Awakening Vs. Greenleaf :: essays research papers

A strong critique by existentialist writers of modern gild is the way in which humans live unexamined, meaningless lives with no true concept of what it is to be an unique individuals. In Kate Chopins novel The Awakening and in Flannery OConnors short story Greenleaf the characters Edna and Mrs. May, respectively, begin almost as common, stock characters living unful modify lives. They eventually converge, however, upon an elevated life and death filled with new meaning through their struggle with their role as individuals surrounded by other important beings. Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1948) believed that humankind follows a true evolution of mind and body. This process involves a beginning (komogenese), a rearment (biogenese), and then a peak (noogenese) in which humans reach an Omega maneuver of higher being. Though his ideas were actually applied on a much broader scale of humanity over a large timespan, the theory can be applied to the individuals p rocess of human development. Single humans begin as common clones of one another. From this commonality many examine their lives and develop the things within them that make them uniquely them. This development of the self only can be ended at death when the individual converges upon an Omega Point in which he has an elevated mind of and meaning for life. The characters Edna from The Awakening and Mrs. May from Greenleaf encounter a similar human development in which an individual is formed with an understanding of life. The means by which they achieve this differ greatly. As the novel The Awakening opens, the reader sees Edna Pontellier as one who might seem to be a beaming married woman living a secure, fulfilled life. It is quickly revealed, though, that she is deeply oppressed by a male dominated society, evident through her labor union to Leonce. Edna lives a controlled life in which there is no outlet for her to develop herself as the individual who she is. Her marriage to Leonce was more an act of rebellion from her parents than an act of fuck for Leonce. She cares for him and is fond of him, but had no real love for him. Ednas inability to awaken the person inside her is also shown through her role as a mother-woman. She loves and cares for her children a great deal, but does not fit into the Creole mother-society in which other women baby and over protect their children.