Thursday, March 26, 2020

Compare The Awakening To Madame Bovary Essays - The Awakening

Compare The Awakening to Madame Bovary Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary are both tales of women indignant with their domestic situations; the distinct differences between the two books can be found in the authors' unique tones. Both authors weave similar themes into their writings such as, the escape from the monotony of domestic life, dissatisfaction with marital expectations and suicide. References to "fate" abound throughout both works. In The Awakening, Chopin uses fate to represent the expectations of Edna Pontellier's aristocratic society. Flaubert uses "fate" to portray his characters' compulsive methods of dealing with their guilt and rejecting of personal accountability. Both authors, however seem to believe that it is fate that oppresses these women; their creators view them subjectively, as if they were products of their respective environments. Chopin portrays Edna as an object, and she receives only the same respect as a possession. Edna's husband sees her as and looks, "...at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage." (P 2 : The Awakening) Chopin foils their marriage in that of the Ratignolles who, "...understood each other perfectly." She makes the classic mistake of comparing one's insides with others' outsides when she thinks, "If ever the fusion of two human begins into one has been accomplished on this sphere it was surely in their union." (P 56 : The Awakening) This sets the stage for her unhappiness, providing a point of contrast for her despondent marriage to Mr. Pontellier. She blames their marriage for their unhappiness declaring that, "...a wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth." (P 66 : The Awakening) She sees their lifetime pledge to fidelity and love as merely a social trap; the same forces that bind them oppress her. Simultaneously, Mademoiselle Reisz, who "...sent a keen tremor down Mrs. Pontellier's spinal column..." which perhaps is the tremor that marks the beginning of Edna's self discovery. "A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her, - the light which, showing the way, forbids it." (P 13 : The Awakening) As she explores her world, other men, swimming, and her other romantic pursuits, she experiences her epiphany; she finds that the world has much to offer and kills herself in the lamentation of that which she cannot truly have. Edna finds herself filled with "An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness...She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken." (P 6 : The Awakening) Edna takes an active part in finding happiness within her world. She pursues her swimming and other men in the interest of ending the monotony she lives with as a result of her being confined into her aristocratic society. Emma Bovary, being both protagonist and antagonist, by contrast experiences her epiphany solely at death. She takes the arsenic when she realizes all that she will not get from what she already has. Her light of discovery is found only in the darkness of her death. She laments not what she does not possess, but what happiness her world does not give her. Hers is a story of spiritual emptiness and foolish idealism. "...Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in life by the words bliss, passion, ecstasy, that had seemed to her so beautiful in books." (P 24 : Madame Bovary) She searches for that which is found in the fantasy world of books in her own world and falls short of her expectations. Charles, her husband, she takes for granted as "She would have done so to the logs in the fireplace or to the pendulum of the clock." (P 44 : Madame Bovary) Flaubert allows her to see Charles as an object just as Mr. Pontellier sees his wife as an object. Although the characters are of the op posite sex, leaving both of the women displeased with their men, and moreover, their lives. Edna and Emma both use people (Emma is also used herself) when needed, and are discarded when they have outlived their usefulness: "Charles was someone to talk to, an ever-open ear, an

Friday, March 6, 2020

the declining significance of essays

the declining significance of essays The Declining Significance of Marriage: Changing Family Life in the United States This paper reviews the roles of divorce, nonmarital childbearing, and cohabitation in the changing family contexts of children, and then provides new estimates of current family composition which incorporate cohabitation. The underlying process is viewed in terms of the declining significance of marriage linked to long-term trends in individuation. Half of all children in the U.S. will spend some time in a single-parent family, and nonmarital childbearing is an important factor creating these families. At the same time, increased cohabitation requires that family definitions based on marital status be replaced with those that include cohabitation. A sixth of traditionally defined mother-only families are cohabiting two-parent families, and the one-fourth of current stepfamilies that are missed by marriage-based definitions. 1. The research question was what were both the dynamics and consequences of changing family transitions, and do we understand them? 2. The purpose of the research was to review the roles of divorce, nonmarital childbearing, and cohabitation in family contexts of children, and provides new estimates of current family composition that incorporate cohabitation. 3. There was no review of the literature. 4. Aversion to long term commitments, a process with clear implications for marriage, cohabitation, childbearing, parenting, and the stability of families is a process that has occurred more among men more that women. The variables were childs Age, race and ethnicity, mothers education, and mothers family at age 15 were the variables. 5. The type of research design picked was correlation. The method of data collection was survey. 6. The Black, white, and Mexican-American population were under observation. Two-parent and one-parent families out of each race were samp ...