Ending The Web Talk

http://youtu.be/4VBqsWsHXxQ

Talking to The CAM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDKNvZANsek&feature=youtu.be

THE END... Freedom

“Perhaps Doctor Mandalet would have understood if she had seen him-but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone. She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father´s voice and her sister Margarete´s. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.”

Edna is not the same woman we meet at the beginning of the novella her actions, thoughts and beliefs change throughout a series of events that happen to her. Even though she transforms into a woman that is far more mentally advanced than the rest of her society she manages to reach a place where she is able to make her own decision, love who she wants to love, do make and transform whatever she wants to. She also departs from the skin the label of being the property of her husband and thinks of herself as a new person that lives only for herself.

The last page of the book however send out a message that the only freedom a person can be able to achieve is death. I would say I viewed Edna’s death as a suicide but reading the text twice I realized she is not trying to kill herself. She only seeks to swim far out and meet death which at the end of the day is the only way of escaping the society in which she lives. Death is the only aspect of life (ironic right) that brings you freedom and all the feelings Edna seek to achieve in her life. I think of Edna as a woman that did not fear anything in her life and she saw death as the only way of reaching freedom at a 100%. At the end before she unites with death she feels herself being in a memory somewhere in her childhood which for her is the only aspect of life that in some sense gives her some peace of mind, it’s an escape from the adult world that takes hold of the woman and bring them to be someone’s property. Childhood is the place where you can be free and naïve but society quickly takes that away.

For Edna despite her struggle to find what she wanted in life and create mayhem around her she finally understood that society and the world in which she lived in is not yet ready for her and death despite bringing agony to others it’s her only way of finally managing to achieve what she truly wanted. Despite killing herself she stated before that she would never sacrifice herself for her children stating that her children even if they gave her happiness they would never be the reason to kill herself, her reason once again was to finally achieve what she had always been missing “freedom”. The book The Awakening in some way seeks to awaken the people that read it. I think it seeks to achieve some sort of impact on the reader to awaken him of make him find something that awakens him, for Edna her awakening was death.

THE Webcast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYpZqTmIOgc&feature=youtu.be

Robert´s Gone...What A Bummer

Throughout chapter XV – XX the main conflict in the novella is Roberts’s departure and Edna’s constants depression and neglect towards her supposed chores.

I guess I was wrong when I said that Robert and Edna would have some kind of love related relationship but the reader learns that Robert is heading out to Mexico. Surprised by the news Edna decided to just ignore it and goes home mad. Adele comes and comforts her but Edna is to mad with Robert for not telling her. However Robert then appears and talks with Edna about the situation, Edna in some way is still mad with Robert for not telling her before. I believe that Edna obviously cares for Robert and in some way looks at him as much more that friends and Robert…Well Robert is in fact in love with Edna or at least has feeling for her, proving by hypothesis not entirely wrong.

During the next chapters Edna fights with the fact Robert has leaved town and decided to become even harsher and neglectful with her husband, leading Leonce to thinks she is crazy. Every so often as the novella progresses we find ourselves hooked with the fact that Edna is no longer the same woman that Chopin describes in the first chapters. She is known an intrepid woman that is able to stand for herself and discuss what she wants to discuss and what she doesn’t. In my opinion I think Edna is a role model to what will become of the contemporary culture, a woman that doesn’t fear what others say to her. Instead she fears what she cannot accomplish. What I mean by the previous statement is that Edna sees herself as a lonelier and with Robert gone she is exasperating even more the feeling leading her to fear what she cannot accomplish herself what she cannot reach in an ocean where the tide is against her.

Edna from my point of view, inferring from her actions is every time more concentrated on her own self and she even tells Adele that she would give anything for her kids except her life, which Adele disagrees saying that life is the greatest thing a mother could give up for her kids. In my opinion I think no one should give their life away for another one, every human being has a purpose on earth however it is thought that a mother’s love for their children overpasses any other desire. You could look at it from any angle you’d like and it’s just a matter of opinion and Edna feels that she is more important than any other person from the angle I see it, this could mean that Edna is no longer the expected mother Mr. Pontellier wishes her to be or maybe she never was. Even so I guess we will have answers for all this mystery’s by the end of the book.

Who Will I Choose?

I chapter X the party carries out in the beach and Edna is curious in why Robert hasn’t been stalking her per say. Once in the beach Edna finally adventures herself to explore the depths of the ocean or better yet just to swim far out and figures out it wasn’t as difficult as she thought it was, reflecting on how she used to puddle like a baby on the shores. Chopin from my point of view is using again an extended metaphor comparing Edna’s new found ability of swimming with the possibility of not being so susceptible to orders society imposes on her, for example orders her husband gives. Once Edna understood she know can swim out she walks home leaving behind his husband despite his demands to stay, however Roberts decides to go with her and accompany home. The sit a while on the front porch and Robert decides to accompany her until her husband comes back. At this point in the book I really feel that Robert and Edna´s relationship will reach a climax point. It is clear that both feel an attraction for each other even if they don’t know exactly what it is.

