The Awakening

1063 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Kate chopin life and writing style

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin is a novel that should be read. It is beautifully written, deals with important issues of oppression, and is a true quest for ones self. Unfortunately it does not meet Harold Blooms criteria for the Canon. According to Harold Bloom in his critical essay An Elegy for the Canon, a novel must embody certain characteristics in order for it to be canonical. Sadly, The Awakening falls short of one major criteria of the canon that can not be overlooked. There are many characteristics that define a canonical piece of work, and the three standards listed deal first with Aesthetic quality, such as diction, and symbolism. Next with mortality, such as the inner and external journey to find ones self, and last with originality, meaning the ability to stand on it's own, despite the gender of the writer, or the time period in which it was written. The Awakening meets certain points of these three characteristics, but falls short on the ability to stand on it`s own. Because Chopin's novel is embedded with major feministic issues that question the beliefs of gender, social, and cultural roles of women during her time period, one must ask themselves if this novel is celebrated because of it's aesthetic qualities, or because of the controversy it triggered during it's time. Controversy is not a characteristic of the canon.

Kate Chopin's novel The awakening was published in 1899 and caused immediate controversy with the public because it dealt freely with female sexuality, and independence, It raised many concerns of the oppressive impact marriage had on women at that time. Her novel challenged the social views of the norm and disquieted the unspoken imperfections of her culture. Chopin's novel was not read fo...

... middle of paper ...

...sic works of the canonical giants of the past. Harold Bloom points out that "The West's greatest writers are subversive of all values, both ours and their own."(29). He also states that "if we read the western canon in order to form our social, political, or personal moral values, I firmly believe we will become monsters or selfishness and exploitation. To read in the service of ideology is not, in my judgement to read at all." Kate Chopin had the ability to create great aesthetic work, but her ideology got in the way. The Awakening is still considered a literary masterpiece by many even though it does not assimilate well with Harold Blooms Criteria of the canon. Because the canon is always changing, it may find it's place in a new canon in the future, perhaps a canon devoted strictly to female writers. After all Harold Bloom did title his critical essay as an Elegy.

Show More
Related

  • Awakening

    2436 Words  | 5 Pages

    When Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" was published at the end of the 19th Century, many reviewers took issue with what they perceived to be the author's defiance of Victorian proprieties, but it is this very defiance with which has been responsible for the revival in the interest of the novel today. This factor is borne out by Chopin's own words throughout her Preface -- where she indicates that women were not recipients of equal treatment. (Chopin, Preface ) Edna takes her own life at the book's end, not because of remorse over having committed adultery but because she can no longer struggle against the social conventions which deny her fulfillment as a person and as a woman. Like Kate Chopin herself, Edna is an artist and a woman of sensitivity who believes that her identity as a woman involves more than being a wife and mother. It is this very type of independent thinking which was viewed as heretical in a society which sought to deny women any meaningful participation.

    Read More

  • The Awakening

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    Edna Pontellier Throughout The Awakening , a novel by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna Pontellier showed signs of a growing depression. There are certain events that hasten this, events which eventually lead her to suicide. At the beginning of the novel when Edna's husband, Leonce Pontellier, returns from Klein's hotel, he checks in on the children and believing that one of them has a fever he tells his wife, Edna. She says that the child was fine when he went to bed, but Mr. Pontellier is certain that he isn't mistaken: "He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children." (7) Because of the reprimand, Edna goes into the next room to check on the children.

    Read More

  • Great Awakening

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    By the beginning of the 18th century, there was an unmistakable feeling in the American Colonies that its intemperate society had become too comfortable and assertive, and had forgotten its original intentions of religious prosperity. The result was a revitalization of religious piety that swept through the American colonies between the 1730s and the 1770s, a movement known as "The Great Awakening". This revival was part of an evangelical upsurge occurring simultaneously in England, Scotland, Germany, and other inhabitants on the other side of the Atlantic. In all these Protestant cultures, a new Age of Faith had arisen contrasting the currents of the Age of Enlightenment, advocating the belief that being truly religious meant relying on biblical revelation rather than human reason.

    Read More

  • Naked and Free in The Awakening

    491 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Awakening, by Kate Chopin seems to fit neatly into twentieth century ideals.  Chopin addresses psychological issues that must have been difficult for people of the late nineteenth century to grasp.  Just as Edna died a premature death, Chopin's book died too.  The rejection of this book, at the time, ironically demonstrates the pressure many women must have felt to conform to society.  Chopin shows the reader, through Edna Pontellier, that society restricts women the right to individuality.  This restriction by society can be seen in the clothing Victorian women wore during the time.

