People of the time were disgusted by the ideas he wrote in the book, yet it is considered great among other books written during the same period in today's society. Another virtuous path... at the center of the card... stories, his background and his passion. What could happen to light an author's flame?Works Cited• “Chopin, Kate O'flaherty.” Notable American Women, 1607-1950 (1971): Biography Reference Bank (H. W. Wilson). Network. May 7, 2014. • Reuben, Paul P. “Chapter 5: Late 19th Century – American Realism – A Brief Introduction.” PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: A Research and Reference Guide. May 9, 2014.• Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Prentice Hall Literature. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005. 636-38. Print.• Evans, Robert C. ""Literary Contexts in Short Stories: Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour."" Literary Reference Center. EBSCO, November 11, 2006. Web. May 6, 2014.• Kunitz, Stanley , and "Kate Chopin." Biography Reference Bank, May 7 2014.