Discrimination In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” ( Aristotle). Uncovering one's identity and arising from suppression has been a greatly endured struggle since the beginning of mankind, due to society constraining those being suppressed from escaping traditional standards. Throughout Kate Chopin’s beautiful novel The Awakening Chopin advocates the struggle for dominance, identity, and the need to break from tradition and suppression faced by woman in the 1890’s to the 1900’s.

The central conflict in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is the self-discovery of Edna Pontellier. Throughout the course of the novel she transforms from the bored, submissive wife of Lèonce Pontellier shown in the earlier parts of the novel in chapter 1, “You are burnt

As displayed in chapter 11 "Edna, dear, are you not coming in soon?" he asked again, this time fondly, with a note of entreaty."No; I am going to stay out here.""This is more than folly," he blurted out. "I can't permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the house instantly."With a writhing motion she settled herself more securely in the hammock. She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted”(42). in this scene Edna is ordered by her husband to come inside to sleep, but instead of submitting like she usually would she resisted and in turn displayed one of the affects of her awakening. Another one of the actions that promote Edna’s awakening is her learning to swim. Edna’s swim is a fresh and exciting experience for her and it stimulates feelings of awareness. Chopin’s description of the event is a metaphor for Edna’s awakening as well as a foreshadowing of the consequences of her

The witnesses of the rare occurrence are surprised at the event; it was an “unlooked-for achievement,” and “the subject of wonder,” indicating that Edna’s family and friends underestimate her (37). Each of Edna’s friends who in the past had attempted to instruct her “congratulated himself that his special teachings had accomplished this desired end” (37). The other characters cannot accept that Edna has achieved something on her own; therefore, they attempt to give credit to themselves and in doing that emphasizes the limitations placed on women in the 1890’s through the 1900’s. Cherry tried to reveal the contrasting types and the reasoning to the acts of aggression within the article. As aggression is defined to be a range of behaviors that can result in both physical and psychological harm, she sought to eliminate the stereotype of physical harm being the primary form. She labels intimidation and the event of berating as being the major factor due to the fact that at any point in time of aggression, the victim is feeling some sort of emotional and mental sadness. The protagonist from The Awakening struggles with verbal mistreatment from her companions as they control her life to fit the character as an average Creole woman. These figures assert this form of aggression to exhibit