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.