Kate Chopin s The Awakening Controversial Protagonist

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening controversial protagonist - Edna Pontellier - lives a personally unsatisfying life with her idealistically perfect husband; a marriage that exists solely on the satisfaction of the Creole society they live in. In the beginning of the novel, she starts to struggle with the dominance of her outer identity that consists of how everyone sees her as the beautiful wife to a perfect, rich husband. But, when she is alone or with Robert, she begins to self-reflect on her inner identity that consists of how she sees herself and the new, rebellious freedoms that she desires. In The Awakening, the frequent symbolization of birds and the manner with how Edna interacts with music and the different men in her life illustrates†¦show more content†¦Later on in the novel, Edna speaks about how Mademoiselle Reisz checks her shoulder blades for strength because â€Å"the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wi ngs† (Chopin 79). While many characters shut Reisz off because of how strange she is, Edna visits her because of their unspoken, mutual understanding of the significance of the potential power and precedence that her true, inner identity could hold if she let it fly free. At the end of the novel, Chopin describes a â€Å"bird with a broken wing† who circles â€Å"disabled down, down to the water† (108) to reflect how the strength of Edna’s inner identity breaks her because her spirit is too weak to maintain her desires alongside her realization that she could never be truly happy again in this time of unbreaking oppression and possession. Elz notes that if Edna continues to live that she will always be moving from relationship to relationship to satisfy her true desires, even though - in contrast - she wishes for her existence to not be defined by her relationships with men. â€Å"Like the mockingbird,† Elz continues, Edna â€Å"insists on her wayà ¢â‚¬  and therefore refuses to accept the roles society pushes on her and, in result, commits suicide as her inner identity wins and proves that she can not be controlled (20). Chopin especially reveals the growth of Edna’s inner identity through her increasingly conflicting interactions with her husbandShow MoreRelatedA Short Note On Fawziya Mousa Ghanim Iraq1612 Words   |  7 Pagesin American and English literature, and I want to evaluate my academic knowledge and personal experience. As a teacher I will make groups in my class to discuss with them the influences of American literature upon Iraqi literature concerning women s awareness in both societies . My expectations will be directed to gain an opportunity by your supporting , developing, and training program. I hope to get such opportunity not only for my behalf, but also for my academic and educational community. TheRead MoreEssay on Kate Chopin1553 Words   |  7 Pages Kate Chopin: A Controversial Feminist nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Kate Chopin was one of the greatest and earliest feminist writers in history, whose works have inspired some and drawn much criticism from others. Chopin, through her writings, had shown her struggle for freedom and individuality. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Katherine (O’Flaherty) Chopin was born February 8, 1851 to a wealthy Irish Catholic Family in St. Louis, Missouri (â€Å"Kate Chopin† 1). Her father, Thomas O’Flaherty, was a founderRead MoreThe Awakening Of Women s Rights2106 Words   |  9 Pages The Awakening of Women’s Rights Women’s rights have evolved from being housewives to obtaining careers, receiving an education, and gaining the right to vote. The feminist movement created all these historic changes for women. This movement was highly controversial and it fought to set up equal rights for women. Women’s groups worked together to win women’s suffrage and later to create the Equal Rights Amendment. The economic boom in 1917 and the early 1960s brought many women into the workplaceRead MoreResearch Paper on Kate Chopin and the Feminism in Her Works2066 Words   |  9 PagesAp English 08 27 April 2012 Kate Chopin: Feminism in Her Works â€Å"Love and passion, marriage and independence, freedom and restraint.† These are the themes that are represented and worked with throughout Kate Chopin’s works. Kate Chopin, who was born on February 8, 1851, in St. Louis, was an American acclaimed writer of short stories and novels. She was also a poet, essayist, and a memoirist. Chopin grew up around many women; intellectual women that is. Chopin said herself that she was neitherRead MoreKate Chopin s The Awakening1875 Words   |  8 Pageswomen s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.† The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, was written in 1890 during the height of the women s suffrage movement, and essentially the public felt that the author â€Å"went too far† due to â€Å"the sensuality† of the protagonist (Toth 1). The â€Å"male gatekeepers† that scrutinized her work saw her piece as a statement that â€Å"the husband is a drag†, and that traditiona l American values should be forgotten (Toth 1). In truth, Chopin did notRead MoreNurse2025 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å" Common Themes Found in Kate Chopins Short Stories Kimberley J. Dorsey Stevenson University English 152, Writing About Literature 152-OME1 Charlotte Wulf November 14, 2010 Abstract Many of Kate Chopin’s short stories share the common themes of female oppression. The females in her stories are trying to find a way to escape their oppression and have a sense freedom and individuality. TheyRead MoreLindsey Allison. Mrs. Schroder. Ap Literature And Composition.1217 Words   |  5 PagesLiterature and Composition 3 January 2016 Awakening Essay: 1987 