"She felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to look upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality."
Ok, so quickly before I divulge into my opinions of this book, I would just like to say that this isn't really my third book of the summer. I've read like 9 books in between this one and the last one, I just don't feel like writing about them because they are flighty time-passing books. Not that they are bad, they just are surface-y.
So, divulging begins now. This book is about a woman who kind of awakens from her life of dull housewifery and begins to notice her own wants. She begins to recognize herself as an important and separate entity. This is awesome. And I would like to applaud Kate Chopin for writing this book at the time. For the time it was written in, this book was very controversial and very gutsy. So, for the time, I am totally down with this book.
For the present though, not so sure. There are some issues I have, that I won't blame Kate Chopin for, because honestly during the time she wrote this, it was more than enough. However, there are issues all the same. Ok, so Edna Pontellier is the main character who is awakening out of this stupor of a life she has been holding. But, we need to look at her and realize that throughout the novel, she is constantly portrayed as being other-ly. She is not the same as everyone else. Almost as if she is special.
"A casual and indiscriminating observer, in passing, might not cast a second glance upon the figure. But with more feeling and discernment he would have recognized the noble beauty of its modeling, and the graceful severity of poise and movement, which made Edna Pontellier different from the crowd." This is what I'm talking about, not to mention the fact that the watcher is even pointed out as a "he," making it all the obvious that what men think about Edna is important. But back to what I was saying, she is pinned down as special and different. This makes it seem like only some women can claim this feat, that only special women can be awakened. I don't like this so much. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that she was awakened by a male. Edna wasn't able to shake herself out of the lie she was living until she met an ultra-fabulous male. So that blows. I mean by way of this novel, only super special women who meet and fall in love with super special men can be awakened to become their own person. Kind of sad. But again, not really blaming Chopin for this.
Ok, so that bummed me out, because all women have the ability to wake up and recognize themselves. They shouldn't have to be special or have to meet men that inspire them in order to find themselves.
A thing I did like though, was that in the end, she didn't end up with Robert (the guy that inspired her). She was able to live her life by herself, caring about her children and herself. In a way, it is awesome, because in this book, the man has become the tool for creating a better vision of a woman, whereas traditionally women are the ones being used to make men look better. Overall, I did like this book. It was neato. And forgiving the few things I mentioned, it really is a good story about a woman finding herself.
No comments:
Post a Comment