Current debate regarding The Awakening involves a close analysis of Edna’s awakening and its juxtaposition in a society that oppressed women. Although almost all critics celebrate Chopin’s novel as a feminist depiction of a woman’s search for self-expression, some critics do point out the limits of this awakening. Edna’s awakening is so sudden during this one particular summer that critics question the seriousness of such an abrupt change in her view of herself as an individual. Likewise, while Edna breaks free from the constricting roles of wife and mother in 19^th century society, she still views herself in relation to her husband and children, thus limiting her self-ownership as a true individual. My paper will engage in this critical discussion about The Awakening, examining Edna Pontellier’s awakening and its limitations due to her accordance with her society. By first introducing Edna’s 19^th century society, in my paper I will discuss the role of the “mother-woman” and use Edna’s female contemporaries as examples of the esteemed qualities venerated in women of this society, such as Adele Ratignole who sacrifices herself for her children. After contrasting Edna’s unique individualism with Chopin’s other female characters, I will then present key readings of Edna’s awakening from Per Seyersted versus critics Michael Gilmore and Percival Pollard who call attention to her awakening’s shortcomings. While Seyersted compares Chopin to other American realists to reveal her fearless depiction of women’s quest for self-fulfillment, Gilmore and Pollard take a critical eye to The Awakening and exemplify Edna’s adherence to her society’s values even during her search for individuality. I will then extend Gilmore and Pollards argument regarding the limitations of Edna’s awakening, illustrating that Chopin’s modernism is conflicting because it blends elements that go against and at the same time support the ideology of Edna’s culture, thus leaving Edna with overwhelming loneliness instead of blissful freedom. In my research paper I will contend that although Chopin’s depiction of Edna’s awakening does capture her quest for individuality in a constricting society that oppresses women, Edna’s quest is ultimately unfulfilled because she never truly breaks free from the conforms of this society.

There were a few really frustrating moments during the semester. One aspect of the course that frustrated me was the body paragraph. Although I started it a week and a half early, spent a good deal of time (worked on it every day), and dedicated attention to detail and thought, I *still* had a difficult time preparing what Dr. Seaman asked for. I then tried to write the paragraph before it, and write the one after, even worked on transitions; and then   discussed my process with her in an effort to iron out my “issue.” I just couldn’t grasp how to convey my argument before I had undergone the process of organizing a “paper’s worth of thoughts and organization”. I have a special appreciation now for the actual process of writing a paper, and how I develop my argument as I write and revise.

At the end of the day, I am still frustrated. One aspect of education is that sometimes you do your best, utilize all the tools at your disposal, and ask for help from those that are willing to give it–and still not achieve what someone may ask you to accomplish. I used to think the measure of a students’ worth was their grade point average, and the way they perform on exams. I do not believe this any more. We do not all learn the same things, in the same way, as everyone else. We are all different. We all pay attention to different details in class, struggles with different concepts, view the class discussion differently, and hold a different attitude or life experience than someone else. I can see this in relation to our discussion of things that are thought of as inherent, or “natural”. Our experience in college is different from each person around us. We encounter vastly different issues, have different strengths, weaknesses, and passions. Some people are satisfied with passing grades, and then some of us are not satisfied with B’s. Instead of trying to fit into a mold created by someone else, we should make use of and utilize all the tools that are available to us. Take what you deem valuable, leave what you do not. Conforming to what people expect of you, if it’s not in line with your ideals, will leave you an unhappy and unfulfilled person.

The point I am trying to make is that College is a system too. It has been socially and culturally constructed, and we are being taught what those in authority deem important. I am not challenging this structure necessarily, but I am considering or opening up a new path to education. I am not saying we do not need college, or that we are robots, or anything dramatic like that. I am certainly not saying not to do your best and just make C’s to barely get by. I am saying that it’s important to be aware that our society places value upon GPA, and test scores, and may not value learning methods that are considered “unconventional”. If we want to think outside of the canon, and outside of race, gender, sexuality, authority, and everything else we have discussed this semester, then it stands to reason that we should also analyze the system that we call an American education. How we are taught, what we are taught, what we want to achieve, how we see the world in relation to our education, how much we pay for it, how much our government is paying for it, how are grades are calculated, and what occupational opportunities are opened to us as a result. The list goes on.

