Rocking The Boat
Throughout history individuals have been plagued with decisions in which they must choose to act in their best interest or act as a martyr, dedicating their lives to the best interests of others. While these choices may seem irrational, selfish, and poorly contemplated from the outside, on the inside there are simply no other options. Paradoxically, the protagonists in both Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Charles Frazier’s Cold Mountain sacrifice what is precious to them to preserve their emotional and spiritual survival.
Chopin’s Edna Pontillier forfeits a comfortable role and style of life in order to maintain her emotional integrity and independence. Set in the late Victorian ...
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idolizes her children and worships her husband. "In short, Mrs. Pontillier was not a mother-woman. This mother-woman seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any harm, real or imaginary, threatened their precious broad. They were woman who idolized their children, worshiped their husbands, and esteemed it a holy privilege to efface themselves as individuals and grow wings as ministering angels." (Chopin, 8) Furthermore proving her independence and self-reliance, many parallelisms are drawn between Edna and the language spoken by Mrs. Lebrun’s parrot. It is "language which nobody understood." (Chopin 1) Edna’s constant struggle with dissatisfaction with the social constraints of womanhood led her to a raging internal conflict. Regarded as a possession in her marriage with Leonce, Edna seeks freedom, and searches to pursue it in relationships with other men. One of these ...
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recognition as an independent individual. In the end, Edna’s freedom takes place in death. The social conventions demanded of her were not worthy of taking away her individual existence.
Likewise both Inman and Ada Monroe, in Frazier’s book, will relinquish the roles that are expected of them to achieve their ideals. Set in the Civil War Era, society, in the days of Inman and Ada Monroe, many stereotypes and societal standards were pressured upon people. As a woman, Ada Monroe is envisioned as a prim and proper Southern woman. Even Inman states that he envisions how she should look. "Ada would step out the door onto the porch without knowing he was coming, just going about ...
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"Rocking The Boat." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 6 Feb. 2007. Web. 25 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Rocking-The-Boat/59910>
"Rocking The Boat." Essayworld.com. February 6, 2007. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Rocking-The-Boat/59910.
"Rocking The Boat." Essayworld.com. February 6, 2007. Accessed April 25, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Rocking-The-Boat/59910.
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