The Awakening by Kate Chopin - Book Report/Review Example

The Awakening One of Kate Chopin’s exceptional works is The Awakening. The story explores the concept of oppression of women by male domination in the 1800s. The book centers on New Orleans in the 1800s. The story revolves around the life of Edna and her Husband, Mr. Pontellier. However, the focus is on Edna’s experimentation with freedom, which allows her to express he sexual aspects in a world where women are largely encouraged to avoid doing so. As such, one of the key themes represented throughout this book is the freedom of expression from a feminist’s perspective, and the concept of male domination. As such, The Awakening reviews the role of freedom in the contemporary society. The story also explores the concept of art and a woman’s desire to explore art. The concept of female sexuality has changed all over the years. Female sexuality, even in most contemporary societies has always been a significant issue that ought to be addressed greatly. Arguably, Kate Chopin, in her book, The Awakening, has reviewed this case in an exceptional manner showing how changes that a woman undergoes during her quest to sexual freedom. Using Edna, Chopin has explored the desire by women to be sexually free that is the society largely oppresses. The literature also mildly explores the freedom to pursue a career, with Chopin indicating that Edna began her quest for painting again in life. Chopin goes a step further to indicate that the need for sexual independence contributed to Edna’s drive to seek independence financially. As such, this paper will focus on the aspect of freedom of expression in a sexual concept. Although times have changed, the book is set at a time when women were possessions of men. Men had all the freedom to express themselves but the women did not. As such, women faced oppression in the society back then and currently. By exploring Kate Chopin’s views on female expression and gender equality, this paper would help establish if the claims made by Chopin pertaining Edna are justified or not. As such, various aspects, from sexuality, the need to pursue one’s career to freedom of pursuing one’s desires, Chopin has explored various topics of great interest in relation to gender equality and freedom of female expression. Primarily, Edna is perceptibly a loving wife who is always devoted to the family. However, her husband Mr. Pontellier is a devoted husband and father but is mostly away on business. At first, Chopin does not indicate that the arrangement is a bad thing. Later, the author hints that Edna’s husband had several affairs. As such, this illustration is purposely there to show the level of inequality between men and women in relation to their freedom of expression. Chopin writes from a fiercely feminist view viewing both men and women equally, and uses Edna to express her innermost thoughts about life. At first, the author shows that the lack of freedom to express oneself can largely lead to one losing his or her own identity. Edna and Robert relay this, which sparked a form of youthfulness in Edna making her to reignite her passion for art once again. Edna was once a very inspired person, but being a mother and husband, perceptibly kills her passion for living and this newfound sexual expression had ignited her passion for art. The awakening is thus a trip of self-discovery of a woman, which starts from sexual freedom, grows into the career freedom and finally financial freedom. One of the key tactics that Chopin uses in her story to show how different men and women are in relation to their freedom of expression is the use of Robert Lebrun. Robert is visibly a serial womanizer who takes a random married woman every year to whom he plays attendant and tours around the world all summer long. Robert is a fulfilled man who has been able to harness his inner beauty. He is discernibly a happy man who is charming and irresistible. However, Robert is visibly emotionally distant. Robert is the perfect depiction of a free man. Edna, on the contrary, has never tasted that freedom since she got married. Regardless, Chopin avoids telling the intrinsic details of the romance story between Robert and Edna ended in chaos for Edna. She had already begun an emotional attachment to Robert, but the latter loathed emotional attachment, which led him to start distancing himself. As such, although the author portrays that Edna was venturing into art back at home and ignoring her social roles because of her sexual freedom, the actual fact is that she was trying to replace the feeling of aliveness that Robert had made her feel once. As such, in this context, the author avoids getting into the psychological reasons that might have steered Edna into art, independence and avoiding her social responsibilities, which was the search for a feeling of youthfulness. Chopin’s approach to analyzing the issue hints that some of the characters expressed her own story or the story of someone whom she knew closely. The vivid narration of the story shows a form of personal attachment to characters. Chopin has expressed the characters in a perfect light that one would only imagine that this was a real story. As such, a key trait about her writing style is that it speaks to the audience in exactly the same words, emotions and feelings that they would understand. Chopin understands how to relay her ideas to her audience, which is probably one of the key reasons her works were that exceptional. Chopin also introduces another main character, Adele Ratignolle, who is a role model to Edna, both in the way she lives her life and her devotion to art. In a