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Examples Of Diction In The Awakening

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Recommended: Kate Chopin’S The Awakening

Keaton Anderson Mrs. McClain AP Lang 24 October 2016 The Awakening Diction The author’s use of words generally have a strong contribution towards the story’s purpose. Several diction strategies are used throughout “The Awakening.” Kate Chopin’s purpose in “The Awakening” is to inform the reader about a 19th century woman who defies her role in society. She conveys her story by using diction strategies such as concrete, formal, Concrete diction is used many times throughout the novel. It is used to display a vivid picture in our minds as we read. A specific example is “Madame Ratignolle, more careful of her complexion, had twined a gauze veil about her head. She wore dogskin gloves, with gauntlets that protected her wrists. She was dressed in pure white, with a fluffiness of ruffles that became her”. This creates an image in our mind and makes the impression that Madame Ratignolle is obviously rich and spends most of her time relaxing and vacationing (as explained in the story about the family's’ vacation to Grand Isle, a resort for the wealthy). This description could’ve been revealed in one sentence, but instead, Chopin used several precise adjectives …show more content…

This emphasizes seriousness in the story. Examples include “Don’t banter me”, “This is more than folly”, PAGE 31 this describes Edna’s reaction to her overpowering husband's orders. The tone these specific words creates a restricting feeling in Edna’s life due to her relationship. This event is one of the first examples of Edna being physically independent from her husband, when she refuses to go inside to sleep and stay outside in the cold instead. Several Euphonious words are used in the end of the story such as: dozen, dreary, flowers, jelly, ceasing, whispering, murmuring, and abysses. The sounds of these words creates a calm and soothing effect of the story. At this time, Edna finally feels free of society’s limits on her by swimming out to the sea. This displays

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She was “no longer [...] content to “feed upon opinion” when her own soul had invited her” (Chopin 103), summoning her to experience the rich and complex world that inhabited her being. However, as Edna’s ability for self-expression grows, the amount of people who can truly empathize with her gets increasingly smaller. The fact that solitude becomes a direct result of Edna’s independence is clear evidence of her awakening. Since the societal expectations of the late 1800s gave Victorian women very limited opportunities for individual expression, they preventing them from tending to their own wants and needs. For this reason, as Edna acknowledges her desire for freedom and verbalizes her emotions, she is met with disappointing resistance from the world surrounding her.

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The most rewarding attributes of this experience for Edna would be the feeling of satisfaction of conquering something in a world where woman are seen as nothing; much like a child’s excitement at their newly gained knowledge. In Chopin’s own word she describes “A feeling of exultation overtook her as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” (page27). Although she is not ashamed of who she is becoming there is still a need to hide which is greatly caused by her surroundings. This can be seen when Edna takes her turn reading a shared book that has been passed around the cottages. Reading this book left her wonderstruck

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Maxine Clair utilizes a wide array of literary techniques to characterize the adult narrator’s memories Clair frequently manipulates different forms of syntax along with visual imagery and varying forms of diction to better characterize the narrator’s memories. Throughout the passage Clair constantly utilizes visual imagery to describe the setting or action vividly. Clair’s visual descriptions are often followed up with long syntax that normally have different forms of diction i.e. in paragraph 34 Clair attempts to vividly describe her father’s coat and utilizes informal diction in order to do so, Clair states “If you pated the heavy coats between the raggedy mouton that once belonged to my father…” this attempt to create a vivid description of her father’s coat doesn't only have informal diction but it is also tied along with visual imagery e.g. line 37 when Clair states “ the putrid-colored jacket my father wore when…” as well as lengthy sentences which normally keep things flowing.

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It is common for people in everyday society to conform to society’s expectations while also questioning their true desires. In the novel, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, the main protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess, "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In other words, Edna outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Kate Chopin, uses this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning to build the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period. Edna outwardly conforms to society’s expectations by marriage.