Take charge every day. Don’t be a bystander in your education. The internet has opened up many resources, and they are free. You don’t have to spend money or be hampered by grades or percentages that can distract us from having fun with learning. Take just a few minutes everyday to pursue something that interests you, or that you delight in. Enjoy learning! The best things in life are learned outside of a book.

Okay, it’s time to get back to finals. Bottom line: question every system, and then question it again. Keep asking questions. Always.

            Louisa May Alcott’s 1868 sentimental novel Little Women presents an illustration of everyday life for the domestic family during the nineteenth century.  Through the experiences of the girls from the March family, Alcott mirrors her own struggles, as well as those of other women of her time, to remain “proper” by suppressing emotions such as anger, resentment, and envy.  Many critical approaches to this novel revolve around this idea of self-suppression and Alcott’s use of an autobiographical main character to portray her own lost identity.  One prominent critical method places Little Women in discussion with other narratives written by women at this time, demonstrating writing and their stories as an escape from the binding nature of their culture.  In relation is another critical approach that discusses the ways that sentimental novels from the mid-nineteenth century promote female characters’ positive emotional responses as antidotes to the cruelty of the outside world.  Through her creation of protagonist and autobiographical character Jo March, an angry misfit who channels this through her writing, Alcott demonstrates the idea of writing as an outlet for the control that women so lack in society.

Much critical attention focuses on the depiction of the “domestic ideal” within the novel, focusing on the relationships within the March family. Each of the four girls- Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy- all are unique in their own way and each represent a different issues faced women in a class distinctive society.  Meg and Amy both seem to struggle with presenting themselves as proper and attractive while having very little money.  Jo seems to be more interested in being able to express herself and struggles with the idea that it is not suitable for her to do so.  The backbone of all of the girls’ strength to face these issues lies with their mother, whom they refer to as Marmee.  Marmee, much like Alcott herself, both encompasses and contradicts the domestic ideal by teaching the girls ways in which to suppress their anger, yet encouraging them to spread their wings in other ways that were generally frowned upon by society, such as work.  My paper will contribute to this critical discussion about the novel’s concerns about self-suppression and the domestic ideal, as well as the irony between this and Louisa May Alcott’s personal triumphs.  I will begin by discussing the concept of the domestic ideal and Louisa May Alcott’s important tie to it through her family history and personal successes.  Then I will present three important readings from Janis Dawson, Stephanie Foote, and Patricia Meyer Spacks to further illustrate the critical conversation of repression in Little Women.  While Foote discusses the home as a testing ground for the pressures of the outside world, Spacks furthers this discussion with the inclusion of writing as an outlet as well.  Dawson’s work illustrates that the concept of the domestic ideal was the source of Alcott’s fame.  By putting these critics in conversation with one another and also discussing aspects of Alcott’s own life in between, I will demonstrate how the concept that Alcott is known for actually goes against what she did in her own life and demonstrated through the words a well as the silences from the characters within her novel.

Tennessee Williams: The Real and Written

            Tennessee Williams, most notably known for plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie, has long been close to the hearts of many.   For some, it is his ability to bring together almost polar opposite personalities in a situation or struggle that pits the single person against a whole world of people, opinions and actions that makes William’s work most fascinating.   For others, the signature element often drawing the most fascination from his fans is the way William’s reflects his personal life in the characters, setting and plots of his works.   It is these relationships, and their nature, between his life experiences and the characters, settings and plots in his works that this research project aims to examine.

The concept of a writer’s life experiences having a tremendous and direct impact on their works is not “far-fetched” by any means.   In fact, some would consider it somewhat of a pre-requisite to authorship.  However, by taking the research a step further and examining a time line of life events and experiences as they correlate to a timeline of William’s work, we are able to look at what kinds of relationships are formed between William’s and his characters, settings and plots.