Awakening, takes place in 1899, a period in history where traditional gender roles were especially prevalent. Traditionally, women were destined to be housewives. The life of a woman was centered around caring for her children and husband. The success of a woman was not determined by her occupation nor accomplishments, but instead was determined by the livelihood of her family. The protagonist of Awakening, Edna Pontellier, steps outside ofRead MoreThe Awakening By Kate Chopin1816 Words   |  8 Pages During the late eighteen hundreds, which was the time of Edna Pontellier who was a protagonist of her time, women were thought of as nothing but house wives whose only task was to take care of her husband and children. Kate Chopin’s book, The Awakening, expresses the failures and the successes in a woman s life as she tries to live with the harsh cultural demands placed on her life. Edna fights against the stereotype mother/woman and the pressures of 1899 that demand her to be a meek and loyalRead MoreThe Awakening By Kate Chopin1479 Words   |  6 PagesKate Chopin’s controversial novel, The Awakening, ignited turmoil because of her blatant disregard of the established 19th century perspective of women upholding strictly maternal and matrimonial responsibilities. Edna’s candid exploration of the restrictions on women through her liberal behavior in a conservative Victorian society makes her a literary symbol for feminist ideals. Despite denunciation from othe r people, Edna chooses individuality over conformity through her veering from traditionalRead MoreWomen s Search For Selfhood2169 Words   |  9 Pagesself-discovery or identity are themes that are represented in Kate Chopin’s work. Chopin was on the same regular path as other women in her era. She got married at the age of twenty and had six children. When her husband passed away Chopin wanted to support herself so she decided to start writing which was also an outlet for her feelings. During the nineteenth century women were getting sick of the rules that were forced on them and Chopin expressed her feeling towards it through her writing. Her feelings

Hiv / Aids And Aids - 1854 Words

In the early 1990’s, around the time during which the movie Philadelphia came out, HIV/AIDS was thought to occur only through MSM (men who have sex with men) and was commonly referred to as â€Å"the gay disease.† Nowadays, it is no longer seen that way. HIV/AIDS is â€Å"now recognized as the most serious disease pandemic of our time† (Baur et al., 2011). With that being said, there are several prevention techniques that may reduce the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS. It is important to be aware of the six bodily fluids that can contain HIV and which of those have the highest concentration of the virus as well as to know the difference between the facts and the myths/stereotypes about HIV/AIDS. Although there is no cure for HIV/AIDS, there are many available treatments that have proven to be pretty effective over the years. Finally, an organization that is making a real contribution to the world through education and prevention of HIV is the International AIDS Soci ety. 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Plot Analysis Free Essays

In her ground-breaking play â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun,† Lorraine Hansberry challenged widespread cultural conceptions about African Americans. By focusing her play on stark realism, Hansberry was able to create a play which, in both theme   and technical execution, offered something radically different than the portrayal of American life typically seen on Broadway stages in the mid twentieth century. The impact of the play, both visually and   textually, on American audiences was visceral and controversial. We will write a custom essay sample on Plot Analysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Hansberry relied on depicting vastly disparate emotional states and conditions for her characters, as well as enticing her audience to experience the world of her characters with as much empathy as possible. The play’s opening, for example, establishes that the Younger family is waiting for a ten-thousand dollar insurance check to arrive after the death of the family’s father. The fact that the family is so steeped in poverty that each of them concocts elaborate schemes and ideas of how to spend the money before it even arrives, grips the reader or alert audience member with emotion and concern.   The â€Å"intrusion† of the expected money also begins the tension in the play and drives the conflicts between the play’s characters., most notably between Mama and Walter Lee. In order to engage the audience, and to cause them to identify with the Youngers, Hansberry uses the device of realism, which includes the construction of a one-room apartment set, complete with all the trappings of poverty: cramped quarters, worn furniture and carpets, and a conspicuous lack of privacy. Before the audience has even begun to grasp the events of the   play, they are immediately aware of the family’s dire financial situation. The shock of the set at a purely visual and spatial level communicates the Youngers’ distress to the audience.   Teh ensuing emotional tension between Mama and her son is meant to show that the external attributes of poverty have corresponding emotional and psychological impacts and have extended to the relationships between the characters. By the end of the opening scene, the reader or audience member knows that great hope and expectation has been pinned by the family on the insurance money and many readers or spectators of the play would probably intuit that the family’s emotional crisis goes far beyond anything which can be repaired with money. The idea is to advance the plot in a realistic manner so that the audience or reader not only experiences the events of the play but feels the emotional resonance which is intended to be a part of the event which are portrayed.   