The Awakening

Question: Do you believe that the oppression of women upon World War II had a major influence on Edna and other emergent individuals’ highly sexualized behavior?

Comment: What I found intriguing about The Awakening is that Kate Chopin touches on many of the axes of difference we have discussed in our class. Race, sexual orientation, and social status are extremely prevalent issues in the book and for the general era. Conservative ideals of such factors shaped the way in which men and women often functioned in daily life and, in particular, within the home. Additionally, Chopin expresses a recurrent juxtaposition between freedom and oppression, patriarchal gender roles and modern gender roles, constrained and highly enabled sexuality, and objectivity and subjectivity. Edna was able to channel and express her emotions in a revolutionary way, by voicing her desire to break away from what was commonly accepted (and even demanded) of a wife and mother. She left her husband, for example, and became an independent individual, which mirrors the same kind of actions among other culturally oppressed groups.