Choosing between Family and Individuality in Kate Chopins The Awakenin

Choosing between Family and Individuality in Kate Chopins The Awakening Kate Chopins The Awakening focuses on a womans struggle to become an someone while still being a mother and wife. In the transition of this journey, the female heroine discovers that establishing her own identity means losing a mothers identity. Edna looks to be the tolerate soul, a soul that dares and defies (Chopin 61). Ednas society looked down upon females who seek anything other than aid to their children and maintains needs. Therefore, she is seen as an outcast and must turn inward as tumesce as outward towards nature for satisfaction and approval. At the beginning of The Awakening, Mr. Pontellier poses the question, If it was non a mothers place to look after children, whose on earth was it? (Chopin 7). He reflects the general belief of his metre that women should be mothers who give up themselves for the much important needs of their children. He believes that women should be self-sacrificing beings who never put one over and always give. He thinks, just as other men believed during this time period, that she should be the angel of the house, catering to his every need. Mr. Pontellier wants her to be one of the ministering angels (Chopin 9) who worship their children (Chopin 9) and worshipped their husbands (Chopin 9). Mrs. Pontellier shows little interest in taking care of her husband and children, hinting that she seeks more than a life lived for others. She begins to recognize her relations as an case-by-case to the world within and about her (Chopin 14) which inevitably becomes a curse in disguise. It creates a complicated inner conflict. Mrs. Pontellier ponders whether she should be defined as a mother and ... ...nature for acceptance and to her soothing childhood memories for forgotten innocence. Works Cited and Consulted Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 1899. The execute Works of Kate Chopin. Ed. Per Seyersted. Baton Rouge Louisiana State UP, 1989. Culley, Mar go, ed. A Norton life-sustaining Edition Kate Chopin The Awakening. New York W.W. Norton, 1994. Edwards, Lee. Sexuality, Maternity, and Selfhood. A Norton Critical Edition Kate Chopin The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. New York W.W. Norton, 1994. 282-285. Walker, Nancy. womens rightist or Naturalist. A Norton Critical Edition Kate Chopin The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. New York W.W. Norton, 1994. 252-257. Wolff, Cynthia. Thanatos and Eros. A Norton Critical Edition Kate Chopin The Awakening. Ed. Margo Culley. New York W.W. Norton, 1994. 231-241.