way, this shows that freedom of sexual expression also makes one entwined with art, leading them to express themselves through art. The freedom of sexual expression ties with several other freedoms. From a feminist’s perspective, it is evident that Chopin has best expressed how she feels about the lack of female sexual freedom of expression. Edna’s character for the book was the perfect way through which Chopin would express her thoughts about sexual freedom and female equality. In the context of freedom, Chopin expresses her thoughts that the society regards women as possession. As such, when Edna begins to pursue her freedom, before she abandons all her social roles, her first quest is to search for utter independence where she purchases her own house and claims that she is not anyone’s possession (Chopin 85). Seeking independence from marriage is the height of her quest for freedom and ability to choose what she wanted to do with her life. As such, the author shows that sexual freedom is one of the key reasons that led Edna to seek independence. Robert, however, also falls in love with Edna and wants to marry her, but cannot as she is still married to another person. The author explores the concept of the society repressing individual freedom. The social norms, which the author repeatedly mentions as the social duties and responsibilities inhibit female freedom. The text repeatedly cites Edna as having neglected her social duties, which thus show that when one pursues freedom, he or she has to forsake the societal expectations. When she abandoned her social duties, Edna is able to venture back into her painting industry and was able to get her own house and live the life she wanted. However, without adhering to her social obligations, the society saw Edna as a lost cause, a price that one has to pay in the pursuit of freedom as Chopin puts it. Adèle Ratignolle, an art enthusiast and an empowered woman whom Edna admired was the main role model that facilitated Edna to pursue her ideal life. As such, Chopin presents a scenario to her readers, preferably the women, that for one to pursue their innermost desires, he or she has to have a role model or a person to guide them towards their vision. Adèle Ratignolle introduced Edna to Robert, and helped her out in her quest to venture into the world of art (Chopin 30). Chopin uses this story to empower and enlighten her readers, turning them into feminists who believe in sexual freedom. She uses several characters to guide the readers towards an easy path to the quest for sexual liberation. Although the author does not directly hint this, it is evident that Edna relies greatly on Adèle Ratignolle. As such, Chopin uses this story to direct people towards their quest for freedom and independence. Kate Chopin was an exceptional author. Most of her works were detailed feminine. However, a key strong suit about her abilities was the fact that she was able to maintain an objective perspective, leaving the readers to make a choice of what path to take on the own. For instance, in this story, Robert came back in the pursuit of Edna. However, Edna did not give in to his request to get married to him. Chopin shows that, on her deathbed, Adèle Ratignolle also urged Edna to start performing her social duties and obligations. As such, it shows that Adèle Ratignolle regretted how she had lived her life as she did not bear any children or have that normal life that most people had. This depiction shows that there is a key difference between women and men. Women who pursue freedom are less happy than their male counterparts are. Regardless, Chopin leaves the reader to decide for herself whether to pursue sexual freedom or not. Arguably, Kate Chopin has addressed a few other themes throughout the book in addition to sexual freedom and gender equality. Primarily, solitude is discernibly the main consequence of independence. However, Chopin shows that when people seek independence, they tend to end up being isolated from the majority. Solitude is a major outcome for people who are seeking independence. For one to exist within the society, he or she needs to fit in with the majority, which means that he or she would have to conform to societal norms and perform the various social duties and obligations. Solitude is a major antagonist to freedom. Besides the context of the consequences of freedom, the author also expresses the outcome of freedom as an improved self-esteem. However, there are several implications of self-expression in the current world. With the world being different and most people conforming to societal norms, self-expression can result in aspects such as solitude, an artistic eye or venturing into art, as well as achievement. For instance, when Edna learns to swim, she realizes that she can face fear in whatever situation she finds herself. As such, the aspect of conformance kills the inner flame inside people, whereas self-expression leads to liberation, but at a given price. Kate Chopin uses this story to relay the importance of freedom but also highlights some of the key disadvantages or consequences of pursuing freedom. The author has addressed this issue perfectly, avoiding bias on the need for women to pursue freedom. She shows a detailed outcome of what independence has on a person and his or her participation in the society. Arguably, Kate does not advocate for freedom of expression, but rather, educates the women on what such freedom would do for them. It also shows that women would have to pay a lot to get that which they deserve. Work Cited Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: H.S. Stone & Co, 1899. Print. Read More