After reading the Introduction by Barbara Kingsolver,my opinion about the book The
Awakening, by Kate Chopin did not change. In general, attitudes about women’s role in
society and marriage haven’t changed since The Awakening was published. Kingsolver states
that the themes of patriarchy and discriminating against women still relevant today.
Kate Chopin through her literary work such as The Awakening was able to help people
realizes what was going on during the 1800s. She raises themes of discriminating against
women and male dominating society. During the 1800s, the time period Chopin lived in ,
women faced many issues. They were seen as inferior to man. They did not have many
opportunities as men had. Chopin made a great impact
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on her readers by informing them what women had to deal with and men’s attitude toward women. As seen in The Awakening, Despite social and political advances, women in the mid-20th century still encountered disadvantages in almost every aspect of their lives.Society discriminates against women and does not give high level positions because of their sex. Men have always been portrayed as a dominant sex. They have always been seen as strong and women as weak. Kingsolver presents another author, Betty Friedan, who talks about the same issue as Chopin, but in a different time frame. Friedan, in her book The Feminine Mystique, brings the issue of equal rights into the limelight in the 1960s. According to Kingsolver,she states that “Edna Pontellier’s affliction was still epidemic in the 1960s, when marriage had become, if anything, even more idealized than it had been in Edna’s time” (xii). This quote makes my opinion of The Awakening stronger. Even sixty years after The Awakening was published, women’s rights were still limited. Friedan describes the women’s sadness as “The Problem That Has No Name.” Women felt this depression because they were forced to be obedient to men financially, mentally, physically, and intellectually.
During the 20th century women’s main purpose was to get married and look
after her husband and children, they were treated as second class citizens with few rights.
Women felt that there was something wrong with them if they did not enjoy their housewife
lifestyle. It was not easy for women to deal with this problem.
Over time, we have witnessed great changes in women’s lives, education, and labor of
women everywhere. These changes have all been in the direction of increasing women’s
liberties. They include much more openness about sexuality, acceptance that women will work
outside the home and have children outside marriage. If women are unhappy in their marriage,
they can divorce. Women are now running corporations, newspapers and TV stations,
universities and major labor unions. Despite all of these changes in society, women’s rights are
still limited. Women are still facing the prospect of violence and unequal treatment every day.
There is still existence of invisible rules by which our society runs. Even now, we live in the
Patriarchal society, where most things are still controlled by men. The men have been always
valued more than women and obtained more privileges, opportunities and possibilities.
Some stereotypes still occur, such as men being the breadwinner to the family while the woman runs the house and takes care of the children. One can see this stereotype not only in American culture, but around the world as well. Kingsolver does not change my opinion of the book The Awakening instead makes stronger. Because the issues of women’s rights from generation to generation still alive and breathing. This is the reality in which we still live today.
Kate Chopin's novella The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a woman who throughout the novella tries to find herself. Edna begins the story in the role of the typical mother-woman distinctive of Creole society but as the novelette furthers so does the distance she puts between herself and society. Edna's search for independence and a way to stray from society's rules and ways of life is depicted through symbolism with birds, clothing, and Edna's process of learning to swim.
Each time I read The Awakening, I am drawn to the passage on page 69 where Edna and Madame Ratignolle argue about “the essential” and “the unessential.” Edna tries to explain, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself.” What most would see as essential—money (you need it for food, clothing, shelter, etc) and life—Edna sees as “unessential.” Edna is speaking of more than that which one needs for physical survival; she would not hesitate to give her life to save the life of one of her children. On the other hand, Edna’s being, her “self,” is something quite different from her physical form.
