Awakening to Freedom Essay -- essays papers

Awakening to Freedom Awakening or to awake means â€Å"to wake up; to be or make alert or watchful† (Webster 23). This is what Edna Pontellier experienced in The Awakening. There has been some discussion over the appropriateness of the ending to this story. Was it appropriate for Edna to commit suicide? Yes, this story of Edna Pontellier, including the ending, is appropriate to what a woman probably would have felt like if she were in that time feeling what Edna was feeling. Edna committed suicide because there was no other way out. She did not fit into society. Her thoughts and emotions were not the same as the thoughts and emotions of the other women of this time. Edna committed suicide so that she could be reborn in a time that she would be excepted as she was. Edna was ahead of her time. She wanted a life for herself. She didn’t want her husband or her children to establish it for her. â€Å"I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself† (Chopin 573). This is not something that a w...