William’s initial influence, as outlined in Haake’s article, is rooted in his childhood.   His mother was a preacher’s daughter who also bore the title of southern belle.   His father, a sales man, was not described as being the warmest of persons.   His father would cause dramatic upset and instability to the family when he relocates the family to a Midwestern urban environment for work in a shoe factory.   William’s mother never adapted to the change and became distant and detached.  His sister suffered the worst, being forced by her parents to undergo a lobotomy that rendered her permanently mentally disabled.   The relationships between Williams and all of these family members, Haake argues, can be evidenced in the interactions of characters in his works.   Haake argues the “southern belle” qualities that are the essence of Blanche along with her inability to effectively communicate with anyone other than her own imagined characters is representative of William’s mother and characterizes her own detachment from her family following their move.

His father’s insensitivity to others, which is described in an article by Nancy Tischler, is represented in the character Stanley, whose lines “Stella! Stella!” became synonymous with the work.  Stanley’s plight is that of a self centered male chauvinist whose constant degrading of women and insistence to drink, smoke and gamble is viewed as distasteful to the southern belle Blanche, who is representative of William’s mother.  This interaction is argued by both Haake and Tischler to be representative of the relationship between William’s parents as he experienced it.

I plan to use articles, such as those of Haake and Tischler, to provide a background of the people of importance to Williams and those who constitute his sphere of influence.  These articles are selected by their content, as many articles are based upon letters of correspondence between William’s and his family and friends.   To provide a timeline of his works, their productions, successes and failures, I plan to use articles such as Keith’s article which outlines the greater and lesser known works of Williams.  Additionally, articles by Haake, Lux and Keith provide connections between the characters, settings and plots of William’s works and their counterparts in William’s real life.

Most of the critical analysis of these two stories focuses on their connection as part of a cycle focused on different stages of spiritual purification. This idea was championed by critics such as Warren French and James Lundquist. In “Bananafish,” Seymour Glass is alienated. His mother-in-law believes he is crazy; his wife is more concerned with material possessions than his safety, and they both talk about Seymour as if he is a child. Seymour is disgusted by the materialism of those who surround him, especially his wife, who allows him to wander around while she does her nails and hair, although the text implies that he has recently attempted suicide and talked extensively about death. Seymour is attached to materialism through his obligation to his wife, and is unable to progress spiritually. Like the “bananafish,” he is stuck in a hole and does not see the way out. By killing himself, he is restarting the struggle for nirvana, through the eastern principle of reincarnation. Sergeant X sits in Germany at the end of World War II with little faith left in humanity. His family sends him letters requesting material mementos of his pain. He no longer cares for his own well being, and is surrounded by fellow soldiers who do not seem to comprehend his misery. He is lifted from this darkness, however, by a letter and gift from young girl he had met just before battle. She had suffered an arguably greater loss than Sergeant X, but she cared enough to wish him well. Instead of asking him for something, she sends him her late father’s watch. Sergeant X and Esmé both live very much in a material world, able to endure its squalor through a spiritual love or compassion for each other.

My paper will expand on the presence of eastern religion in, and the parallels between these stories. I will begin the paper with a brief description of concepts common to Zen Buddhism and Hinduism and provide textual evidence of the influence of these concepts within the works. I will expand on Warren French’s interpretations of the stories as part of a cycle by analyzing the similarities and differences between “Bananafish” and “For Esmé,” highlighting the significance of the differences in the stories in defining their meaning and relationship to each other. To support the importance of the differences in interpreting the relationship between these stories, I will further explore them in the context of Lundquist’s assertion that each story represents a “koan,” or zen proverb. While both stories have different koans, I will demonstrate that the stories’ koans are also related to each other. My argument will support the idea of the stories as interconnected and based on Eastern religion, but I will support these ideas with a new textual evidence and a new focus on the structural similarities and differences between the stories.

Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 modernist novel The Sun Also Rises takes place within a circle of the American Expatriate scene in Paris and abroad, and is the text of the Lost Generation.  At the center is a man named Jake Barnes, the novel’s narrator and protagonist.  Through him we are given the dead-end of the Great War, in which he was emasculated by a wound.  Jake is thus hindered from forging any intimate relationship with the Lady that he loves, Lady Brett Ashley.  Matts Djos notes that the characters have an inability to connect with one another and that they stay conversant of the surface of things, and this, he argues, is brought on by their drinking.  He reads the characters’ behaviors as paralleling and being products of the numbing state of alcoholism, showing such things as Jake’s inward self-pity as a problematic state of alcoholics as evident in A.A. literature.  Jake then is ultimately supplying and feeding his own impotency and dooming himself into a state where he actually just believes himself disabled of being able to forge any intimate relationship with Brett, with his inner eye focused solely on his inability to literally penetrate a connection, and this being the be-all end-all.  Such a focus would make a fellow feel insecure about his masculinity.  In covering up this inability to pay, Jake’s economy becomes the makeup of his values.  He pays for and buys his masculinity—like when he leaves a club in Paris one night with Brett and leaves Georgette, a prostitute, behind, leaving her money with the house to be collected upon her finding of his departure.  Jake Barnes thus buys his masculinity and saves his self from being jeopardized by any confrontation with his inability to perform.  It is ultimately, then, this economy, birthed from his insecurity which is influenced by his idea of intimacy’s focus, that disconnects him in his values.

Jake prefers France because he can buy people’s likings there—he can tip a waiter, a taxi driver, etc.  What Jake fails to recognize is that such a value system has no depth, and this is a great theme for the iceberg-ing Hemingway to work with when showing the surface-ity and lostness of a time that is itself emasculated, after the Great War.  I wish to argue, then, that Jake Barnes’ surface economy is Hemingway’s invention to show the prohibition-dodging era’s focus on the broken-end aspect of the finality of the war, and how the war’s causalities and end, through such a haze, could, like the cause of that very lostness that Jake feels when he is at loss for Brett, alone in his room and isolated away, isolate an expatriate in a foreign land, with no belief in a way to commit intimacy with the Motherland, and with this debilitating hindering of the internal being influenced by externally drinking and wandering.  Thus, the drinking and wandering is not a coping, but a cause.

            J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel Peter Pan has garnered a reputation of being a beloved and classic children’s tale. However, the subject of adversity to the adult world may not be exactly be rooted in total childlike innocence. The characters exhibit signs of deeper psychological issues of which they might not even be aware on the conscious level. John Griffith’s critical approach finds Peter’s relationships and encounters to be quite interesting. He addresses the topic of mothers and Peter’s desire to be without one but also his desire to have one so that she may tend to him at all times. This also touches on its relation to any oedipal desires. Griffith states that, by bringing girls to Neverland to play his mother/wife instead of women, this frees Peter from feeling what he does not wish to feel. Griffith also says that Peter’s relationship with Hook is like a father-son tie, except the two are competing with each other for the motherly attention of Wendy. By killing Hook, Peter has symbolically murdered his own father-figure whom he saw as a threat.

Another critical approach taken is that of Ralph Hallman. Hallman takes the stance of how Peter represents the archetype of the Eternal Child. He draws his argument mainly from psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theories of archetypes. He states that abandonment, invincibility, hermaphroditism, and potentiality are the four components to the archetype. Peter’s abandonment from his mother allows for freedom to develop in whichever way he so chooses, which would be to remain infantile and a youth. Invincibility allows for Peter to be able to defeat Hook, but on the condition that Peter must remain a child and in a womb-like state, since he identifies his mother as his source of invincibility. The hermaphroditism relates to remaining in a childlike state, remaining in the womb. This desire calls for a surrender of identity, of gender, of anything distinguishing. Finally, the potentiality constitutes being, essentially, reborn. The flight of the child into Neverland symbolizes death, but return may stand for their rebirth into a life of potential and “self-fulfillment” (Hallman 70).

