Edna Pontellier Identity

Flannery O’Connor’s work opens up wide doors and gives direct access to the true heart of the story through the characters and their actions or gestures. Traces of these actions are visible in the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin. The main character, Edna Pontellier, searches for her identity through a series of awakenings. At the same time she tries to open up to her role beyond “mother-woman” and her position in the society. Chopin reveals information about the nature of gender relationships in the Creole society in order to understand Edna’s actions.
Readers have to look at characters and their actions in order to reach the true heart of the story. Throughout the novel Edna Pontellier is searching for her identity through different actions

and gestures. Chopin defines these actions and gestures as Edna’s awakenings. As Flannery O’Connor points out that “some action, some gesture of a character that is unlike any other in the story indicates where the real heart of the story lies” (1598). Certainly there have been different transformations for Edna as the story unfolds. For once she is transforming from an obedient housewife to a person who strives to live her own life. She marries a well-respected man, Leonce, and bears him children. However, Edna discovers that she wants more out of life. She feels that her marriage is not allowing her to achieve fulfillment that she desires. She simply wants her independence to become her own woman, in her own way, and does not want to give up her entire life and soul for her children.
The true heart of the story, according to O’Connor’s theory, lies through characters’ actions and they have to be both in character and beyond character. Chopin tries to bring in a new role beyond the “mother-woman”. She states that “mother-woman” is a woman who “idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it to a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels”(Chopin 19). Edna Pontellier realizes that she wishes to be more than one of them. She realizes that as a wife and a mother, she has not been living for herself, and that her freedom is lost to her. Her independence has been taken away from her by her husband and children.
At the time this novel was published, women acted as they were expected by society.

They had to be good daughters, good wives, and good mothers. A woman was expected to move from the protection of her father to the protection of her husband. Edna does not fit into this role. She neglects her children throughout the novel. She sees them as a barrier to her freedom. She tries to keep her distance from them. She feels relief when they are away and not bothering her. In a conversation with Adele Ratignolle, Edna declares: “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. I can’t make it more clear; it’s only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me" (Chopin117). Edna is unwilling to sacrifice herself for her children, although she would give her life for them. She finds it difficult to express how she feels about this. Edna is not satisfied with devoting her life to her husband and children, she wants more, she needs to be her own person. She wants to be Edna, a woman, instead of a mother, or a wife. Towards the end, Edna is seen at an increasing distance from her children. Edna totally avoids the obligation she has towards her children for her own selfish reasons. They became her enemies and she was afraid that they will pull her into the soul’s slavery. This particular fear causes Edna to walk into the

sea.
Through her relationships and conflicts with other characters, Edna discovers that her deepest truth is her need for independence. She openly admits that she does not want to belong to anybody. At the same time she does not want someone to depend on her. She simply wants her freedom to become her own woman and does not want to give up an entire life and soul for her children and husband. Meanwhile, she is strong enough to declare what she wants and act upon her declaration as almost everyone around her tells her that her actions are totally wrong. Chopin illustrates that some women were happy to be a housewives, and to be the women who have a child every two years like Edna’s close friend, Adele Ratignolle. Adele represents the ideal Creole wife and mother. She is what all women in her society should be. She places her husband and children first, centering her life around the family and domestic duties. She tried to get Edna to see how happy this kind of life could be, and to live this life rather than fight it.
O’Connor theory of the true heart of the story suggests that both the world and eternity allows the reader imagine the events as they unfold in front of our eyes.

Chopin draw the world, Creole society, where women seen as a possession of husband and as a business asset. In order to understand Edna it is important to comprehend society in which she lived. Once married, women are transformed into property and have the legal status of a slave. In this society a woman has little hope, other than to pray that the man she marries is kind to her. Chopin, through her literary work, tries to show her readers how Creole men acted toward women. She presents a male dominating culture where women faced many issues. Creole culture puts emphasis on responsibility and duty. Women assigned to the duties of maintaining the household, caring for their husband's every need, and taking care of children while the male figure worked and brought home the money. Society considered women to be better employed in the house rather than out in society. Women during the Chopin’s era were not able to disobey their husbands because society thought of it as wrong. They did not have as many opportunities as men had. Men were seen as dominant figures and the women lived under their roofs, and followed their

rules.
Certainly, gendered divisions of labor were the norm in Creole society. Colonel, Edna’s own father encourages Leonce to apply practical business skills to domestic conflict. He advises him to use authority and coercion to manage his wife. The idea that a wife should be managed like an employee was common at that time. While much of the talk of the women focuses on the domestic duties, the men’s is centered in commerce. Therefore, marriage itself becomes simply a part of the business world. A wife is viewed as a business asset. Chopin wanted to inform her readers of what women had to cope with. She expresses this within the book through the actions and gestures of Edna Pontellier. She began realizing her place in the universe as a human being and not just a valuable possession which men could take control over. She declined her motherly responsibilities. She decides to drown herself because she sees death as her only way to escape the social and family obligations placed on her by the society.
O’Connor theory of the true heart of the story will make every book or story be viewed as a stronger piece of literature; where characters are more presentable and understandable to the reader through their actions and gestures. Chopin uses this theory in order to illustrate the price that her main character, Edna, must pay for her awakenings.