Argumentative essay structure and persuasive techniques

¶ … Awakening

Kate Chopin's masterpiece, the Awakening, first published in 1899, was heavily criticized by the public and led to the ostracization of the author. At the height of the feminist movement in the 1960s, Chopin's work re-emerged and has been heavily analyzed. The Awakening explores the issues of social expectations and the woman's desire to be something other than what society expects.

The Awakening is the story of Edna Pontellier's quest for self-discovery and the many ideas, emotions, and thoughts that awaken within her after a summer at Grand Isle during which she is "courted" by Robert Lebrun. Edna's husband, Leonce, does not put much thought into Edna's relationship with Robert, but Edna begins to develop genuine feelings towards Robert and by the end of the summer she has fallen in love with him. From this point forth, Edna's life appears to fall in a downward spiral.

Edna has been expected to be the proper wife and was thrown into the role of being the "mother woman," a role that she does not feel she fits. Adele Ratignolle, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of Edna. Adele is described as having "no words to describe her save the old ones that have served so often to picture the bygone heroine of romance and the fair lady of our dreams…[with] blue eyes that were like nothing but sapphires" (Chopin 51). Edna, who does not fit the "mother woman" role, is more crudely described as having eyes that were "quick and bright; they were a yellowish brown, about the color of her hair…" and had the ability to appear as if she were "lost in some inward maze contemplation or thought" (46). Adele is the type of woman that Edna cannot force herself to become. Although Edna has two sons, Raoul and Etienne, she cannot bear to spend too much time with them and they are mostly cared for by their nanny. She feels as though her children and her husband are tying her down. Adele appears to be an obedient wife, with a lovely husband and a sizeable amount of children; Edna defies convention and does not behave as an obedient wife should. Edna goes out when she is supposed to stay in, she moves out of her house, and she refuses to go abroad with her family.

Edna's life is comprised of a series of deviances whose origins can be traced back to her father and end with her husband. Edna married Leonce to spite her Protestant father and sister who did not approve of her marriage to a Catholic. Furthermore, Edna defies society by falling in love with Robert though their relationship should not have extended beyond platonic flirting. Edna continues to defy convention by abandoning her home, children, and doing as she pleases by going out when she should stay in, gambling, and making acquaintances with men such as Alcee Arobin, openly stating that she "will not be forced into doing things" (171).

Edna's behavior has been foreshadowed through a conversation about her past with Mrs. Ratignolle in which Edna tells Adele of her childhood and the actions she took and the choices she made. Edna tells Adele, "I was a little unthinking child in those days, just following a misleading impulse without question" (61). Edna has not come far from her childhood days of defying what society thought should be done with one's life. Though this statement is in reference to Edna running away from prayers in the Presbyterian Church, it applies to many other aspects of her life. During her stay at Grand Isle, Edna overcomes her fear and learns how to swim. By learning how to swim, Edna gained power that eventually made her grow "daring and reckless, overestimating her strength" (73). She lacked the opportunity to develop a strong sense of self before she married Leonce because she had simply gone from being a daughter to a wife with no intermediary stage of independence. Leonce unknowing opened a door for Edna when he ignored the seriousness of her relationship with Robert. Leonce treated Edna as though she were a "valuable piece of property" never spending too much time with her, interacting with her, and shaping her into what a wife was supposed to be. Leonce spent much time abroad working in his brokerage business and would rather spend time in a club than with his wife. Edna did not fit into Creole society and its arcane expectations of women. She was not one to cater to every whim and fancy of her children and husband, now was she one that felt as though she could run a large household. Though many people of the time found it appalling, Edna was not born to be the "angel of the house." She desires freedom from the life she's led and from society's expectations. Edna finds various forms of freedom including artistic, marital, monetary, sexual, and the freedom to choose how and when she will die.