Leonce Pontellier, the husband of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, becomes very perturbed when his wife, in the period of a few months, suddenly drops all of her responsibilities. After she admits that she has "let things go," he angrily asks, "on account of what?" Edna is unable to provide a definite answer, and says, "Oh! I don't know. Let me along; you bother me" (108). The uncertainty she expresses springs out of the ambiguous nature of the transformation she has undergone. It is easy to read Edna's transformation in strictly negative terms‹as a move away from the repressive expectations of her husband and society‹or in strictly positive terms‹as a move toward the love and sensuality she finds at the summer beach resort of Grand Isle. While both of these moves exist in Edna's story, to focus on one aspect closes the reader off to the ambiguity that seems at the very center of Edna's awakening. Edna cannot define the nature of her awakening to her husband because it is not a single edged discovery; she comes to understand both what is not in her current situation and what is another situation. Furthermore, the sensuality that she has been awakened to is itself not merely the male or female sexuality she has been accustomed to before, but rather the sensuality that comes in the fusion of male and female. The most prominent symbol of the book‹the ocean that she finally gives herself up to‹embodies not one aspect of her awakening, but rather the multitude of contradictory meanings that she discovers. Only once the ambiguity of this central symbol is understood can we read the ending of the novel as a culmination and extension of the themes in the novel, and the novel regains a...
During the nineteenth century, Chopin’s era, women were not allowed to vote, attend school or even hold some jobs. A woman’s role was to get married, have children
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
society, women are expected to be at home doing the chores and taking care of their family. The
"Too strong a drink for moral babies, and should be labeled `poison'." was the how the Republic described Kate Chopin's most famous novel The Awakening (Seyersted 174). This was not only the view of one magazine, but it summarized the feelings of society as a whole. Chopin woke up people to the feelings and minds of women. Even though her ideas were controversial at first, slowly over the decades people began to accept them.
Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, is a very artistic and musical work. The novel is filled with references to music and art. In the very first chapter, the Farival twins are playing a duet on the piano. The Ratignolles regularly host musical soirées. Mademoiselle Reisz is a gifted pianist, who often plays for Edna. Edna enjoys music and takes to sketching and painting. Music stimulates her passions. Art provides her with fulfillment and liberation. Her painting, in particular, functions as a symbol of Edna’s fashioning and designing her own life.
Woman's mobility as well as her status and rights were very restricted. The only "way out" for her was
Everyone should be free to be his or her true self. When someone has to be fake and their whole life is an act, they are going to be miserable. This is especially evident in The Awakening by Kate Chopin. In this novel, Edna Pontellier hates her way of life. She is bored with just being a housewife and living lavishly. Throughout her journey of self-realization, Edna gains happiness and independence. She strays from social norms and even commits some scandalous acts. Art, water, and birds all symbolize Edna’s ultimate goal, which is freedom.
usual norm of the world she lives in and starts to learn how to live life the way she wants to: as a
Women were only in charge on taking care of the household, however it got better by when men and women were equal and women had their own rights. At first it wasn’t as easy, because people didn’t see women taking on men jobs and then soon turned into a demand. Mexican Americans and Native Americans were also demanding the same rights and had to go through a deal of challenges to get where they are
In The Awakening, written in 1886 by Kate Chopin details a story about Edna, a woman who wants freedom despite society’s norms. The story takes place in New Orleans, LA in the year of 1889, where the feminist movement was just beginning to form throughout the U.S. Edna was married with two children. Throughout her struggle with the realization of her duties as a wife and mother, she dared to fathom living an oppressed life without freedom. Edna wanted freedom through sexuality. Edna’s neglect to her husband and children showed her true colors. Edna resented traditional values and roles that was expected of her as a woman during her time with the disregard she showed to her husband, the relationship between
They had difficulties finding jobs which might affect them with getting equal rights. They had struggled to break the “Stay at home” role society which saw them as wives at home only.
Furthermore, women are still expected to give up their job pursuits for children. Men, when they get married tent to earn more power. However, women lose their power or even have to give up everything that they had been working toward their whole life to bear the child who will keep the lineage for her husband’s family. “It is not false that today, almost half of infants’ mothers are employed” and the percentage of working moms has risen much over recent years. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that it is unfair for women to have to be pressured by both work and children.