Kate Chopin A Style of her Own
Kate Chopin uses symbolism and realism to enhance her theme of social conflict in the lives of women during the nineteenth century. These conflicts seemed to travel from one woman to the next, unnoticed by the rest of society. Chopin used these conflicts as a basis for all of her short stories and novels. This inevitably started turmoil about issues that never were brought out before. This in turn opened the eyes of society to the individuality of women. In The Awakening, by Chopin, a woman named Edna realizes that she is an individual and has individual feelings. She and her family lived at Grand Isle during the summer and her husband, Leonce, goes to the city every week, and is home on the weekends. This allows Edna the freedom to do and think what she pleases. A young man named Robert, lives at Grand Isle during the summer also. He flirts continuously with Edna and she seems to like this sort of attention. Robert and Edna always went to the waterhole on the hot summer days to cool off. Of course, they would never go when the sun was high in the sky. Then, Robert would walk Edna back to her house and they would talk for hours. Everyone at Grand Isle could see the attra
When Desiree's husband notices that his child has a black tint to him, he feels that she has hidden something from him. Desiree's feelings overcome her and she drowns herself and her child. Again, symbolism takes a large part in Chopin's stories. This act symbolizes the independence that women do not have because of a male dominated society. Women had few options, and one of them was, unfortunately, death. book, and the Fine Arts Club denied her membership because of it. Kate Chopin was not merely rejected; she was insulted..." (Ziff, p 486). Chopin uses very little variation between story lines. She uses names such as Alcee, and Esplanade Street as important parts of many stories. Grand Isle also seems to be a repeated destination in many of her writings. The realistic tones that Chopin uses are also very similar. She uses a southern dialect and the French language frequently. This all shows that Chopin only writes about people and places that she is most familiar with which makes the writing more realistic coming from reality. While alone Edna "awakens" to the fact that she is an individual and has individual feelings. She also realizes she does not love her husband as she vowed to. At this point Edna knew what she wanted, and it was not marriage to Leonce, but divorce. She then moves out of her house without telling her husband. When she does tell Leonce, he tells everyone that he and Edna were merely remodeling the house and Edna needed a place to stay. He says this because he can not stop her, being across an ocean. Leonce's lies just go to show that man had more important things to do in life than please their wives. Wives were the bearer of their children and rarely the apple of their husband's eyes. Edna inevitably tells her women - friends what is really happening; that she is leaving her husband. All of these women te
Some common words found in the essay are:
Leonce Edna, Storm Chopin, Grand Isle, Chopin's Awakening, Kate Chopin, Baby Chopin, Robert Edna, Esplanade Street, Grande Edna, Awakening Chopin, nineteenth century, grand isle, kate chopin, allows edna freedom, grand isle summer, short stories, edna realizes, individual feelings, awakening sex, individual individual, believe chopin's, individual individual feelings, lives women nineteenth, esplanade street, women nineteenth century,
Approximate Word count = 1264
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
