Rejecting Traditional Roles: A Look into Kate Chopin’s Life

Kate Chopin’s early life was characterized by a lack of male role models in her life, at a young age she lost her father and two brothers and moved in with her great-grandmother, grandmother and mother whom all were widows. All of these were strong, independent women and so Chopin hardly ever experienced male subjugation towards females which was the usually the case for women in the current society. Years later she married Oscar Chopin and had six children but still never fulfill a conventional role of wife or mother, she was able to enjoy privileges that other women didn’t have. Despite Chopin’s unusual background, her works reflect the struggles faced by the majority of women with great insight and consequently, this allows us to see how

This lack of autonomy is what lead Edna to have an identity crisis, she was given labels of what she ought to be, which were mother and wife. However, this didn’t fulfill her and as time went by she grew dissatisfied with such roles. “Even as a child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life—that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.” (Chopin 18) She lives a double life with an inner and outer self, she finds her outer counterpart is willing to comply with societal standards but her inner part wants to act completely different and rejects what has been assigned to her. As a result, this sparked the need to seek for her independence, “"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." (Chopin 52). This is a turning point in the story since in essence Edna is saying that even though being a mother is a priority to her, staying true to herself goes above everything else and this is what marks the start of the journey of her awakening. Unfortunately, she also

At the beginning of the novel, Edna follows her husband’s instructions like a reflex but as the story moves forward, she beings to defy him and put herself first for a change. These actions were frown upon and would be regarded as characteristics that make a woman unfit to marriage since being submissive was considered a requirement. This ongoing theme about gender based duties speaks to my life in great magnitude due to the fact that I grew up in a Hispanic family where the gender roles are stablished strictly and we hold great responsibility about upholding them. Even though the novel was written in a different context, I can still see this same outdated thought in the environment back in El Salvador. A common example of this is how women are still expected to remain virgins until marriage and if they are unable to do so then it means they lost their “purity” but on the other hand, men don’t have to comply with the same rule. This scenario is just of many situations that happen but, what is the most surprising is how this type of thought becomes adherent to girls from a young age. I have to include myself when saying that I have become involved in this type of close minded thinking and have even judged women that choose a non-conventional lifestyle for a Hispanic country. It is difficult to move