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At first, Edna is scared of the water and she is unable to swim. She needs help and assistance from many people to accomplish her goal of swimming in the ocean. Initially, she is scared of the water, which is similar to how she is scared to break free from her role as a wife and a mother. Robert, specifically, is the one to teach her how to swim and, subsequently, helps her take the first step in finding her new freedom. Edna gets empowered by her new romantic interest and the possibility of distancing herself from her husband.

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In Kate Chopin’ s novel, The Awakening, there are three identities inside of the female leading role, Edna Pontellier, being a wife, mother and own self. Edna was born in 19th century at the Vitoria period, a patriarchy society, women have low freedom to achieve personal goal. She married with Léonce Pontellier, a wealthy man with Creole descent. After having a child, her life is still unchangeable and as bored as before. Until she encountered Robert Leburn, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Alcée Arobin, her value of self-cognition has changed.

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Her frequent vacations to the island, like her frequent dips into the ocean, begin to spark a personal change within the woman. A Creole man, Robert, shows Edna a new dimension of feelings she never knew she lived without, and she begins to look through life through a new lens. Having been awakened for the first time, she sees injustice and mistreatment where she saw none before. Chopin uses Edna’s new observations and reactions to the culture around her to illustrate the myriad ways women were marginalized. In an ironic twist, the white woman from Kentucky proves to be more liberated than her more traditional husband, who grew up

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Kate Chopin conveys the feelings and internal conflict of Edna Pontellier through using the ocean as a symbol of Edna’s awakening and rebirth, and birds as symbols of how women felt trapped by gender roles during this time. These symbols convey the overbearing and oppressive standards women were held to throughout the nineteenth

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This socially constructed identity is the first of the many that Edna grapples with in the text. It is the identity of women within the time period of the text. In the words of Dix, Edna’s identity is meant to be that of a typical American wife who will control the home, children and entertain socially yet remain obedient to her working husband (146). ‘Looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property’ (Chopin 4). The

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In the seventh chapter, she is described as “not a woman given to confidences, a characteristic hitherto contrary to her nature” (Chopin 13). Though, it was the trip to the Grand Isle which had awakened many of her desires and caused her to question her role as a woman and go become her own person. Her transition into a new self begins when she first demonstrates resistance towards her husband. Her newfound intransigence towards Mr. Pontellier exhibits her realization that she is not inferior to and has no need to rely on him. In chapter thirty two, she moves out of her and her husband’s home and into the “pigeon house,” which shows that she has gained self-confidence and believes that she would “never again [...] belong to another than herself” (Chopin 80).

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In the play “Othello” by William Shakespeare showed how the lies and the jealousy of others can ruin a relationship . Throughout the history of this play people have understood it as a “triad of nobility,purity, and villainy.” A literary critic, Michael Andrews noted the significance of the handkerchief that was used in the play. “Othello tells Desdemona that the handkerchief is a love-controlling talisman his mother received from an Egyptian "charmer.” The gift that Desdemona receives is used to represent a symbol of Othello’s love.

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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a piece of fiction written in the nineteenth century. The protagonist Edna is a controversial character, Edna rebels against many nineteenth - century traditions, but her close friend Adele was a perfect example in terms of a role of a woman, mother and wife at that time. Chopin uses contrast characters to highlight the difference between Adele and Edna. Although they are both married women in the nineteenth century, they also exhibit many different views about what a mother role should be.

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In the mid to late 1800’s women are viewed as homemakers, “Men demonstrate their dominance over women by generally confining them to the devalued registers of the home and the kitchen” (Brightwell 37). This is an era of raging patriarchy, if a woman is devoting time to something other than raising a family, she is looked down upon. Chopin emphasizes this through the social contrast between

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This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

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The first theme that Kate Chopin provides an image of is patience. One way Chopin show’s patience in her writing is through her usage of comparing Maman-Nainaine to Babette. When she says, “Maman-Nainaine was as patient as the statue of La Madone, and Babette as restless as a hummingbird,” Kate Chopin is providing a visual image of what patience looks like, and how Babette’s character is at an impatient point in her maturity (26). Also, this image contrasts the impatience of youth with the desireable patience that comes with time. Another way Chopin represents Babette’s patience in the story is through time perception.

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