I will begin my paper by introducing a snippet of Barrie’s background and how certain events in his life shaped the characters and events in Peter Pan. Next, I will introduce Griffith’s reading as a jumping-off point for a discussion of the Oedipus complex, father-son rivalries and their symbolic nature, as well as Peter’s hatred for adults, adulthood, and maturation. I will then bring in Hallman’s reading to discuss, more in-depth, the Eternal Child archetype and how Peter is a prime example of such. I will argue that Peter Pan exhibits real-life psychological issues that affect and plague the human mind and psyche in regards to a longing for youth, an aversion to maturation, and an aversion to our ultimate fate.

Ayn Rand’s 1943 novel The Fountainhead is a narrative about a young architect named Roark who faces societal opposition to his innovational, or non-traditional, approach to architectural design. The novel depicts Roark’s journey from design school to the establishment of his career, revealing a struggle between his radical architectural ideals and a society deeply invested in both classical architecture and intolerance of Individualism. The theory of Individualism places value upon the individual, as opposed to the communal society or the “masses”. In the novel, the masses value conventional modes of art, such as classical Greek and Latin architectural forms; as Roark’s architectural ideals contrast sharply with those of society, he is at odds with the architects and artistic critics of his time. One critic of his architectural design in the narrative is Dominique, the female protagonist and his love interest in the novel. The characterization and ideals of Dominique exhibited in The Fountainhead reveals that she obscures the fact that her ideals align with those demonstrated by Roark.

Several analytical approaches to the novel examine the conflicted ideals of Dominique within the narrative. One critical approach interprets Dominique’s sarcastic demeanor in the novel as her attempt to underscore the insignificance of the people she chooses to ridicule. Her purpose in ridiculing Roark, among others, is to try to weaken his dedication and resolve of his ideals—both his architectural ideals and his life ideals. It is these same beliefs that Dominique holds secretly. She is at odds with Roark when she attempts to “save” him from inevitable disappointment; she attempts to break down and weaken his devotion to the ideals she believes cannot be realized—because (she believes) the world does not support the successes of humankind. She tries to save him from the disappointment by hastening his failure and thus save him from the prolonged pain of failure she assumes he will experience. Her prediction that his ideals will not be realized because the world is not naturally conducive to his success is called the “malevolent universe premise”. The integration of this premise, exhibited by Dominique’s actions and demeanor, is another critical approach to the novel. I would like to use these two critics to explore the confliction between Dominique and Roark.

I will use both of these critics’ arguments to support one another, and present a reading of the novel that reveals Dominique’s true ideals and character despite the external exhibition of frustration with her ideals. From the critical approaches described previously, I would like to use the approach that suggests that the sarcasm exhibited by Dominique is evidence of her confliction with Roark; it would support the second critics’ claim that Dominique is indeed at odds with Roark in the novel, and that she is combating her own confliction of ideals by targeting Roark with her sarcasm. I would like to then examine the ideals exhibited by Roark in order to derive the ideals that Dominique is not demonstrating her own belief in; by understanding Roark better, I can better understand the ideals that Dominique herself values. The confliction between Roark and Dominique, and her struggle with his ideals is the plot construction that creates a “problem” that the female protagonist must solve in order to achieve self-discovery of her own ideals. When Dominique realizes that Roark is not going to “fail”, she embraces her own repressed ideals that mirror those of Roark. In the end, she realizes her ideals are the same as those held by Roark, and the discovery is the solution to the “problem” the plot creates for her.

