“At the ‘Cadian Ball” is set in late 19th-century Louisiana in an Acadian and Creole community. The Acadian people were a French-speaking ethnic group from eastern Canada and the northeastern United States who migrated south to Louisiana in the 17th and 18th centuries after being forced off their land, leading to the formation of Cajun communities. (The word “Cajun” originally comes from the term “Acadian.”) Creole—in the way that Chopin is using it in the story—refers to the descendants of the French and Spanish people who originally settled directly in Louisiana.
It is notable that Alcée and Clarisse—the Creole characters—are wealthier and have higher social status than Calixta and Bobinôt, the Acadian characters. In this way, Chopin is highlighting the class divide between the two communities. She also intentionally includes Alcée’s Black servant Bruce in the narrative, adding another social class into the mix—that of Black servants who were essentially still treated like enslaved people, even after the Civil War.
Chopin also wrote this story at a time when women’s roles in society were starting to shift. The late 19th century was the end of the Victorian era—when women were expected to be docile and well-mannered at all times—and the start of women pushing for greater freedom. (The women’s suffrage movement, for example, had been underway for decades at this point.) Chopin likely intentionally included the character of Calixta as a way of challenging repressive Victorian notions of femininity, as she is an outspoken and flirtatious woman who still finds love and gets a happy ending.