    Read More

  • The Second Great Awakening

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1830's, 1840's, and beyond, There is a Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening had a decided impact on American society. In the following I will describe what the Great Awakening was and how it changed life in America.

    Read More

  • The Feminist Movement In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    In The Awakening, Kate Chopin tells a story during the upbringing of the feminist movement, the movement was masked by the social attitudes entering into the 1900’s. She tells this story in the form of a novel, in which is told in a third person view, that is very sympathetic for Edna Pontellier, the protagonist. This is a review of the journey Edna takes in her awakening and evaluate the effectiveness this novel takes in introducing, continuing, and ending Edna’s awakening.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopin's Writing

    2343 Words  | 5 Pages

    Elizabeth Fox Genovese of Emory University shared in a PBS interview that “She [Kate Chopin] was very important as one of the earliest examples of modernism in the United States or, if you wish, the cutting edge of modernism in American literature” (PBS – Interviews). Kate Chopin published At Fault, her first novel, in 1890 and The Awakening, her last novel, in 1898 (Guilds 924). During these years Chopin wrote numerous other works and most, like At Fault and The Awakening, centered around upper-middle class Creole or French women involved in womanly uncertainties; such as, extramarital affairs, acceptable behavior in society for females, duties as a wife, responsibilities as a mother, and religious beliefs. Chopin was an extraordinary woman, and no indication was made, during the investigation of this research paper, reflecting her having regrets regarding her position as a wife or mother. This document is an attempt at comparing the issues the main characters experienced and presenting Chopin’s unique skill in writing about the culture she observed during her years of living in Louisiana. The tragedy of this author’s existence is that during her life the literary world did not recognize such exceptional skill.

    Read More

  • Great Awakening

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    people were becoming bored of the religion and it just became a past time for

    Read More

  • The Awakening

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The society of Grand Isle places many expectations on its women to belong to men and be subordinate to their children. Edna Pontellier's society, therefore, abounds with "mother-women," who "idolized their children, worshipped their husbands, and esteemed it to a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals" (689). The characters of Adele Ratignolle and Mademoiselle Reisz represent what society views as the suitable and unsuitable women figures. Mademoiselle Ratignolle is the ideal Grand Isle woman, a home-loving mother and a good wife. Mademoiselle Reisz is the old, unmarried, childless, musician who devoted her life to music instead of a man. Edna switches between the two identities until she awakens to the fact that she needs to be an individual, but encounters resistance from society. This begins the process of her awakening.

    Read More

  • Kate Chopins' Awakening is Not a Tragedy

    1322 Words  | 3 Pages

    Allen, Priscilla. "Old Critics and New: The Treatment of Chopin's The Awakening." In The Authority of Experience: Essays in Feminist Criticism, ed. Arlyn Diamond and Lee  R. Edwards. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977, 224-238.

    Read More

  • Frances Porcher's Response To The Awakening

    335 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Frances Porcher’s response to “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin published in May 1899, she felt as though the book is slightly pathetic. While she believes that one can get absorbed by the principles of the book, she writes that the story makes one feel like “it leaves one sick of human nature and so one feels cui bono!” Furthermore, in Porcher’s analysis, the book “is not a pleasant picture of soul-dissection.” The distress of Edna does not allow one to joyfully engage in the plight that is exhibited. In addition to ugly cross-section, the book makes readers feel, “for the moment, with a little sick feeling, if all women are like the one” that is studied in the book. While it is disheartening to read that women might feel this way about the

    Read More

  • Importance of Water in The Awakening

    1462 Words  | 3 Pages

    Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX -. 11 Feb. 2003 Dawson, Hugh J. & Co. "Kate Chopin's The Awakening: A Dissenting Opinion. " American Literary Realism 26.2 (1994):18.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In 'The Awakening' By Kate Chopin

    1474 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Research Paper on Kate Chopin and Her Works

    2396 Words  | 5 Pages

    Kate Chopin is best known for her novel, The Awakening, published in 1899. After its publication, The Awakening created such uproar that its author was alienated from certain social circles in St. Louis. The novel also contributed to rejections of Chopin's later stories including, "The Story of An Hour" and "The Storm." The heavy criticism that she endured for the novel hindered her writing. The male dominated world was simply not ready for such an honest exploration of female independence, a frank cataloguing of a woman's desires and her search for fulfillment outside of the institution of marriage.

    Read More

  • Influence of Kate Chopin’s Life and Environment on Her Literature

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bryfonski, Dedria, ed. Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.

    Read More

More about The Awakening

Open Document