At one time or another in American history, the following books have been banned or challenged for their portrayal of society: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beloved, The Catcher and the Rye, The Great Gatsby, Nineteen-Eighty Four, The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Whether it be for their flagrant use of obscenities and profanities, questionable morality, or general insensitivity, these widely-considered classics clashed with American culture. However, there exists a literary theory that believes in analyzing literature through its ability to highlight differences that can transcend different time periods and cultures, remaining relevant no matter the era. Based on the linguistic teachings of Ferdinand de Saussure, structuralism analyzes …show more content…
Throughout the novel, the ocean is a medium through which Chopin demonstrates the ongoing struggle between individuality and conformity. Once Edna learns to swim on her own, it is a metaphoric stepping stone to gaining control of her own body and actions. Her transformation is eventually evident when she returns to The Grand Isle without her husband and maintains affairs with both Arobin and Robert. However, she eventually commits suicide by drowning herself. This climatic death allows Edna to come full circle, ending her life where it first began. While she began to realize her full potential Chopin …show more content…
During the entirety of the novel, Edna is either waking up, or fending off sleep. In terms of structuralism, sleep equates to Edna’s lack of control whilst under the society, while being awake represents Edna’s constant fight against cultural expectations. When speaking to the doctor after Madame Ratignolle gave birth, Edna admits, “The years that are gone seem like dreams - if one might go on sleeping and dreaming - but to wake up and find - oh! Well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life,” (Chopin 184). In this example, Chopin uses aposiopesis to convey Edna’s immediate interruption of thought and scattered realization that life is not worth living if you can’t be yourself. This also allows the main idea to be developed at depth without any pauses or breaks. Readers are then compelled to follow Edna’s process of realization, as conveyed through the short exclamations. Hence, sleep is used as a recurring symbol of either rejection or conformity of societal
The imagery of the ocean at Grand Isle and its attributes symbolize a force calling her to confront her internal struggles, and find freedom. Chopin uses the imagery of the ocean to represent the innate force within her soul that is calling to her. "The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in a maze of inward contemplation." (p.14) Through nature and its power, Edna, begins to find freedom in her soul and then returns to a life in the city where reside the conflicts that surround her. Edna grew up on a Mississippi plantation, where life was simple, happy, and peaceful. The images of nature, which serve as a symbol for freedom of the soul, appear when she speaks of this existence. In the novel, she remembers a simpler life when she was a child, engulfed in nature and free: "The hot wind beating in my face made me think - without any connection that I can trace - of a summer day in Kentucky, of a meadow that seemed as big as the ocean to the very little girl walking through the grass, which was higher than her waist.
Essentially, Edna is not able to fulfill any of the roles that are presented by Chopin in the novel: mother, sister, daughter, wife, friend, artist, lover to either man, and finally the traditional role of a woman in society. She does not quite fit into any niche, and thus her suicide at the end of the novel is the only way for Edna’s story to end. Chopin must have Edna die, as she cannot survive in this restrained society in which she does not belong to. The idea of giving yourself completely to serve another, Edna declares “that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for any one” (47). However, her awakening is also a realization of her underprivileged position in a male dominated society. The first sign that Edna is becoming comfortable with herself, and beginning to loosen the constrictions of not being an individual is when she asks Robert, her husband, to retrieve her shawl: "When he returned with the shawl she took it and kept it in her hand. She did not put it around her" (30). Edna is trying to establish herself as an artist in a society where there is no tradition of women as creative beings. For any woman to suggest a desire for a role outside the domestic sphere, as more than a mother or housewife, was perceived as
Mark Twain’s novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has sparked much controversy since its publication in 1884 due to countless racial slurs and stereotypes; in fact it is the most commonly banned book in American history (source). While many argue that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be banned, the literary merit, namely the realistic setting and characterization, outweighs the vulgarity and crude language. Twain’s satirical social commentary
In Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, Chopin uses the motif of the ocean to signify the awakening of Edna Pontellier. Chopin compares the life of Edna to the dangers and beauty of a seductive ocean. Edna's fascinations with the unknown wonders of the sea help influence the reader to understand the similarities between Edna's life and her relationship with the ocean. Starting with fear and danger of the water then moving to a huge symbolic victory over it, Chopin uses the ocean as a powerful force in Edna's awakening to the agony and complexity of her life.
Birth, whether of children or desires, plays a strong motif throughout The Awakening. The four components of childbirth, which Edna—the novel’s main character—recalls as she witnesses her friend Madame Ratignolle give birth, represent major themes Chopin emphasizes throughout her novel. These four components are “ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which had deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life” (133). In childbirth, the first three components are necessary to achieve the fourth: the awakening to find a new life. The same is true of Edna’s thematic self-discovery, only the sequence is slightly reordered. It begins instead with chloroform but ends the same: with an awakening or, for Edna, the discovery of her own desires.