            Kate Chopin’s Edna Pontellier in The Awakening created uproar in
contemporary times due to her neglect of socially constructed roles and
ultimate suicide at the end of the novel.
Edna’s seeming abandonment of her duties as a mother and a wife to
pursue love interests and other creative desires as an independent woman
conflicted with the standards for women during the late 19^th and
early 20^th century.  Her
suicide was not only deemed immoral by the religiously-driven notions at the
time but continues to be questioned today; more so, critics question what drove
Edna to suicide?  A popular opinion is
that Edna could not find an identity and this lack of purpose or certainty of self
leads to the ultimate abandonment, that of life.  However, there is a clear defense that Edna
knew exactly who she was as a person and was unwilling to sacrifice any part of
her identity in order to fit a niche dictated to her by a patriarchal society.  I think that one can delve further into this
subject to say that this failure to find a suitable place in society where she
could truly be herself confounded with her inability to fraternize with other
women, which could have potentially aided in creating such a place within
society, were what drove her to her assumed suicide.  Edna could not escape the confines of her
world, such as her role as a mother, nor could she create a new woman’s role
due to her failure to bond with other women.

Heuston and Ramos’ critiques of
Edna’s inability to commit to an identity represent a large majority of
interpretations, but ones that I disagree with.
Elz and Church offer an opposite viewpoint, arguing that Edna has
committed to an identity and is quite inflexible to adapt said identity.  Church uses the example of the woman in black
who must stifle her sexual identity parallel with Mademoiselle Reisz who also
chooses creativity over sexuality as examples of roles outside of the
mother-role Edna could choose but denies because she does not want to deny any
of her wants or desires.  In this way,
Edna is quite sure of who she is as an individual and where she wants to be in
society.  Gray discusses Edna’s failure
to fully detach herself from the mother-role as Edna has already had children
and feels a duty to them by their existence.
Edna cannot identify herself as a mother but still feels chained to said
identity.  However, it is her inability
to fraternize with other woman that keeps her from bringing about this change.  Throughout the novel, Edna cannot bond with
any of the women in her life, even though they seem empathetic to her, such as
Madame Ratignolle, which is discussed more in depth by Streater.  Clark makes for the most convincing theory on
Edna’s suicide with this point; if Edna had been able to convey her wants and
desires or fully proposition her identity, then it could have provided grounds
for social change.  The “New woman” Clark
refers to, or in more modern terms a feminist woman, can only be facilitated in
numbers by extending her thoughts to other women.  In order to establish change you must
generate a movement outside of your separate self; you cannot alter society
without engaging it.  This is where Edna
failed and this is what led to her suicide.

The interpretations these critics give vary greatly but it is widely accepted that the adventure within the book is Caulfield’s reaction to the “real world,” in other words, the world of adults. Holden Caulfield is unable to come to terms with the world of adults, that much is certain, but how he approaches the problem is disagreed upon. The two most prominent critical interpretations see Caulfield as either an idealist or a person whose inability to come to terms with reality has left him emotionally unstable.  The idealist approach sees Caulfield as the underdog who wants to protect those who have yet to be tainted by the dark world of adults. The proof of this desire lies within his sister Phoebe, who he dotes on through the entire book. Critics also point out the naivety of Caulfield, as evidenced in his ignorance of sex and his focus on the ducks in the pond. The other spectrum of critics take a psychoanalytical approach towards discovering the character of Holden Caulfield. These critics focus on Holden’s word choice and in it they see negative stress. Holden’s negativity is suicidal at points, which leads to the conclusion of him having a deteriorating mind state that some have interpreted to be sexual repression towards men or even his sister Phoebe. Interestingly enough these two conflicting approaches focus on the same passages from the book, but draw different conclusions about Holden’s character by emphasizing different words and phrases.

My paper will further explore these two interpretations with intentions to find the similarities and differences between them. By highlighting these similarities I hope to find insight into Holden’s adventure through New York City, and how his character changes throughout his trip. In the beginning he criticizes human nature, but at the same time feels sorry for the people he criticizes. He confronts the world, but then tries to run away from it only to stay in the end through a revelation he earns watching his sister on the carousal. While some see his reactions as an idealism that is almost religious and others as a mental breakdown of sorts, I will argue that the novel is a mixture of the two. I will magnify the similarities between the arguments, and stress that Caulfield is an adolescent who is struggling to find his way in the world, and he does so through a mixture of approaches, rather than one identifiable interpretation.