The Awakening Reflection

953 Words2 Pages

The Awakening
By Kate Chapin

Danielle Pierre
AP Literature
Mr. Amoroso
Period 1

Topic #5 Describe the course of Edna’s awakening.

The growth of someone come with them taking multiple risk as they dive into an ocean without knowing how deep it is. In life finding oneself can be a hardship to overcome. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, readers are taken on the journey of Edna Pontellier's road to self awareness. In a traditional 1898 household men are superior, women do not have a role outside the home. Edna being the powerful defiant women she became, risk her entire being to stand up for herself. Edna suffered through a wrecked marriage and was ensnared in her marriage by her two kids.
Edna was not similar to the mothers of her time. It was revealed many times in the …show more content…

Pontellier indicate the absence of concern she portrayed towards her kids. Edna was not bothered by her ways regarding her kids. Chapin, described the women of her time and their unlimited love for their kids, “ they were women who idolized their children” (Chapin 8) Edna would go on to speak about being unable to give up herself for her children. Edna’s lack of maternal instinct perceived her of being miserable and trapped.
In the course of her awakening Edna worked hard against her fixed life that society characterized women like her should live. In a young girl's life her father in the first man she learns to love and trust. Edna had to grow up without a mom which contributed in her having to grow up faster only learning the works of a “wife” and not being able to enjoy her youth. Repression was introduced to Edna by her father at a young age and groomed her to be controlled. The 1898 traditional woman were not allowed to make choices, or be independent. The colonel being a man of his age did not teach Edna to defy society, but instead forced her to follow its ways. His ways made Edna “not very warmly and deeply

Show More
Related

  • Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Does Kate Chopin Use Characterization In The Awakening

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kate Chopin’s The Awakening takes place in the late 19th century, in Grande Isle off the coast of Louisiana. The author writes about the main character, Edna Pontellier, to express her empowering quality of life. Edna is a working housewife,and yearns for social freedom. On a quest of self discovery, Edna meets Madame Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz, falls in and out of love,and eventually ends up taking her own life. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening shows how the main character Edna Pontellier has been trapped for so many years and has no freedom, yet Edna finally “awakens” after so long to her own power and her ability to be free.

    Read More

  • How Does Edna's Awakening Change Throughout The Novel

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prior to chapter XI, we only see Edna’s growing curiosity and self-discovery expressed through her thoughts, rather than actions. Now for the first time Edna is refusing to do as her husband asks her to do, speaking out against his control and doing

    Read More

  • growaw Personal Growth and Death of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman becoming her own person; in spite of the expectations society has for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier  as she struggles to find her identity. Edna knows that she cannot be happy filling the role that society has created for her. She did not believe that she could break from this pattern because of the pressures of society. As a result she ends up taking her own life.  However, readers should not sympathize with her for taking her own life.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Page 69-70 of Chopin’s The Awakening

    432 Words  | 1 Pages

    Madame Ratignolle simply does not understand Edna; to her, sacrificing one’s life is the utmost that a mother can do for her children. It is as if Edna was not even “talking the same language.” In fact, the two women might well be speaking different languages. Unlike Madame Ratignolle who seems to have a baby every couple of years, Edna’s head is not filled exclusively with thoughts about her children. Whereas Madame Ratignolle is motherly at all times, Edna often seems irritated by her role as mother, and her attentions to her children often occur as an afterthought. Madame Ratignolle’s entire being is bound to her children; Edna’s being is of her own design. For her there is more to life than marriage and babies and social obligations. Edna might well, at least in this passage, be asserting an early version of what Betty Friedan discusses in The Feminine Mystique.

    Read More

  • growaw Epiphany of Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening, presents the struggle of an American woman at the turn of the century to find her own identity.  At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, seems to define her identity in terms of being a wife, a mother and a member of her community.  As the story progresses, Edna seeks to define herself as an individual.  The turning point in her struggle can be seen clearly in a scene in which Edna realizes for the first time that she can swim.  Having struggled to learn to swim for months, she realizes in this scene that it is easy and natural.  This discovery is symbolic of Edna’s break from viewing herself in terms of what society expects her to be, and her new awareness of herself as an autonomous human being.

