Welcome Women's Literature!
Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a novel written during a time of great change in 1899. During this time the Civil War has been over for over 30 years, the Industrial Revolution was winding down and women voices were rising up. America was changing and "Upper-class white women were attending college in record numbers, entering professions barred to them and beginning to reap the benefits of improved medical care and dress reform". These women were also organizing themselves into social, political, intellectual and philanthropic organizations. Lower-class women were also organizing and fighting for better working conditions and all women of all walks were fighting for the right to vote. Twenty years later the 19 Amendment would allow all women that right.
Chopin took advantage of the quickly changing times and wrote a novel that was considered by many at that time to be immoral and very risky content for the southern mind. Although always considered a very gifted writer the harsh criticism did not deter Chopin from writing other great novels. Chopin, although not considered to be an activist feminist, uses female heroin to convey the truth, as seen through her eyes.
In the following weeks we will look at Chopin not only as a writer but also a questioner of life, love, freedom, independence and everything else in between! We will be questioning her points of view along with our own points of view and how we come to believe what we believe.