...he presence of water as the motif in this story facilitates these transformations for Edna. On the Grand Isle, the constant presence of the ocean begins a metamorphosis within Edna that alters her perspective of herself in relation to others. She begins to fulfill her desires and abandon her responsibilities as a wife and mother to her family, in order to pursue a life of independence. Allowing her to fulfill her desires to be a painter and be with Robert. Critical moments of self-reflection for Edna occur in the presence of the ocean. It is at the ocean where she first realizes her desire to be independent. Also the empowering force of the ocean allows Edna to be a dictator of her fate. She ultimately decides to take her life and be free from other’s wants and expectations from her. The water was the catalyst that allowed Edna to be liberated and obtain her desires.
The irony of the story is the Edna learns how to swim ,yet she used the sea to take her own life. When the author states’ “But it was too late, the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone. She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant then sank again”(135). In this quote the author ,Chopin, chose to show irony to end Edna’s character because Edna had faced her fears,and learned to swim and not fear the water. However ,the climax is also shocking for the readers because the author had shown Edna’s character as a strong women who had faced her fears and learned how to swim. By Edna killing herself the author shows us that Edna never changed and she is still that weak broken women who is trapped in life that she was so desperate to get out
Throughout Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, the main protagonist, experiences multiple awakenings—the process in which Edna becomes aware of her life and the constraints place on it—through her struggles with interior emotional issues regarding her true identity: the confines of marriage vs. her yearning for intense passion and true love. As Edna begins to experience these awakenings she becomes enlightened of who she truly and of what she wants. As a result, Edna breaks away from what society deems acceptable and becomes awakened to the flaws of the many rules and expected behavior that are considered norms of the time. One could argue that Kate Chopin’s purpose in writing about Edna’s inner struggles and enlightenment was to
In Chopin's The Awakening, the title itself is symbolic of the awakening that Edna undergoes throughout the course of the story. The story opens with Edna's first visit to Grand Isle, it is here that Edna will begin to awaken to herself. It is implied, and said, throughout the story that Edna is not the motherly type. "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman." One might wonder then what exactly is Edna awakening to if not to her motherly instincts? According to the story, it is the awakening of "the sleeping places of her soul." In this time, women were expected to lay their sexuality aside as if it were a mere bag of flour. In return, they were given the joys of being a loving wife and mother. However, for a non - motherly woman such as Edna this would prove to be too great a price to pay for financial security.
“A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” implies the tremendous joy that encourages her to shout, as well as underscores the significance of the experience in terms of the greater awakening, for the experience actually does provide Edna with the ability to control her own body and soul for the first time. Her “daring and reckless” behavior, her overestimation of strength, and the desire to “swim far out, where no woman had swum before” all suggest the tragic conclusion that awaits Edna. Whether her awakening leads her to want too much, or her desires are not fully compatible with the society in which she lives, she goes too far in her awakening. Amazed at the ease of her new power, she specifically does not join the other groups of people in the water, but rather goes off to swim alone. Indeed, her own awakening ultimately ends up being solitary, particularly in her refusals to join in social expectations. Here, the water presents her with space and solitude, with the “unlimited in which to lose herself.
The time Edna spends in water is a suspension of space and time; this is her first attempt at realizing Robert's impermanence. In a strange way, Edna is taking her self as an object of meditation, where at the extremity of self absorption, she should be able to see through her own selflessness. "As she swam she seemed to be reaching for the unlimited in which to lose herself[emphasis added]" (Chopin 74). Edna has left her earthly existence on the shore and looked forward to a new existence, with the "unlimited", or nirvana as a tantalizing prize on the other shore. Her mistake lies in looking back.
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
In the novel, “the ocean symbolizes Edna's "awakening" to a life filled with freedom and independence” (Nickerson). On a hot summer evening Robert and Edna go bathing. Although Edna does not wish to go and initially declines his offer, something inside is compelling her to go down to the water. It is there in the seductive ocean that Edna's awakening begins.
Chopin repeats the image of the sea in order to symbolize that the sea acts as a figurative place that allows Enda to liberate herself from society. In her first awakening, Enda discovers her position within society, “She would not join the groups in their sports and bouts, but intoxicated with her newly conquered power, she swam out alone. She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, metting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself” (Chopin 48) Water is often associated with cleansing and baptism. As the sea serves as the setting for Edna’s suicide, it offers the promise and glory of independence as she defies against society. By constantly swimming in the sea, Edna is able to discover her strength and the pleasure
Edna's awakening begins with her vacation to the beach. There, she meets Robert Lebrun and develops an intense infatuation for him, an infatuation similar to those which she had in her youth and gave up when she married. The passionate feelings beginning to overwhelm her are both confusing and exciting. They lead to Edna beginning to ponder what her life is like and what she is like as a person. The spell of the sea influences these feelings which invite "the soul . . . to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation" (Chopin 57). Edna begins to fall under the sea's spell and begins to evaluate her feelings about the life that she has.