In the “Awakening”, the author, Kate Chopin broke the nineteenth century standards of the ideal woman through the main character Edna Pontellier which sparked a lot of controversy. Mrs. Pontellier throughout the book has a journey of self discovery, as an independent woman who rebels against the social norms by leaving her husband. Chopin reaches out to her audience of women, to stand up against the oppression that they served due to the roles that were pressed upon them as caretakers of the house and as accessories to their husbands. Kate Chopin ended “The Awakening” with the suicide of Mrs. Pontellier because that is how Chopin gave Mrs. Pontellier her freedom, a freedom and rebirth from the harsh society that many women had to live during those times. The ending of the book sparked a lot of controversy over the way that Chopin decided to Edna Pontellier to make Edna commit suicide. The book ends with the suicide of Mrs. Pontellier, but we can connect the death of the main character to Chopin herself who became a widow after her husband died leaving her with five children. It was after the death of her husband that Chopin began to write about the life of a married woman. Mrs. Pontellier’s death was a way of freedom from the shackles of being a mom and having to hide her love with Robert because she was married to her husband. In the story Chopin prepares the death of Edna through the use of symbolism by making her go naked into the water to portray Edna’s revival stating, “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like a newborn creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.” As babies come naked into the word Chopin made …show more content…
It was through books like Chopin’s that we were able to take a leap into more equality between men and