Edna chats with Robert and after a while they hear Leonce coming home and Robert bails out, Leonce tells Edna she should go inside and sleep but Edna refuses and asks herself what has happened with her “She perceived that her will had blazed up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had.” Edna as the novella continues starts to transform into a more respectable woman or in some sense arrogant, it seems at first as if her husband actually cares for her and asks her what she is doing outside and tells her the mosquitos will devour her, however Edna refuses to enter the house. It looks as if Edna is every time more arrogant towards her husband as if she didn’t care for him, as the night falls sleep wins the battle with Edna and decides to go to bed however Mr. Pontellier tells her he will finish his cigar and head over.

I belief the Pontelliers relationship is very close to an end even to the point that Edna likes to spend more with Robert, it seems as if Robert was Edna´s new boyfriend in the point that they cannot keep away from each other and have to walk every time side by side. Edna and Robert keep on going out to boat trips and even accompanies her to sleep to the point that he takes Mr. Pontelliers place and helps Edna take care of his sons winning. As I read this part of the novella I realized that what was susceptible to happen is now inevitable: Robert and Edna will end up hooked together.

Yes...No

In Juliana Castro’s Blog The Readsponder, she submits a blog called: Understanding A Different Time. In the blog she writes about the Creole culture and Mrs. Pontelliers marriage witch I don’t feel she is accurately depicting. In her explanation of Edna’s marriage Juliana stats that the story is a cliché in which I’ll have to disagree, right off from the start we learn that we are in an island near New Orleans dating back to the late nineteenth century to experience the life of a woman that is completely out of context to her time. In the other hand it could not have been considered a cliché given the fact the novella was published on April 1899, way before women activists, cheating, and falling in love crap was generalized.

Apart from the previously stated, the blog talks about Mrs. Pontellier not having an apparent reason for her sucky marriage and the exterior view of the marriage as a perfect one. First off it is evident that Edna is suffering from some sort of depression dealing with her life as it is at the beginning of the novella. Despite not having a 100% certified answer for her depression it is precise to say that her attitude is the one to blame for her saggy marriage. The second aspects deals with the way others see Edna’s marriage, as Chopin states everyone thinks of Edna as a woman that is not really a woman or a strive for mother-woman. She is in fact quite the opposite in terms of parenthood and she is categorized as “different” by the community. Edna in my opinion or therefore Edna´s story is not a cliché and evidently she is not a typical woman.

The Music Shook Edna and a Man!

When the kids arrive with guess who, Robert to the beach were Edna and Adele are having a conversation about feeling that Edna does not usually have. They talk about her childhood lovers, her true feelings of life, and what she thinks about her family. Robert leaves the children with their mothers and later on they all leave in order to get ready for a dinner party that night.

Robert loses sight of Edna and looks for her all over the beach and finally decides to head back to her mother's cottage. There we know that Victor his brother is quite the opposite from Victor, a "young, wild, and free" soul that from my perspective does not follow general norms. Robert talks with her mother and her mother asks Robert where Mrs. Pontellier which Robert answers by going over to look for her. It looks as if her mother has implied Robert his, his way of dealing with woman and treating them the way he usually treats them.

In chapter IX Edna arrives with her kids to the dinner party where all the people of the island are gathered around. Edna finds herself in some sort of way bored, alones, and desolated. After her kids have gone to bed she exits the cottage and heads over to the porch to look at the calm but hostile ocean which Chopin uses as a constant reference to different points of view that arise throughout the novella, mostly meaning the desire to pursuit a dream or vocation.

Robert reaches the porch and talks a while with Edna and induces her to walk inside again to listen to the performance the little children. Edna then states that she likes Adele way of playing and pictures images of different emotions while she plays, in her mind she sees pictures of "a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was once of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him." (Chopin, 55) I think that Edna feels with every piece of music a different emotion or picture and Adele's picture evokes an image of a naked man maybe suggesting that Adele even though her music is good it is still portrayed through the figure of a man and not a woman even if she is the creator of the piece. The historical period implies that everything a woman makes is in part property of her husband, if not completely.

However we learn that Mademoiselle Reisz has accepted Roberts's invitation to play for Edna in the dinner. As Mademoiselle Reisz plays her soft tunes and melodic rhyme Edna feels something she has never felt before and she is completely amazed by the impact the music had on her. "But the very passions themselves were aroused within her soul, swaying it, lashing it, as the waves daily beat upon her splendid body. She trembled, she was choking, and the tears blinded her." Edna in my opinion felt connected to Reisz in a very deep way and could have thought that she shared the same feelings as her, the same despair, and anguish portraying it through her music and making other woman understand the true power of Reisz music. At the end Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna "You are the only one worth playing for. Those others? Bah!" I think Mademoiselle Reisz also felt connected to Edna in some way.