    Read More

  • Edna's Struggle for Power in Chopin's The Awakening

    1390 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kate Chopin's The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother living in the upper crust of New Orleans in the 1890s. It depicts her journey as her standing shifts from one of entrapment to one of empowerment. As the story begins, Edna is blessed with wealth and the pleasure of an affluent lifestyle. She is a woman of leisure, excepting only in social obligations. This endowment, however, is hindered greatly by her gender.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Reinvention In The Awakening

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier, ventures through a journey of self-discovery and reinvention. Mrs.Pontellier is a mother and wife who begins to crave more from life, than her assigned societal roles. She encounters two opposite versions of herself, that leads her to question who she is and who she aims to be. Mrs. Pontellier’s journey depicts the struggle of overcoming the scrutiny women face, when denying the ideals set for them to abide. Most importantly the end of the novel depicts Mrs.Pontellier as committing suicide, as a result of her ongoing internal

    Read More

  • The True Identity In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same

    Read More

  • feminaw Edna Pontellier’s Predicament in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    The bourgeois crisis that Edna endures--the discrepancy between duty toward others and right toward herself[--] .

    Read More

  • Breaking the Social Norms: Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1558 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the novella The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character Edna Pontellier “becomes profoundly alienated from traditional roles required by family, country, church, or other social institutions and is unable to reconcile the desire for connection with others with the need for self-expression” (Bogard). The novella takes place in the South during the 1800’s when societal views and appearances meant everything. There were numerous rules and expectations that must be upheld by both men and women, and for independent, stubborn, and curious women such as Edna, this made life challenging. Edna expressed thoughts and goals far beyond her time that made her question her role in life and struggle to identify herself, which caused her to break societal conventions, damage her relationships, and ultimately lose everything.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's novella, The Awakening

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    how quickly women succumb to their "roles", and how easily people can. be shaped to consider a different and all too meaningless set of morals. The sexy of the sexy. Edna is strategically alienated in the novella so as to be the

    Read More

  • Expectations For Women In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1157 Words  | 3 Pages

    A situational irony is one many techniques that stands out throughout the story in the practice of women's roles in the eyes of Edna. "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 I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me"(47). Edna tries on one occasion to explain to Madame how she feels about her children and how she feels about herself, which greatly differs from the mother-woman image.This specifically contrasts the mother-woman idea of self-sacrificing for your husband and children. Also, the "something . . . which is revealing itself" does not become completely clear to Edna herself until just before the end, when she does indeed give her life, but not herself for her children's sake. Although Edna loves her children she does not confuse her own life with theirs.There is a certain portion of Edna’s identity the "essential" which Edna argues belongs only to herself, and that she would never give it up for anyone, not even her children. Edna is not satisfied with devoting her life to her husband and children, she craves

    Read More

  • growaw Edna Pontellier’s Search for Self in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    In The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier is a married woman with children. However many of her actions seem like those of a child. In fact, Edna Pontelliers’ life is an irony, in that her immaturity allows her to mature. Throughout this novel, there are many examples of this because Edna is continuously searching for herself in the novel.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late nineteenth century, the time of protagonist Edna Pontellier, a woman's place in society was confined to worshipping her children and submitting to her husband. Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, encompasses the frustrations and the triumphs in a woman's life as she attempts to cope with these strict cultural demands. Defying the stereotype of a "mother-woman," Edna battles the pressures of 1899 that command her to be a subdued and devoted housewife. Although Edna's ultimate suicide is a waste of her struggles against an oppressive society, The Awakening supports and encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain sexual freedom, financial independence, and individual identity.

    Read More

More about The Awakening Reflection

Open Document