Females in the late 1800s were expected to know their place in society and stay within parameters that were set by the population. These parameters including being a perfect mother figure, and needing a husband to provide a place to live, food, and money for spending. This meant that females were not culturally allowed to be free. This idea was so ingrained in the culture that the influential female writers of the time wrote stories where the wife was wrong and returned to her husband after she sought freedom. These stories came to an end when Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening in 1899. The Awakening attacks the cultural lack of rights and freedoms for females, specifically the sexual freedoms that females do not have. The novella describes …show more content…
Women were considered to be purer than men, therefore it was more holy for females to partake in coitus than it was for man. This also caused for the social idea that women were not sexual beings and that only men could, have sexual desires. Being left alone in solitude to examine herself, Edna has become confused, warring with herself about love, and her own sexual desires that she keeps hidden from the world. Since her husband left, Edna has been spending time at the race tracks where she meets Arobin, an attractive married man. Arobin has become fond of Edna’s beauty, and constantly abandons his wife to have dinner and watch races with Edna. One night after a dinner Edna brings Arobin back into her home where he leans in and kisses her, “she clasped his head, holding his lips to hers… It was a flaming torch that kindled desire.” (61). The word choice that is used describe this scene can easily be interpreted as being more than a kiss. Elaine Showalter, writer of the essay Tradition and the Female Talent: The Awakening as a Solitary Book, describes how, “[Edna’s] affair with Arobin shocks her into awareness of her own sexual passions, it leaves her illusions about love intact.” (184). Edna’s “illusions about love” are those feelings that she has for Robert that she cannot let go of. Edna cries the night after her affair with Arobin because she is upset and confused about how she let someone whom she does not love inflame her sexually, and it does not end that night it continues on throughout the rest of the story. Her lustful desires tend to confuse Edna eventually leading to her committing
"We called to them, tried to tell them there was no danger, called them to stop, implored them to stand. We called them cowards, denounced them in the most offensive term, put out our heavy revolvers, and threatened to shoot them, but all in vain; a cruel crazy, mad, hopeless panic possessed them, and communicated to everybody about in front and rear. The heat was awful, although now about six; the men were exhausted their mouths' gaped, their lips cracked and blackened with the powder of the cartridges they had bitten off in the battle, their eyes starting in frenzy; no mortal ever saw such a mass of ghastly wretches."
Parsons, Othal T. Interview by author, 17 April 1995. Mail questionnaire. 12th Armored Division Historical Project, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas.
During the regiment’s training period a message arrived at the camp. This message was a warning that all blacks found by confederates would be put to death, as well as their commanding officers. As a result of this warning Colonel Shaw was accepting any soldier’s resignations on the following morning. That morning Shaw was not expecting to see very many soldiers remaining, but to his surprise most all of the men were still there. With this act the men illustrated great bravery, and a willingness to take a stand for their beliefs.
Craig Williams was born in Concord Massachusetts. He wrote the book “Enemy at the Gates” in 1973. The point of this book was to show both the extreme importance of this battle in the course of World War II and the courage of both the German and Russian troops during this horrific battle. This book did an excellent job portraying the hardships the soldiers faced and the gruesome scope of the battle for this important city. However, it did so with a pro-axis slant.
... sense I would not think that the men were out of the ordinary. Prior to the war many of the men who were in this battalion were middle aged family men who were from the working or lower class looking for jobs. I think that the men who were in battalion started off as “ordinary men.” They were men who had no idea what it was like to be in German territories, many were thinking this a job. The fact that many of the men had become wrapped with the guilt with what they had been doing shows that this was not something they had enjoyed but was something that they had to do. I feel that this proves that they were indeed ordinary men because the situation they were placed in was out of the ordinary and something that today we may not be used to this was a job to them. They had no idea what it would entail all they knew that it was job that they were told had to be done.
