Abby Kidder Mrs. Schroder Advanced Placement Literature and Composition 3 January 2018 Mrs. Pontellier’s Internal Discoveries Kate Chopin’s The Awakening epitomizes the type of a novel where the main character uncovers his or her true identity and person. Mrs. Pontellier, the main character, risks her well-being, livelihood, and life to find her purpose. She breaks barriers and societal standards in order to attain her desired self. The reader engages with the work alongside Edna as she travels on the path of self discovery.
Edna Pontellier in the novel, The Awakening, is a self-driven woman determined to become independent and free whilst undergoing a significant change in behavior throughout the novel. She attempts to withstand societal expectations by doing certain things that were not socially acceptable during this time period. While doing so, she experiences many different struggles during her awakening. These struggles that Edna undergoes may be described as internal as well as external. In the awakening, there is a constant conflict between inner and outer Edna.
In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening Edna Pontellier is searching for the meaning and purpose of her life. The way that she was raised differs from the Creole culture that she marries into where the women stay home to take care of the household and give their lives to their families. Edna disagrees with this and decides that she will start living for herself and do whatever she wants instead of what the society thinks she should do. The first thing she must do is gain her independence and freedom but she goes about this in the worst way by not caring for her children, leaving her husband without any concern, and then cheating on her husband.
The Awakening is a novel written by Kate Chopin that follows a woman named Edna Pontellier on her journey to self-awareness. Edna lived a comfortable lifestyle with her husband and two children in Louisiana during the 19th century. Despite obtaining all aspects to a perfect life, Edna became dissatisfied after meeting Robert Lebrun in Grand Isle. Robert sparked a desire for unlawful lust as well as a yearning for independence in a society full of conformed standards. Edna was unable to handle the pressures associated with achieving personal freedom which ultimately led to her death.
The works, “The Awakening'' and “The Storm” and many short stories by Kate Chopin, at the time of being released were very controversial and showed the repression of women during a time period in which sexism was strongly present and ignored. The women's suffrage movement roughly began in 1848 and lasted until 1920, though there has been suffering for women many years before and still to this current day about women's rights. Chopin was alive from 1850-1904, living to see and experience most of the women’s suffrage movement. Much of Chopin’s inspiration was also due to the fact that she was raised in a conservative, aristocratic, upbringing. Although that did not stop her from writing stories about the concealed desires and thoughts of women
In the late 1800s, nearly all women were viewed as subservient, inferior, second class females that lived their lives in a patriarchal and chauvinist society. Women often had no voice, identity, or independence during that time period. Moreover, women dealt with the horrors of social norms and the gender opposition of societal norms. The primary focus and obligation for a woman to obtain during the 1800s was to serve her husband and to obey to anything he said. Since women were not getting the equality, freedom, or independence that they desired, Kate Chopin, an independent-minded female American novelist of the late 1800s expressed the horrors, oppressions, sadness, and oppositions that women of that time period went through.
Monumental strides have been made when looking at the treatment of women in today's society, compared to the treatment of women in the early 20th century. In today's society, a woman can survive on her own, with no companion to assist in her sustainability. However, in New Orleans creole culture circa 1899, women were not given any opportunity to express any form of individualism. The objectification of women in the early 20th century is exemplified by the women in Kate Chopin’s feminist novel The Awakening.
In society, women are stressed on the role of motherhood, being a “happy” mother, and providing their every moment toward not only their children, but their husbands needs on both ends. Kate Chopin changes the view of the woman role figure, in the 19th century, that not all women are the same. Not every women is meant to be a mother and a happy house wife, women want to seek to find their own identity rather than settle to be the women the past has been. Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” reveals the female empowerment from a woman’s perspective rather than in today’s society.
Kate Chopin was born on February 8, 1851 in St. Louis and died on August 22, 1904. During her lifetime she was very big on feminist roles and the way women were set different in society. She shares in her diary many ways that she was set differently in her society just for being a woman. She lived in St. Louis and was very well known for her popularity and prettiness, because of this she was obligated to participate in dance and be flirtatious which is something she thought was unfair. However, this was expected because she was a woman whom had roles to fulfill.
In the 19th century, a group of people launched the suffrage movement, and they cared about women’s political rights, their property and their body liberty. Born in that age, Kate Chopin was aware of the importance of setting an example for those who were taken in by the reality and poor women to be an inspiration. So we call her a forerunner of the feminist author for every effort she put in advocating women’s sexuality, their self-identity and women’s own strength. When people were ashamed of talking about sexuality, Kate Chopin stood out and call for women’s sexual autonomy.
Leeanna Whittle Ms. Hutto English 3-1st 26 February 2016 Gender Stereotypes as far back as the 19th Century Kate Chopin is an American author who lived in the 19th century (Wyatt). Kate Chopin is known for being way beyond her time (Evans 262). She wrote about emotions and conflicts no other author of her time would ever think to write about (Evans 262). She grew up with two powerful women, her mom and grandmother, who influenced her views on society (Wyatt).
Feminist analysis of The Storm The rise of the Women’s Movement during 1890’s encouraged many to grant all human beings the same fundamental rights despite one's gender. Traditionally, sexual passion, in a woman's aspect of life, was considered inappropriate and wrong in societal views. Yet, Chopin boldly addresses sexual desire in a woman with a strong feminist tone in The Storm, empowering female sexuality.
Kate Chopin is best known for her ability to express her feelings of the time and is well known feminist of her time. She has wrote many inspiring novels about women having little to no voice in the Antebellum era. Kate hated being a mother and a wife because she felt like she had no power . Thus, she wrote one of her greatest novels Desiree’s Baby. In Kate Chopin’s Desiree's Baby she introduces a theme of male supremacy by her execution of literary devices such as symbolism and irony to prove that it is more important to be male than white in the Antebellum era.
Kate Chopin reveals how language, institutions, and expected behavior restrain the natural desires and aspirations of women in patriarchal societies. In 1894, when this story was formed, culture had its own structure on marriage and the conduct towards women. Gender roles play a major role throughout our history. They would decide whether a woman in colonial times would be allowed to join the labor
Women in the 1890s were expected to work at home to keep their husbands comfortable and bear him children. Kate Chopin wrote most of her short stories during this time period. Her stories “A Respectable Woman” and “A Story of an Hour” show a female protagonist who want their freedom and control over their own lives. Her characters pushed the bounds of the roles that society gave them and showed the brutal reality of how women were treated in the 1890s. In “A Respectable Woman” the female protagonist Mrs. Baroda is married and lives on a plantation with her husband, who invites a friend to spend a week or two with them.
