Scarlett O Har A True Hero

The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, centers around Edna Pontellier, a female protagonist, who has slowly transformed herself from a traditional wife and mother, into a rebellious, independent, yet selfish woman. On the other hand, Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind grows into a brave woman through harsh experiences of the Civil War. While Scarlett O’Hara is portrayed as a hero, Edna Pontellier lacks heroic qualities. Scarlett O’Hara is strong in fighting for what she is determined to have; Edna is weak and selfish in dealing with the struggles in her life.
Scarlett O’Hara is a hero because she is strong and brave. Raised from a wealthy family, she is born a spoiled Southern belle, but she slowly changes when facing financial difficulties of her parents during the war. At first, all Scarlett cares
about is Ashley Wilkes, her first love, as she is trying to stop his marriage with Melanie. She stops worrying about her love when she sees her parents’ plantation is destroyed by the Yankees’ attack. This is the marking point of her maturation, and when Scarlett says, “I will not be hungry again!” As she is digging up food to eat, she stands up firm and vows to herself that she will save Tara and survive through the war. She promises Ashley Wilkes to take care of Melanie by herself and helpless servant. She is not afraid when she has to bring them back home alone when Rhett decides to leave her by herself. When her parents die, she becomes the head of the family, finding a way for her to repay the three hundred dollar debt to save Tara. She is fearless to throw dirt into Jonas Wilkerson’s face when he is offering the business exchange between Tara’s tax debt and herself. To Scarlett, Tara is what matters to her most, even more than Ashley Wilkes, who she realizes she has lost forever when she chooses family over love. Scarlett O’Hara grows into a strong-willed woman to save her family.
Despite all the struggles she confronts, Scarlett chooses to continue fighting.
She is determined until the end. While all the chaos of war is going on around her, Scarlett always wants to go back home to her mother. She never wants to leave her family behind, even when Rhett asks her to run away with him. Seeing her mother laying on the dead bed, her father’s torn plantation, the burnt house, and the poor condition of her family because of the Yankees’ attack in the Civil War, Scarlett is now motivated to save her family from collapse. Scarlett even cheers her father up when she tells him that she is home now and not to worrying about anything anymore. Scarlett shows her father the strong spirit she has to convince herself that she has to continue fighting for her parents. Tara soon becomes her motivation, since she would do everything she can do save Tara because it is the comfort of her life. It includes slapping her sisters if she hears them complaining, selling herself to Rhett in the prison, sacrificing her marriage to Frank Kennedy, shooting a Yankee soldier if she has to. Scarlett continues to fight against the harsh impediments that hinder her
motivation.
In contrast, Edna only thinks about herself in the process of making decisions. She is selfish to do what is best for her. From the beginning, she wants to marry Leonce Pontellier because she feels like she should return the feeling he is giving to her. She begins to feel dull living with her husband and the changes her perceives in herself. She starts to see Robert Lebrun during her husband’s absence from work till she realizes that “there was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert” (175). She no longer cares about what her husband thinks and loses interest in what has been part of her life, her husband and her children. When Edna decides she wants to live by herself in a pigeon house to avoid troubles, she still moves out “without even waiting for an answer from her husband regarding his opinion or wishes in the matter, Edna hastened her preparations for quitting her home on Esplanade Street and moving into the little house around the block” (139). Edna is just thinking about herself, how she wants the best for herself, when she does not mind about the consequences, or what people might say about the Pontelliers. By refusing to be called a “mother woman,” she does not put her children up at first when she is making decisions when she says, “I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (97). Edna admits that her children makes her feel joy like a “delicious song” (152), but she also feels peaceful when she is alone.
Also, Edna Pontellier in The Awakening chooses to give up her life because she is weak when it comes to face the social norms by herself. Edna thinks that giving up her life is the best solution for her, since she feels there is no other way. However, by committing suicide, Edna is giving up everything she ever dreams of: her new life with Robert, her artistic dream, and her family. Because she is an outcast from the Creole society she is living in, Edna feels trouble expressing her true feelings. Instead of feeling honored to be a mother like every other women at that time, especially like Adele Ratignolle, she feels burden and calls her children “antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered her and sought to drag her into the soul’s slavery for the rest of her days” (175). Even before that, when she is witnessing the scene of Adele giving birth to her fourth child, Edna recalls her own experience as “an ecstasy of pain, the heavy odor of chloroform, a stupor which had deadened sensation, and an awakening to find a little new life to which she had given being, added to the great unnumbered multitude of souls that come and go” (170). She is afraid and embarrassed by her affair with Robert to her children that she just wants to escape into the peacefulness and calmness of the ocean. Also, Edna once wishes to be an artist, to produce beautiful paintings, and she receives advice from Mademoiselle Reisz that an artist needs a courageous soul. But as she is having her last bath in the ocean, she thinks of “how Mademoiselle Reisz would have laughed, perhaps sneered, if she knew! ‘And you call yourself an artist! What pretensions, Madame! The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies’” (176). Edna knows exactly that by committing suicide, she is choosing to quit and does not deserve to be called an artist.
While Edna Pontellier is criticized as a quitter for being selfish and weak, Scarlett O’Hara is praised for her strong, brave will and determination. Scarlett O’Hara is a hero; she completely transforms herself from a spoiled young southern belle to an independent and strong-willed woman who is very determined in becoming successful. On the other hand, Edna Pontellier is not a hero, disregarding all her attempts in breaking the social norms that she confronts at that time; she still chooses to give up, leaving all her family behind. Even though she might think she is protecting her children from a bad reputation, her children would not be themselves anymore growing up in the absence of their mother. The reason Edna might have choose to commit suicide is the pressure she is facing from the society, especially the expectation of a good wife from her husband and Adele Ratignolle. Whereas Scarlett O’Hara develops her motivation in saving Tara when she is going through the hardship of Civil War, but Edna Pontellier doesn’t have the “push” in fighting for what she truly believes; rather she simply quits her life.