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Paola Pacheco

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Author Biography

22 February 2018

Katherine Anne Porter

How common is it for people to become what they originally wanted to be? Katherine Anne

porter grew up to become a great writer,” Katherine Anne Porter is regarded as one of the most

influential writers of the twentieth century…” (Hathcock). She originally started writing as a

hobby and never imagined she'd become the great writer she is known for today. Although it

wasn't always easy many of her books were a great success. She had a couple of setbacks as a

child, with different marriages and illness, and hard time publishing. However, that didn't stop

her from perusing her dream.

Katherine had a rather hard child hood. She was born on May 15, 1890 in Indian Creek, TX with

the name of Callie Russell Porter. During her young adult years, she changed her name to

Katherine Anne Porter. “(Porter took her grandmother’s name as a young adult.)” (Hathcock).

She was the fourth out of five children. At the age of two Katherine's mother passed away and

shortly after her and her family moved to Kyle, TX to live with their grandmother. Eleven years

later her grandmother died and the family moved once again to San Antonio, TX. The last school

years for porter were at a private Christian school for girls. She then started teaching singing,

dancing, and drama with her sister to financially support her family. That was the end of

Katherine's early years.

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Throughout Porters life she had a total of five marriages. In 1906 she married John Henry

Koontz. He was her longest marriage they were together for a total of nine years. While he was

away for work Porter would often write poems. This was the beginning of her career,

“publishing her first poem in a small trade journal” (Hathcock). After her divorce her journalism

career started. Unfortunately, she got tuberculosis but it wasn't a complete bad stage of her life.

While convalescing she met Kitty Crawford and got her first job at the "Fort Worth Critic".

However, it did not last long as she then moved to Denver and worked for the rock mountain

news. She fell ill again with influenza epidemic. After that she became the paper's theater and

music critic.

Later on in 1920 she published three re-telling of legends. She published this specifically for

children. Sometime after, some friends convinced her to move to Mexico and this inspired her to

write fiction. She also got involved with writing for the "magazine of Mexico". In 1922 she

began to publish her first short stories in magazines. She then started socializing with a group of

intellectual friends and later signed a contract to write a biography on Cotton Mather. Through a

couple of failed attempts, she was not successful in publishing this biography. Some years later

her life took a turn, “Her dubious financial situation became more secure with a $2,000

Guggenheim Fellowship, which she used to travel to Europe in 1931” (Hathcock). This trip

brought out great ideas in porter and this would help her write her best-selling novel but not for

the next 30 years. In 1944 she published her second collection named "the leaning tower" which

really helped her reputation. Throughout the next couple of years, she continued to move around

and publish new things. In 1962 she came out with her most famous novel called "ship of fools".

Three years later she published "collected stories" which really helped her critical reputation.
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Lastly, around 1977 Porter had a couple of strokes and was never able to fully recover. In 1980

she passed away and had her ashes scattered near her mother’s grave in Indian Creek, TX.

Throughout her whole life porter traveled to many different places. She wanted to be inspired

and also tried to get her books published where ever she went. All of her marriages didn’t really

help her accomplish her dreams but even then she tried her best to become what she wanted to

become. In the end, all her struggles paid off because people still think of her books as

excellence.
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Work Cited

Hathcock, Barrett. "Katherine Anne Porter." Katherine Anne Porter, 8/1/2017, p. 1. EBSCOhost,
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Desire, Sareyna, Paola

Literary Time Period Research Questions

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8 March 2018

A. A big event that was occurring “The Yellow Wallpaper”, was that the main characters

Husband was controlling her, without her knowing. She had no choice but to listen to his advice

and commandments about how she can be cured from her sickness. The Husband John would not

let her do anything unless he told her to do so, he was in control of her and the time difference

between now and then is that women no longer listen they stand up.

B. Unique features are that the time period shifts from realism to regionalism and

naturalism. It goes from how someone felt during slave days such as in the story “Incidents in

The Life of a Slave Girl”, the theme is female slaves get treated cruel than men slaves. Then goes

into culture and nature such as in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the theme is women should have a

voice and be allowed to be independent.

C. All authors use different styles for their poetry. Many authors use symbolism,

imaginary, personification, and hyperbole to get the reader’s attention for the story of the poem,

they are reading from the author. Such as in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author uses imaginary,

personification, and symbolism throughout the whole story. The reason for that is to keep the

reader does not get as bored. Although poets use different genres, literary terms play a major role

in the authors work.

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D. Some important writer’s that have used realism, naturalism, and regionalism is Mark

Twain, Emily Dickenson, and Edith Wharton. They have written short stories, novel excerpt, and

poems. Mark Twain is very famous and known for his poetry, he has written a memoir from

“Life on the Mississippi”, a short story called “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras

Country” and many more. Emily Dickenson has written many poems such as, “Because I Could

Not Stop for Death” and “Success is Counted Sweetest”. Lastly, Edith Wharton wrote a novel

excerpt “Ethan Frame” and a short story called “April Showers”.

E. The importance in this time period of realism, naturalism, and regionalism in 1860-1914

is important in American Literature for many reasons. Such as, the stories and poems that shift

throughout the period. It relates to real life problems then shifts in things that happen in nature

and regions of people have or do. Realism, naturalism, and regionalism in an everyday situation,

becomes a part of our life without people realizing it. Which is why it is coming into Literature

and authors and poets write stories and poems.

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Work Cited

Allen, Janet. McDougal Littell Literature. McDougal Littell, 2008.

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Paola Pacheco

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Literary Analysis Essay

16 May 2018

The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County