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Kate Chopin & The Awakening

Kate Chopin & The Awakening. Edited by Nina Lee Braden. On Realism. Presents an accurate imitation of life Characters drawn to present the reader with the illusion of actual experience Topics covered include love, marriage, parenthood, infidelity, and death

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Kate Chopin & The Awakening

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  1. Kate Chopin & The Awakening Edited by Nina Lee Braden

  2. On Realism • Presents an accurate imitation of life • Characters drawn to present the reader with the illusion of actual experience • Topics covered include love, marriage, parenthood, infidelity, and death • Characters find life dull and are often unhappy, but find touches of joy and beauty in life (M. H. Abrams)

  3. Local Color • According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature, "In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description" (439).

  4. Local Color vs. Regionalism • “Regional literature incorporates the broader concept of sectional differences, but some critics have argued convincingly that the distinguishing characteristic that separates ‘local color’ writers from ‘regional’ writers is instead the exploitation of and condescension toward their subjects that the local color writers demonstrate” (From the Encyclopedia of Southern Literature).

  5. Feminism • Chopin denied that she was a feminist or a suffragette. • Her fiction repeatedly deals with female characters’ efforts to find place, love, and autonomy in a society that denies these needs.

  6. An “Awakening” Women’s Movement • 1800’s saw a change in the status of women • Edna’s actions reflect changing feelings about what a woman’s life should be

  7. “The Angel in the House” Man must be pleased; but him to pleaseIs woman's pleasure; down the gulfOf his condoled necessitiesShe casts her best, she flings herself.How often flings for nought, and yokesHer heart to an icicle or whim,Whose each impatient word provokesAnother, not from her, but him;While she, too gentle even to forceHis penitence by kind replies,Waits by, expecting his remorse,With pardon in her pitying eyes;And if he once, by shame oppress'd,A comfortable word confers,She leans and weeps against his breast,And seems to think the sin was hers;Or any eye to see her charms,At any time, she's still his wife,Dearly devoted to his arms;She loves with love that cannot tire;And when, ah woe, she loves alone,Through passionate duty love springs higher,As grass grows taller round a stone. Coventry Pattimore, 1854

  8. Chopin’s Creole Society • Saw themselves as different from Anglo-Americans • French and Spanish ancestry • Enjoyed: gambling, entertainment, social gatherings • Seldom accepted outsiders • Men dominated the households • Women expected to provide well-kept homes and many children • Women ignored men’s carousing, bore children, and refined their musical, artistic, and conversational talents

  9. Chopin’s Writing Style • Wrote very rapidly and without much revision • usually worked in her home surrounded by her children • Unafraid to write and publish controversial content • Regionalist or local color writing • often mimicking manner of speech • class system • social rules particular to the region

  10. Unfamiliar Words and Phrases • Set in Louisiana—in the resort town of Grand Isle, as well as New Orleans. • Shows Catholic Creoles with European customs: polyglot witty speech, rich agricultural landscape of picturesque Natchitoches Parish • Often, the characters slip into French phrases

  11. The Awakening • Published 1899 • Bildungsroman • Widely criticized because of conflicts with society’s moral standards • Called “sordid” • Pulled from library shelves • Marked the end of writing career

  12. Tone and Conflicts • Tone: Largely objective; occasionally reveals support for female independence and sexual and emotional awareness symbolized in Edna’s awakening. • Conflicts: • Person vs. Person • Person vs. Society • Person vs. Self

  13. Major Themes • Flesh vs. Spirit • Freedom • Sexism • Search for Self • Assertive self, creative self, relative self, sensual self • Choice and Consequences: Free Will • Alienation and loneliness

  14. Themes in The Awakening • Search for individuality and freedom • Rebellion against society and death • Humanity captive to its biology • Relationship between the sexes • Fate: Edna is a victim of fate, an uncaring world, and an indifferent sea

  15. Symbols • “A tale of a young woman who struggles to realize herself” • The sea represents: • Differences between choice and obedience • Life and death / Rebirth • Freedom and escape • Learning to swim: empowerment • Moon: sexual goddess, strength

  16. More Symbols • The parrot (birds in general): ability to communicate, entrapment of women, flight for freedom • Clothes: shedding of societal rules, growing awakening of self • Houses: cages for Edna, supposed freedom • Piano playing: placement in society • Sleep: moments of awakening, means of escape

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