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  • Essay / The Awakening of Kate Chopin: A Journey of Self-Discovery

    The Awakening of Kate Chopin, an 1899 short story, recreates the story of a young woman who goes through a period of dramatic change as she “awakens” to the restrictions of her traditional societal role and to her full potential as a woman. The novel shares elements of the local color genre. It was written between 1897 and 1899, while Chopin was living in St. Louis. The narrator is anonymous and above all objective, although in many cases the reader feels sympathy for the main character's fight for independence. Chopin's choice of diction and syntax makes the short story almost as if it were from his point of view. Throughout this short story, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier, awakens in situations that signify more metaphorical awakenings to new knowledge and sensual experience. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, deals with the sexual awakening of a woman who lives the reality of wife and mother until the age of twenty-eight. Edna feels so submissive and sad that she is willing to defy many aspects of Creole civilization to gain spiritual immunity. Edna gradually abandons reality and initiates a bohemian lifestyle to exercise her freedom of choice in matters of sex. Edna's process of finding herself in Kate Chopin's The Awakening unfolds in a series of three important steps that ultimately lead to Edna's death at the end. Before Edna begins to discover herself, she is caught between her desire to explore herself more fully and the realities of Victorian womanhood and life. We will have to wait for the first major event of his awakening; the fusion of music and a swim in the ocean that it finally awakens to a much more realistic sense of self-awareness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Mechanically, various characters activate particular aspects of Edna's awakening. The pianist Mademoiselle Reisz characterizes an independent woman as an artist, but indifferent to her personal appearance or public playing. She encourages Edna to draw and cultivate her own creativity. Chopin deliberately fails to represent a woman who could be both an artist and a mother. Miss Reisz may even appear less "feminine" because she does not conform to society's norms. Reisz, unlike Edna, lives her one-sided reality without doubt. Venturing into the short story, Chopin incorporates two men as lovers in Edna's sexual awakening. Robert Lebrun's view of Edna provides a more equal mutual consent than his failing marriage. Edna credits Robert with her awakening that summer in Grand Isle. Chopin describes Robert in a way that shows that he loves Edna quite generously, but his desires are tinged with a possessiveness that Edna cannot bear. She rejects the possibility of marriage by declaring: “I am no longer part of Mr. Pontellier's property which must be disposed of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were there to say: “Here, Robert, take it and be happy; she’s yours,” I should be making fun of both of you. » Chopin continues to expand on each of Edna's individual awakenings, writing "As she swam, she seemed to reach out towards the limitless in which to lose herself", the narrator speaks volumes about the other elements of the Edna's awakening, while also hinting at her suicide because she ends up getting lost in her own reality. Following this, Edna no longer has the will to reflect her past, still a victim of Victorian demands (cleaning, raising children, being a faithful wife, etc.), but is restored and reborn. Chopin writes: "Edna began to feel like someone who.