Kate Chopin The Awakening Thesis

Born in 1851 to a wealthy family, Kate Chopin was an unconventional woman. She dressed in strange clothing, smoked, and went on unaccompanied walks, something unheard of during this time period. In the 1890s, Chopin turned to writing after an emotional breakdown due to the death of her husband. Her writing generally received good reviews from critics, but nothing brought widespread public attention until the publication of her second novel, The Awakening. Published in 1899, the story of Edna Pontellier’s sensual awakening and abandonment of her family was just as unconventional as Chopin herself. It was met with harsh criticism and surrounded by controversy. Sensitive to the pushback, Chopin retreated into the background, publishing few more

In “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, the paradoxical nature of Edna’s life is heroic because she

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story written in the late 19th century about a woman named Edna becoming independent and finding herself in a time when women had little to no rights and were seen as property of their husband. Racism, sexism, and feminism were all going on when this book was written, and therefore influenced it greatly.

     Kate Chopin was one of the greatest and earliest feminist writers in history, whose works have inspired some and drawn much criticism from others. Chopin, through her writings, had shown her struggle for freedom and individuality.

Kate Chopin is best known for her novel, The Awakening, published in 1899. After its publication, The Awakening created such uproar that its author was alienated from certain social circles in St. Louis. The novel also contributed to rejections of Chopin's later stories including, "The Story of An Hour" and "The Storm." The heavy criticism that she endured for the novel hindered her writing. The male dominated world was simply not ready for such an honest exploration of female independence, a frank cataloguing of a woman's desires and her search for fulfillment outside of the institution of marriage.

Have you ever wondered what the lifestyles of Nineteenth Century women were like? Were they independent, career women or were they typical housewives that cooked, clean, watched the children, and catered to their husbands. Did the women of this era express themselves freely or did they just do what society expected of them? Kate Chopin was a female author who wrote several stories and two novels about women. One of her renowned works of art is The Awakening. This novel created great controversy and received negative criticism from literary critics due to Chopin's portrayal of women by Edna throughout the book.

The Awakening was published in 1899, and it immediately created a controversy. Contemporaries of Kate Chopin (1851-1904) were shocked by her depiction of a woman with active sexual desires, who dares to leave her husband and have an affair. Instead of condemning her protagonist, Chopin maintains a neutral, non-judgmental tone throughout and appears to even condone her character's unconventional actions. Kate Chopin was socially ostracised after the publication of her novel, which was almost forgotten until the second half of the twentieth century.

In the story about Edna Pontellier a major theme is her omitted self discovery. In the story we can see how Chopin uses style, tone and content to make the reader understand how it was for a person challenging many of the beliefs of the society at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Kate Chopin was a influential author that introduced powerful female characters to the american literacy world. She was most known for her brilliant book The Awakening. However at that time it received many negative reviews, causing the downfall of Kate’s writing career. Now the book is such a influential story that it is being taught in classrooms throughout the world. This essay will discuss Kate Chopin’s writing career and the impact her writing has on society.

As a country founded in freedom, American literature often explores what it means to be free and what has to be abandoned in order to achieve freedom. “Freedom is not free” is a popular American idiom often used to express gratitude towards American military, but it also can be found in what a person is willing to sacrifice in their own life to gain personal freedom. In “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin, we find a woman, Edna Pontellier, who destroys her own life in order to gain what she perceives as personal freedom; by committing suicide, Edna still remains in control of her life, even in death, by making the personal choice to end her own life.

Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening in the opening chapter provides the argument for women's entrapment in roles that society has forced upon them. Chopin was not just trying to write an entertaining story but trying to convey arguments against these social injustices. Women are like these birds trapped in these cages unable to free themselves from these imposed roles by society.

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a story written in the late 19th century about a woman

(Harris). Men were superior; many saw women as no more than property. “No, I only think of you as cruel, as I said the other day. Maybe not intentionally cruel; but you seem to be forcing me into disclosures which can result in nothing; as if you would have me bare a wound for the pleasure of looking at it, without the intention of healing it” (Chopin). The protagonist of her novel The Awakening, Edna, acted quite the opposite of the way a ‘real woman’ of Chopin’s time should act. Critics/ scholars of Chopin’s day responded to her work by labeling her novel, The Awakening, as “vulgar, morbid, and disagreeable. Willa Cather, who would become a well known twentieth-century American author, labeled it trite and sordid” (Koloski). Readers and reviewers condemned Chopin’s subjects such as, adultery, female sexuality, and miscegenation. The reason behind all of this criticism is because the critics “expected to read a novel in descriptive language, colorful characters, and the sights and sounds of Louisiana Creole life. Instead of local color however, critics were shocked and dismayed at Edna’s behavior and considered Chopin’s novel morbid and lacking literary value. In most cases, critics were at loss to explain the reasons why an artist with Chopin’s undisputed literary talent would contribute to what one reviewer called “the overworked field of sex fiction” (Seyersted 219)”. (Sprinkle). Chopin was awfully hurt by all of the

I have decided to focus on the works of one of the most controversial and influential authors to emerge during the realism and naturalism movement, Kate Chopin. Chopin was a feminist writer who frequently focused on the difficulties of being a woman in that time

The unique style of Kate Chopin’s writing has influenced and paved the way for many female authors. Although not verbally, Kate Chopin aired political and social issues affecting women and challenging the validity of such restrictions through fiction. Kate Chopin, a feminist in her time, prevailed against the notion that a woman’s purpose was to only be a housewife and nothing more. Kate Chopin fortified the importance of women empowerment, self-expression, self-assertion, and female sexuality through creativity in her literary work.