Just before chapter IV ended something caught my eye and that was the following: "The last prelude! Bon Dieu! It shakes a man!" I liked how Chopin expresses Mademoiselle Reisz music as a feeling so powerful an emotive that it could be able to shake a man which is normally thought to be the brave and heroic character in society.

What Is Robert Up To?

In chapter V we learn that Robert is not only a gentleman but also a very deceiving young adult. He leads woman from the Creole group to take him as a guy that will do any favor for them in exchange for what….I don't know, ask Robert maybe he knows why. However it is with Mrs. Pontellier, the lady she picked this summer which he behaves in a different way, he is in a constant pursuit to please her and make her feel comfortable however he fails and Mrs. Pontellier only feels awkward with his presence "During his oblivious attention he once quietly rested his head against Mrs. Pontelliers arm. As gently she repulsed him. Once again he repeated the offense. She could not but believe it to be thoughtlessness on his part; yet that was no reason she should submit to it." (Chopin, 31) I think Robert is a guy that is not very sure of what he wants at it is the only character in the novella that is detailed and does not have a lover. I belief Robert is a mysterious character I the story which I personally feel I cannot identify his true intentions and what is he planning when he devotes in service to the woman in the novella. Apart from the fact that he spends most of his time around woman which in context with the novella is not fairly common he is punished by Mrs. Ratignolle a close friend of Mrs. Pontellier for getting to close to Mrs. Pontellier and warns him she is not the typical woman, which I would have to agree with.

In chapter VI Mrs. Pontellier thinks of going for a swim to the beach and expresses what the ocean brings upon people the feeling of opening up to the unknown, to what people want to achieve and learn, what no other person or woman has ever seen and the chance to redeem or find a new path in life. I think the ocean gives Mrs. Pontellier a sense of achievement and encourages her to be more than what she thinks she is, to exceed what people think of her, and exceed in what she does. I like how Chopin uses the ocean to create a metaphor for live "How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult!" describing it as a hard road that few have the chance to live it the way they'd like to and how many perish in the act of trying. Mrs. Pontellier from my point of view looks at herself as one of those souls that has to fight to emerge from the ocean.

Finally I liked how Mrs. Pontellier opened to her friend in such a way that Chopin gives us an illusion of a day dream, when she is actually talking to Mrs. Ratignolle about her husband and kids and how she really feels about them and the sense of not knowing if she really loves them in a way every mother should love his children. From another aspect I liked how Mrs. Pontellier describes her lives loves and ironically talked about how she ended with the only person she didn't truly love. Mrs. Pontellier without a doubt is a troubled woman but she in the insight has something very wise to tell to the reader and give off a message of what is fighting for what you want in your life, giving yourself the opportunity to strive for better.

Excuse Me Ms.…. Where Could I Find a Perfect Husband?

The Awakening a novella written by Kate Chopin deals with the position of women in American and Creole culture. The book tackles a widely controversial topic: sexuality and women's oppression. As a reader the book itself in a pink and white cover create the illusion of a female novella and bring a great interest to the reader. Right off from the start we meat Mrs. Pontellier, her husband and kids, a wealthy family from New Orleans living in an island for wealthy French settlers.

The setting of the book starts at a beach where Roberts mother owns a hotel for wealthy visitors where Mrs. Pontellier usually goes out for a swim in the ocean at the suns most highest peak where Mr. Pontellier grounds her, "You are burnt beyond recognition, he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered from damage" (Chopin, 15). This quote arouse some interest as I read through the novella thinking in the love the husband has for his wife which she herself later on admits it's a source of relief. However it's a love that takes Mrs. Pontellier for granted and classifies her as an object which only job is to take care of the kids, make dinner, and what they would call a "mother-women" (Chopin, 26). It is hard to see how women's role in society has not changed much from the beginning of human society until contemporary times.

However I can portray Mrs. Pontellier as a woman activist in modern language simply because she is not the typical wife that takes care of her kids and has a big smile on her face the whole day. In the contrary I picture her as a very mature and strong woman that is not happy with the so cold…perfect life (Which many would argue is having a husband like Mr. Pontellier), I mean is the perfect life being taken over the wing of your husband and do anything all day, personally I belief a woman should be able to make her own decisions, work if she wants to, take care of herself, etc. Without being pushed into a general view of what a married woman should do.

We learn that even though there is no real reason for why Mrs. Pontellier to be sad about her marriage, she is in a constant depressive mode "Turning, she thrust her face, steaming and wet, into the bend of her arm, and she went on crying there, not caring any longer to dry her face, her eyes, and her arms. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life."(Chopin, 22). It is evident that Mrs. Pontellier doesn't feel comfortable in her cultural surrounding with the Creoles – as an extended metaphor I think Kate Chopin uses her phrase "she wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before" to restate that Mrs. Pontellier is conflicted with her current life and wishes to swim out into the unknown and taker herself to the limit, pushing for women's role in culture and how vital and important they are.