In order to accomplish this, every aspect of the play, not only the plot, are steeped in realism. One element of dramatic technique that enables Hansberry to successfully create a dynamic and realistic drama is her use of vernacular in the play’s dialogue. Unlike the blank-verse constructions of Shakespeare, or the witticism of Oscar Wilde, or even the dreamy musings of Tennessee Williams, Hansberry delivers the dialogue of â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† in colloquial language and this aspect of them play enhances the play’s verisimilitude. The realism of the play then causes the audience to more closely identify with the play’s characters and plot, and each of these aspects of the play helps to communicate the important sociological and racial themes that drive â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun.† This attention to realism and detail is important to the play’s plot, also, because as the vents of the play unfold, the reader is drawn more deeply into an emotional connection with the characters because the characters seem for all intents and purposes to be actual people who face actual, real-life struggles. As the plot progresses, the insurance check actually arrives and in their haste to be a controlling interest in the spending of the money, each of the Youngers manages to ignore the others emotional needs in pursuit of personal materialistic dreams. When Mama decides to use the money to move the family to a white neighborhood, a further sense of doom pervades th action as the Youngers fall further into emotional discord. Throughout the progression of the plot, the play’s dialogue leaves an opening for the emotional outpouring which is markedly absent from the (seemingly banal) progression of events. Hansberry’s dialogue, in fact, becomes a key driving force of the play’s ultimate revelatory impact on the audience. As the play progresses and the characters become more clearly defined with motivations that the audience can identify with (or despise)   the dialect of the play begins to attain a lyrical uniqueness — a vocal music which was unlike any other play on the Broadway stage of the time. Lines such as â€Å"Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams†¦.’† (29) or â€Å"â€Å"There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing†¦.†(135) attain the status of aphorism in the context of the play and divulge important social and racial realities that, for most Americans in the mid-twentieth century, existed, if at all, as merely si-debar newspaper articles or in some other abstract realization. Hansberry’s play, through its fierce and relentless realism, coupled with its themes of yearning and dreaming seemed to marry the â€Å"American ideal† to the â€Å"American nightmare† in a verbally original and thematically cathartic fashion, elevating the dialogue of racial issues in America to a place of cultural acceptance. Simultaneously, the play’s plot moves in an arc of excited expectation to dissolution of dreams while expressing the internal progressions of the characters with a portrayal of external events. When Mrs. Johnson tells the Youngers about a black family that was bombed because they moved into a white neighborhood, the audience feels the dream of Mama’s to live in a better neighborhood deflating. The audience realizes that money, alone, despite the naivete with which the Youngers regard its power, will do little, perhaps nothing, to change the misery of their lives. The Youngers have regarded money and the future hope of what it may bring with a sort of â€Å"exotic† hopefulness which, in its perceived futility during the vents of the play, should cause emotional frustration and dissonance in the reader and in the the audience. This dissonance reflects the same dissonance which exists between the Younger’s dreams and their actual position in the world. By combining a realistic set with realistic dialogue, a kind of exoticism was reached by Hansberry, through the depiction of extreme poverty and want, which is a powerful force in granting the play unity of theme, place, and time in keeping with Aristotle’s theories of dramatic construction in his Poetics. This latter attribute helps ground the play in the traditional dramatic structure which off-sets the aforementioned â€Å"exoticism† of the play’s set and characters. Despite the reluctance for most Americans in the late 50’s and early 60’s to face the racially based challenges of that era, â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun† demonstrated, through creative expression, the urgency of the plight of African Americans in a racist society. The play’s climax, when it is decided that — despite the conflicts and hardships that the money has caused —   that Mama’s plan to move to a new neighborhood will go through, exerts a sense of hopefulness in the face of manifested obstacles (and potential violence) which seems to suggest that optimism, ambition, and â€Å"togetherness† can weather storms and find fulfillment despite the truth of prejudice and poverty. However, a close reading of the play is just as likely to reveal in the reader, a sense that the Youngers are simply caught in a vicious cycle of hope and despair and that with each new breath of hope a corresponding crush of bad luck or ill-fortune will be experienced.   It is not fitting to say that the play, therefore, has a â€Å"happy† ending, but simply an ending which reflects an unending cycle of hope against an equally unending series of obstacles. Work Cited   Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Random House, New York. 1959 How to cite Plot Analysis, Papers