Feminism and the American Dream

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, in Kate Chopin's novel, "The Awakening," and the movie ,"Thelma and Louis," the characters Edna and Thelma both found themselves in stifling marriages, void of passion and compassion. The author points out that both characters are awakened by another woman to the senses and human spirit. Each then enters into a world of self-discovery, a discovery of the female spirit, to become a woman of maturity and empathy. This paper concludes that achieving the American Dream is often a painful and impossible road to travel. The choice of death was a statement by each woman that she had achieved a slice of happiness, and no one was going to take it away or mar its image and memory.

From the Paper:

"When Edna was painting Madame Ratignalle, Robert rested his head against Edna's arm, and although she gently repulsed him, it unsettled her just a little. A light was "beginning to dawn dimly within her" the light which showing the way, forbids it. "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her" (Chopin 33). As Chopin writes, beginnings of things can be disturbing, "How few of us ever emerge from such beginning" "How many souls perish in its tumult" (Chopin 34)! Edna had a split second glance into another world, a world that responded to her as her-self, human and creative."

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