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Edna's Suicide In The Awakening

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Edna's Suicide In The Awakening
Feminism in Kate Chopin 's The Awakening

Cecilia Phenix, Yahoo! Contributor Network
May 13, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
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Kate Chopin bravely exposed an attitude of feminism to an unprepared society in her novel The Awakening. Her brilliant work of fiction was not recognized at the time because feminism had not yet become popular. Eble claimed that Chopin 's book was considered to be "Too strong a drink for moral babes and should labeled 'poison '" (75). Chopin defied societal assumptions of her time period and wrote the novel, The Awakening, using attitudes of characters in regard to gender, changes in the main character, imagery and Edna 's suicide to illustrate
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She uses attitudes of characters in her novel toward gender, changes in Edna and her suicide to express her own feminist attitudes. Chopin was shunned from communities as a result of her strong feministic views and great ability to express them.
Works Cited
Adams, Rachael. Introduction. The Awakening. By Chopin. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003. xv-xxxvi.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Barnes and Noble, 2003. 1-155.
Leary, Lewis. Southern Excursions: Essays on Mark Twain and Others. Baton Rouge: Lousiana State Press, 1971.
McCoy, Thorunn Ruga. "Chopin 's The Awakening." The Explicator 56.1 (1997):26-28. Full-Text. InfoTrac Web: InfoTrac Onfile. Online. Gale Group. Kimbel Library, Conway, Sc. 10 Mar. 2004. .
Natoli, Joseph. Psychological Perspectives on Literature: Freudian Dissidents and Non-Freudians. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon, 1984. 181-197.
Showalter, Elaine. "Feminist Criticism and The Awakening." Introduction. The Awakening. By Chopin. Ed. Nancy A. Walker. Boston: Martin Press, 1993. 158-189.
Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. "Un-utterable Longing: The Discourse of Feminine Sexuality in The Awakening." Studies in American Fiction 24.1 (1996):2-23. Full-Text. InfoTrac Web: InfoTrac Onfile. Online. Gale Group. Kimbel Library, Conway, Sc. 10 Mar. 2004.


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