The Awakening By Kate Chopin

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in the end despising reason, and eventually pursuing only their true happiness. After being "reasonable" for the twenty-eight years of her life, Edna breaks down. She wants to pursue love and disregard her duty to her husband and children. She falls in what she considers "girlish" love with the character Robert. She proclaims to him: "I love you . . . only you; no one but you. If was you who awoke me last summer out of a life-long, stupid dream . . .Oh! I have suffered! Now you are here we shall love each other. Nothing else in the world is of any consequence." In keeping with Kant's philosophy, Edna's life has been riddled with reason and duty, essentially giving herself away to the people around her. This devotion to responsibility causes her to break away from her common behavioral pattern and moves her to focus on finding her inherent happiness. Ayn Rand objectivism states that a person should live life by pursuing their abilities and engaging in trade of equal value with ...

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her children superficial items, yet because of her new found "awakening" she can no longer truly serve to provide for their happiness. The only point that she makes clear in that statement is that she would give her life for her children, showing that she loves them but cannot define herself based on creating their happiness. Her awakening evolves into a selfish agenda, concerned only with her own happiness and disregarding all others. "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman." This quote states the simple truth that Edna, by nature, is not a "mother" in the classic sense of the word. She loves her children, though she cannot provide them the same type of nurturing, and care as ...

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