The Awakening Rhetorical Analysis

1343 Words6 Pages
Now considered classic among similarly didactic works is Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Written in 1899, it holds a strong social message considering the liberation of women - particularly in a romantic, social and even sexual sense. Just as strong, and quite necessary for this social message is a well crafted work of literature. For, as we’ll come to see, Chopin’s commentary is not only dependent on, but is also completely intertwined with, various literary elements. To start, the beginning of Edna’s inner conflict, and subsequent change, lies with Chopin’s use of two literary foils. The first, and most obvious, foil is Edna’s business minded and nonsensical husband, Leonce. Take, for instance, the way Chopin deals with the novel’s first interaction between the two. Leonce is described as viewing his wife as, “a valuable piece of personal…show more content…
Rather than depict this situation as being negative, as many writers of her time most undoubtedly would have, Chopin describes it as being joyous and relieving. For example, she says that, “when Edna was at last alone, she breathed a big, genuine sigh of relief. A feeling that was unfamiliar but very delicious came over her.” (97) Furthermore, as Edna walks through her house, enjoying the absence of her family, the tone is of a light-hearted and pleasant spirit in order to reinforce the writer’s social message. Chopin extends her social commentary by saying, “[t]here was with [Edna] a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual.” (127) Therefore we see that The Awakening’s underlying romantic theme is one - and very likely the most successful - of the various literary elements used by Chopin to address social
Show More
Related

  • Childhood Trauma

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    The research investigated the “effects of childhood trauma experiences on HPA-axis activity, comparing saliva cortisol awakening response (CAR) in adult patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) with CAR in adult healthy controls.” Because the IMRAD article, written by primary and credible scholars, was published in a well-recognized and reputable journal

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Abortion

    2072 Words  | 9 Pages

    A Defense of Abortion Analysis Abortion has been one of the most debatable subjects in America. Abortion is defined, as removing the pregnancy from the womb, either by taking pills (medical abortion) which involves taking medicines to cause a miscarriage or by surgery (surgical abortion) where the pregnancy is removed from the womb. Most abortions can be provided on a day care basis which means you do not need to stay at a clinic overnight. Every year almost 12,000 teenagers have abortions. In the

    Read More

  • Charles Krauthammer

    1887 Words  | 8 Pages

    comparing the declinists to a weather vane in order to produce an image of the declinists varying in their views over time. Moving on, Krauthammer goes on to list some labels given to describe the state of America: “Imperial overstretch. The Asian Awakening. The post-American world. Inexorable forces beyond our control bringing the inevitable humbling of the world hegemon” (Krauthammer 352). The list of labels incorporates a sort of sarcasm, as they are seemingly dropped in to the essay in a careless

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor Critical Analysis

    7765 Words  | 32 Pages

    If one responds to this rhetorical problem for Flannery O’Connor, one is but to slap the reader in the face with mystery and awe all through grotesquerie, violence and extremely demonic states of existence. Her fictional patterns lean away from archetypal social patterns towards

    Read More

More about The Awakening Rhetorical Analysis

Open Document