chopin

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School

Tarrant County College, South *

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MISC

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Arts Humanities

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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Uploaded by ElderRose9990

In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier is a woman who not only understands her sexual urges, but has the courage and bravery to intervene on them. She has taken time to discover her own identity outside of her family by breaking free from the bondage of views of women's roles the society has portrayed. This society puts an unnecessary amount of prejudice and pressure on women, especially women of color and minorities. “That she was seeing with different eyes and making the acquaintance of new conditions in herself that colored and changed her environment, she did not yet suspect ”(Chopin 53). Edna started seeing the world and her presence in this world in a different way. In my own personal experience, there is a sense of entrapment in my life just because I am a woman, especially a woman of color. There is no escape because there will be continuous hate on the African-American community that roots back to slavery times. We are seen as thugs and an aggressive group of people. I have been followed in a store before because they felt like I was going to steal something which left me in dismay after that moment. Edna's daring ability to renovate the society around her in a way more enjoyable to her liking. In acknowledging and even pursuing a new normal, Edna shows her amazing ability to reinvent her identity. In effort to work on the self- discovery of her identity she reduces the amount of time she spends as the woman of the household and her duties. “There were days when she was unhappy; she did not know why—when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead”(Chopin 64). Edna is beginning to change because she has gathered observations about her surroundings, and is feeling both the sorrow and the happiness of consciousness. At the beginning of this year I experienced heavy sorrow on top of the treacherous winter storm that left a lot of college students at my university hungry and with no power. This year 3 people who were dear and near to me passed away and it affected me mentally and I was in disbelief and depressed for some time. My good group of friends from college helped me get through the grief and helped me find my happiness again. Edna’s husband Léonce Pontellier describes her as one of his prized possessions. “You are burnt beyond recognition,” he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered damage(Chopin 1). I dislike how women are seen as possessions in a marriage with roles to uphold in

their household such as cooking , cleaning, and taking care of children and not being able to truly hold an identity of their own outside of the family. “How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! How delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known"(Chopin 117). She is finally breaking out of her shell and really discovering her identity. I have recently been doing some self-discovery and realized I have been living a lie because I feared judgement from others but decided that I don't care what others think and will live my life how I want to.

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