Kate Chopins Unorthodox Awakening :: Chopin Awakening Essays

Kate Chopins Unorthodox Awakening         The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, was a book that was rattling aheadof its time. The author of the book was truly a genius in her right, but yet shewas seen as a scoundrel. At the time, it was a world that value only herperformance as a mother, whose highest expectations for women are self sacrificeand self-effacement. ( ? ) The people of that date of reference were not ready to admit oraccept the transparent but hidden feelings of intimacy or sexuality and the truenature of womanhood. Kate Chopins book portrayed a woman of that time in a quite unorthodox way. In fact, When she wrote the book in 1899, she achieved what was to prove her literary masterpiece and her ultimate break withpopular taste ( Cully, Intro. )         That book was written in 1899. During this era women were seen as veryproper and sophisticated individuals who were considered caretakers of the home. They wore an excessive amount of clothing and never exposed themselves in publicor otherwise. If a woman was caught exposing herself in public, would be shunnedand looked down upon. Loyalty and commitment to the family was very importantduring this time. Regardless of their family problems, they were expected toendure and stay faithful. In fact, the nineteenth centurys message of thesupremacy of maternity was so strong and so intense that it was absorbed intothe systems of its women - even women like Edna ,a character in Chopins book, who were not maternally inclined. ( ? ) You could almost say that women wereconsidered symbols of everything that is pure in the society in which they lived.Anything short of that was considered unacceptable.         Because of the time that Chopin lived in The Appearance in print ofher most recent work had brought her harsh tyroism and condemnation, as come upas ostracism from many of those who had always formed a close-knit world of St.Louis society ( Cully , vii ).  Her book was seen as a vile  and fouledpiece of literature. One critic of that time stated One cannot refrain fromregret that so beautiful a style and so much goal of taste have been spentby Miss Chopin on an essentially vulgar story.( ? ). Most critics and readersof that era felt the same way as this critic did. People were not willing to putup with what they felt was a trashy novel.