Throughout The Awakening, Edna faces oppression from her husband, children, and society. It is her duty, as a women, to get married and have children with her husband. Edna’s
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
Itter Castle is a small castle sat on a hill near the village of Itter in Austria. After the German annexation of Austria, the German government officially leased the castle in late 1940 from its owner, Franz Grüner. The castle was taken from Grüner by SS Lieutenant General Oswald Pohl under the orders of Heinrich Himmler
Cpt. Lee’s only M4A3 Sherman to make it to the castle engaged from the front gate with its .50-calibur machine gun. After the initial attack one of the 14 Wehrmacht soldiers deserted the castle and ran off into the enemy occupied woods around the castle. Cpt. Lee’s was quite aware of the information that the young corporal could relay to the enemy that could severely put them at a disadvantage he was also concerned that only his American troops opened fire on the deserter creating concerns of how loyal his German counterparts were to protecting and holding the fortress long enough for help to arrive. At day break they were able to observe Waffen-SS moving in with some heavier fire power and numbers reaching 150 soldiers. They had lost the guns on the Sherman when it was hit by an anti-tank round and went up in flames during second attack. The prison had many small arms weaponry but ammunition to engage and soldiers trying to approach the castle from the ravines beside it. The fighting lasted for the entire day. During which Maj. Gangl was shot in the head by a sniper while moving to another defensive location within the castle. Unsure of long it would take for help to arrive they decided to send another messenger outside the castle walls to explain how dire there situation would become as they continued to deplete their ammunition. Jean Borotra, one of the French
The major focus of the book focuses on reconstruction of the events this group of men participated in. According to Browning, the men of Police Battalion 101 were just that—ordinary. They were five hundred middle-aged, working-class men of German descent. A majority of these men were neither Nazi party members nor members of the S.S. They were also from Hamburg, which was a town that was one of the least occupied Nazi areas of Germany and, thus, were not as exposed to the Nazi regime. These men were not self-selected to be part of the order police, nor were they specially selected because of violent characteristics. These men were plucked from their normal lives, put into squads, and given the mission to kill Jews because they were the only people available for the task. “Even in the face of death the Jewish mothers did not separate from their children. Thus we tolerated the mothers taking their children to the ma...
Some may question what a castle exactly is, and Merriam-Webster describes a castle as 1a. “A large fortified building or set of buildings” 1b. “A massive or imposing house” 2. “A retreat safe against intrusion or invasion”. (11)
Elting, Mary and Robert T. Weaver, Battles: How They Are Won. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1944.
...tionship she had until she was left with literally no reason to live. Throughout the novella, she breaks social conventions, which damages her reputation and her relationships with her friends, husband, and children. Through Edna’s thoughts and actions, numerous gender issues and expectations are displayed within The Awakening because she serves as a direct representation of feminist ideals, social changes, and a revolution to come.
Kate Chopin boldly uncovered an attitude of feminism to an unknowing society in her novel The Awakening. Her excellent work of fiction was not acknowledged at the time she wrote it because feminism had not yet come to be widespread. Chopin rebelled against societal norms (just like Edna) of her time era and composed the novel, The Awakening, using attitudes of characters in favor to gender, variations in the main character, descriptions and Edna's suicide to show her feminist situation. Society during Chopin's time era alleged women to be a feeble, dependent gender whose place laid nothing above mothering and housekeeping. In The Awakening, Chopin conveys the simple attitudes of society toward women mainly through her characters Leonce, Edna, Madame Ratignolle, and Madame Reisz. She uses Leonce and Madame Ratignolle to depict examples of what was considered adequate in society. In a critical essay written by Emily Toth, she states that "The Awakening is a story of what happens when a woman does not accept her place in the home. The novel moves us because it illustrates the need for women's psychological, physical, social, and sexual emancipation--the goals of feminists in the twentieth century as well as the nineteenth" (Toth). However, Chopin takes account of the opposing characters of Edna and Madame Reisz in a determination to express desires and wants concealed by the female gender.
The 19th and 20th centuries were a time period of change. The world saw many changes from gender roles to racial treatment. Many books written during these time periods reflect these changes. Some caused mass outrage while others helped to bring about change. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, gender roles can be seen throughout the novel. Some of the characters follow society’s “rules” on what a gender is suppose to do while others challenge it. Feminist Lens can be used to help infer and interpret the gender roles that the characters follow or rebel against. Madame Ratignolle and Leonce Pontellier follow eaches respective gender, while Alcee Arobin follows and rebels the male gender expectations during the time period.