Motherhood In Chopin's The Awakening

I would have been free!" (240). This event showcases that when Ammu begins to focus on her own wish to be free of society’s constrictions, she no longer can prioritize the needs of her children, and in fact begins to view them as a

In the end, she knew she could never find true happiness or freedom because of society; she chose to die instead (Skaggs). Unlike the other female characters, “Edna will not settle for living as less than a complete person; but forces beyond her control doom inexorably her search for a full, meaningful, and satisfying individuality” (Skaggs). After Robert left her, Edna’s heart shattered. The women around her did not understand what she was going through, in the end, she had to face her “awakening” alone (Elfenbein). Edna was suffering “under the liberty in which she must justify her existence.

She solely lived her life listening to everyone else around her and did not think for herself and her benefit. She only lived to please her husband who had the “spirit of Satan” and care for her baby. Desiree’s didn 't even have the courage to stand up to her husband and tell him that was not black. Desiree only left the control of her husband because he told her to leave. Even when her husband clearly didn’t love her anymore, she still wished for him to change his mind so she could stay.

Moreover, when her children tumbled, she will not pick them up just let them get up on their own. In contrast to Adele, Edna is not contributing herself to her family as well as Adele. Edna tries to fit in as the role to be a good mother, but, she cannot definitely, to be a mother-woman cannot fulfill her eagerness to be a special, independent and egocentric person. In Chapter XVI, Edna said to Adele, she would give her money and her life to children, but never herself. And that is what she is trying to understand and recognize.

Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, forces Janie to marry a man she is not in love with out of convenience. Nanny does not want Janie to suffer the necessities of life, but Janie cares little about materials and seeks love. Nanny’s ideology haunts Janie for much of her life, influencing decisions she takes later in marriage. Huston says, “The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong,” which shows how Janie conforms to the ideology her grandmother instilled in her. And although Janie conforms, she continues to question inwardly about love.

The latter quote is clear evidence that people should not leave it to others to inform them of how certain concepts in life work. Janie listened to her grandmother’s ideas about love and went into her first marriage enormously unguided. In the end she felt very disappointed with her marriage to Logan, but nonetheless, she was able to learn that marriage and love were not always synonymous. If Janie would have never experienced marriage herself, it is very possible that she would have remained ignorant to the fact that a marriage between two individuals does not result in love every time. People should learn from Janie’s experience about witnessing and living things for themselves instead of just trusting the opinions and beliefs of

She tells Madame Ratignolle, “I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me” (52). This lets the readers know that Edna is starting to acknowledge that she cannot dedicate all of her time to her children and that she's not willing to sacrifice herself for them. This action displays how Edna's attitude towards others around her is changing and how she does not want to have the responsibility of taking care of her family because it would mean that she has to dedicate her time and space to them which would mean that she would be giving herself up for the sake of the

The horizon is a major symbol representing Janie’s lifelong search for happiness. Nanny did not approve of Janie’s ideal happiness. She was determined to force Janie to live the way she wanted her to; a way that Nanny never got to live. She wanted Janie to marry someone who would sit her on a pedestal and praise her. However, that is not what Janie fantasized.

(Kincaid 95). Since Lucy believes that her mother is a victim of a patriarchal system, she wants to disassociate herself from her mother and the submissiveness she represents. She also feels betrayed by her mother because her mother encouraged Lucy’s brothers to become successful and independent, while failing to defend her gender and expecting Lucy to become a nurse - a subordinate position – instead of a doctor, implying that Lucy is meant to take instructions and submit to the patriarchal rule that is a feature of the neocolonial system. Since Lucy expects her mother to be loyal to her gender and empower her, it bothers her that her mother wants nothing more than a nursing job for her. She is also angry at her mother for marrying her father, and not pursuing a grander goal that would defy society’s

Jill MacSweeney wanted more than anything to go back in time to before her dad was dead. She had isolated herself from her boyfriend, her friends and her mother. She believed that you can’t lose one family member and simply replace them with a new one. She was absolutely not supportive of her moms decision to adopt a baby from Mandy. Jill felt her world was crumbling around her, as she tried to embrace a new family member and get over the loss of an old one.

Freedom - "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." "You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not.

Edna constantly struggles to realize her true desires and to understand her inner emotions and personal preferences. Part of her is always trying to establish a new outer persona while also trying to determine what she wants on the inside. She has an inner conflict between loving her family and showing compassion for them, or facing her honest yearning for a different lifestyle, breaking away from the expectations and standards of society. In the end, this internal argument causes her to fully realize that in her time period, what she truly wants is unattainable, especially after dealing with rejection from Robert and disappointment in her marriage. Overall, Mrs. Pontellier is trying to be herself in a world where a pre-existing set of rules already determine who she

The role of a woman in society has always fit into a perfect box. Women were expected to be the dutiful wife, loving mother and housekeeper for her family. Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, in 1963 hoping to unveil the truth behind women’s thoughts about their role in society. Friedan exposed that things were not always, as they seemed for the average mother and homemaker in the 1950s and 1960s. Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in the 1850’s which told the story of Edna Pontillier and her struggles as a housewife and finding her true identity.

In “Culture” by Stephen Greenblatt, it explains that culture is the “beliefs and practices that from a given culture function as a persuasive technology of control, a set of limits… to which individuals must conform.” Greenblatt’s idea of culture is explaining that in some cases in books there is cultural constraints, which is all based upon their society and how the role of men and women are expected to be and it is most times, although not all, passed from generation to generations. Some works of art go on to “ batter against the boundaries of their own culture to record the voice of the displaced and oppressed.” In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the protagonist, Edna Pontellier doesn’t fit into Greenblatt’s definition of Culture, but the

The Awakening by Kate Chopin is a novel centered around a woman who is going through a journey of self-discovery and self-awakening, a book unlike any other. The novel sheds a new light on what is considered a conventional woman. According to “The Awakening: A Refusal to Compromise” by Carley Reed Bogard, Edna, the protagonist, refuses to give into traditional gender roles. According to Bogard, The Awakening “is an early and central statement of a developing twentieth century literary tradition which gives apt phenomenological description to female experience and presents a break from the male tradition which Lawrence and Joyce, among others, have defined”(1). The article goes on to explain how Edna's decisions dictated the direction of her