The Role Of Ruth's Tone In The Awakening

every character has its reference to a character in the Bible. Ruth May comes from the book of

In The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates a protagonist that clearly demonstrates a feminist. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier seeks more from life than what she is living and starts to refuse the standards of the society she lives in. Edna has many moments of awakening resulting in creating a new person for herself. She starts to see the life of freedom and individuality she wants to live. The Awakening encourages feminism as a way for women to obtain freedom and choose individuality over conformity. Chopin creates a feminist story that shows a transformation from an obedient “mother-woman” to a woman who is willing to sacrifice her old life to become independent and make an identity for herself.

* This chapter was written in Italics because it was written from a different point of view which was Ruth’s perspective who talks about her past as a child.

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, two people who have the ultimate influence on Edna are Mademoiselle Reisz, and Robert Lebrun.

Though it was uncommon during the 1800’s, some women didn’t want to assume the traditional role of a typical Victorian lady. Such is the case in Kate Chopin 's The Awakening; she introduces us to Edna Pontellier a mother and wife during the said era. Throughout the story, we follow Edna 's journey of self-discovery and self-expression through emotions, art, and sex thanks to the help of people she meets along the way. Chopin decides to end the book with Edna’s suicide in an attempt to convey a sense of liberation from her repressed life, but was the reasoning behind her suicide what everyone else thinks? Consequently, this said journey took me along for the ride, and I had no complaints. As Edna figured out who she was, I felt as if I was

Chapter 19: "The Most Critical Time on This Earth Is Now" Quote: "Joe walked away from the murder scene, dropped the knife in a nearby alley, and headed to a pay phone to call his father, but the police had beaten him to it. They'd told Day his son had killed a boy. Sonny and Lawrence told their father to get Joe to Clover, back to the tobacco farms, where he could hide from the law and be safe" (Skloot, 147).

Social expectations have haunted people across the timeline, however, have changed as life has progressed. Today, women specifically may be labeled by their body size or the way they speak, being cast out of society and even being subjected to physical and/or emotional abuse. On the contrary, in the nineteenth century women faced harsh discrimination by white men that objectified them and forced them to submit to their husbands and tend to their every need. Today, women would never face to live in such an animalistic way, however many found themselves fulfilling the role without protest and enjoying the simplicity of such a life back in the 1800s. Edna Pontellier, however, refused to be one of these obedient women, deciding to instead

I didn’t feel loved by them.”(132). This emphasizes that Ruth didn’t really have anyone that she could go to because no one in her family didn’t really want to be apart of her life or even cared to whatever happened to her. Although Ruth having not having her family by her side she created her own family which she can love all her children and care for

This section in chapter ten really opened up how Ruth feels about her mother and how she left them with no explanation on why she is leaving them or what they should do now. Ruth does not see the world as a beautiful place like many others do, she views it as a surrounding that takes the people she loves the most away from her. Even thought her mother has been gone for so long their relationship is not at peace, she is still angry. The conflict was never resolved between Helen and Ruth and never will be. Helen cannot come back to Ruth and rationalize her reasoning for abandoning her children; it is Ruth’s responsibility to became okay with how the story of her life was written the way it

In Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening a wife and a mother of two, Edna Pontellier, discovers her desires as a woman to live life to the fullest extent and to find her true self. Eventually, her discovery leads to friction between friends, family, and the dominant values of society. Through Chopin's use of Author’s craft and literary elements, the readers have a clear comprehension as to what the author is conveying.

Page 41-I can infer that Ruth’s family is concerned about the woman who stopped to question Ruth earlier in the book. I think this because everytime Ruth tries to change the subject, they bring it back up again. Her family also asks for very specific details.

Ruth is experiencing a split—a struggle between opposing dimensions of herself. This conflict is between the part of her that wants to change and the other part of her that

Between the roles of the two woman, it is apparent that Ruth’s role is more favorable in the eyes of characters

Ruth feels loved being with Dennis. For example, On page 231 Ruth states that “ Even though we were not married, we considered ourselves husband and wife.” That shows that both Ruth and Dennis considered themselves husband and wife even though

The Awakening was a very exciting and motivating story. It contains some of the key motivational themes that launched the women’s movement. It was incredible to see how women were not only oppressed, but how they had become so accustomed to it, that they were nearly oblivious to the oppression. The one woman, Edna Pontellier, who dared to have her own feelings was looked upon as being mentally ill. The pressure was so great, that in the end, the only way that she felt she could be truly free was to take her own life.  In this paper I am going to concentrate on the characters central in Edna’s life and her relationships with them.