Lalit Menghani

04/06/2011

IB Y1

The Awakening: the uncaring and unselfish aspects of Edna Pontellier

The Awakening is a short novel that is written by Kate Chopin. This novella is about Edna Pontellier, a wife and a mother of two sons, who had a strong desire to experience the freedom or independence a woman, can have. She tries to achieve this desire, with many selfish decisions.

In those days, in eighteen hundreds, many had an orthodox view on feminism. This social attitude deprived many women with the power to live an independent life or do whatever they pleased in life. The only role women had to adhere with no choice were to either be housewives, nurturing mothers, or both. However, those who showed their unorthodox view of this social attitude were considered to have a bad reputation in society at that time.

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In the novel, the importance of being a nurturing, caring mother and an ideal housewife is emphasized. Edna, however, almost completely ignores these priorities and only does it when she has been forced. For example, when Leonce returns from playing billiards, he went to check on his kids and found out that one of them have fever. However, when he tells her this she responses in a carefree tone that nothing is wrong with them and returns back to sleep. However, after much prodding by her husband, she wakes and goes to take care of the child (Chopin 48). ...

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