ENG2200: American Literature I Fall 2014
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ABSTRACT
What I’m presenting is what have been put to the side for many centuries. For centuries females were discriminated by they own gender, Race, were treated badly, and weren’t given equal rights as the male gender. Many females had to follow rules and regulations of their father, husband, government which band them from their own freedom as a human being. There have been many sources that discuss this problem, but only two sources that really stuck with me which were; “The Awakening” by Chopin’s & “ The House Behind The Cedar’s” By Chesnutt. These two books were band for many years from all shelves just, because it shown female’s rebelling against their husband’s, and the society that was brought upon to all women all over the world. I’m going to tell you now, if you are a women, this is really going to touch you and give you something to really think about concerning relationships, marriage, and society. – Dequan Frederick
Proofread. How does your position regarding the characters and authors work considering the ways the novels end? Adjust the language to “I will…,” “this research will…” What is the ultimate conclusion you want the reader to process?
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” – Mary Wollstonecraft. Throughout history many women was treated badly in every country, state, government, and communities. Women all over the world had limited rights and privileges that had to be followed. Base on what society was saying, “Being American” for women was to; be a at home mom, taking care the house, the kids, preparing the food, and catering to their husband. Many didn’t have the courage, and the voice to say how they really felt about this until the women Feminism movement was brought about in the late 1960’s-1970. These movements consist of issues concerning the women reproductive rights (abortions), domestic violence, maternity leave, and equal pay wages, women’s suffrage, and sexual harassment, and sexual harassment, sexual violence.
They fought to make sure that all political, social, and economic rights were equal towards all men. There have been books & stories that have been made that started many female movements occurring today. Two stood out to me that shown great examples on how females were portrayed and treated back in the American society of the 20th century. Not only being a female was treated wrong, but also being a black female was even worst. The two books are; The Awakening by: Kate Chopin’s & The House behind the Cedars by: Charles W. Chesnutt. These two books were band off all shelves for many years, causing the masses to turn their backs on the authors. There wasn’t any source before that talked about females getting they own independents and going against the standards of society.
We live in a society today that follow everything that the media portrays on how to live, how to dress, how to look, how to act, But in this case of Edna we are going to see the way she breaks out of what society wants from her. As women, a mother, and a wife, Edna had an Awakening. In the Awakening, the setting starts in the late 1800’s in grand isle, which is a summer holiday resort that very popular wealthy people go. Edna is the main character of this book which she was vacationing with her husband, Leonce and their two sons at the Cottages of Madame Lebrun, where they were staying at. Edna came across a young man name Robert Lebrun the son of Madame Lebrun.
He is known for being the attendant to married women just for the summer, help her out with everything & make sure she’s safe from harm. Edna and Robert spend their nights by the shore talking about things, they relationship in the beginning starts off very innocent. As the summer continued they started to grow closer, Robert being Robert his affections and attention opened up Edna a little. She started to feel more alive about herself and even started painting again like she did when she was very young. One night she decided to face her fears to swim out into the shore, there she had her awakening of her own independence and her own sexuality.
Sooner or later Edna and Robert had open up to each other on how they love each other. Every time she spends he time with her husband she feels very depress and sad, but when she’s alone or with Robert she feel very joyful and free. This shows that after her awakening she really started to feel more free about herself and by that she learned what she really want in her life. Robert and the night she swim out into the shore were her awakenings, she really loves Robert and Robert really loved her. The relationship between the two became very serious to the point that Robert left Grand Isle to go back home to avoid any problems from his forbidden love.
Once Edna went back home to her New Orleans as a changed woman, she began to pursue her painting career and started to ignore her social responsibilities which were being a mother to her two sons, and a wife to her husband. By seeing this major change within his own wife, Leonce went to go find answers on why his wife is acting different towards him and his children. He went to go see Dr. Mandelet which is the family physician was describing as a: very wise and enlighten man. Dr. Mandelet said to Leonce to let her Edna do her, because if he tries to stop her it’s just going to add more fuel to her to leave for good, just to cover the fact that he suspected Edna is seeing someone else so he just said that so that Leonce won’t know the truth. So Leonce let Edna home alone while he went on a business trip and while the kids were away. “She was free in her wildness. She was a wanderers, a drop of free water. She belonged to no man and to no city” – Roman Payne. During this time Edna decided to move into a home of her own and finally makes her independence from her former lifestyle as being a mother and wife to her two sons and husband. When she moved she met a town seducer which was a very popular man name Arobin. They became close, but not emotionally close only sexual. Edna at this point isn’t retain by any male figure but is still in love with Robert, but just uses Arobin to satisfy her sexual needs.
At this point Edna started a good relationship with Mademoiselle Reisz, She was the most influential person to Edna awakening. She’s an elderly woman that’s not married and has no kids. She’s very dedicated to her passion which is a pianist, music. Mademoiselle to Edna is view as an Independent and free women, by being around Mademoiselle and learning from her this really put the icing to the cake of Edna Independence.
She gave Edna great advice stating that “She must be brave if she wishes to be an artist, that artist must have a courageous and defiant soul.” – What Mademoiselle stated was very similar to what Ralph Emerson once said “There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature and none but he knows what that is not which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” – Emerson. It related to what Mademoiselle told Edna because Mademoiselle is basically telling her she has to be very passion of her own art work, and shouldn’t care what society says about it only her own opinion matters. Mademoiselle is the only person that really knows about Edna & Robert love for each other and also tells Edna to open up and express her feelings more. Mademoiselle encouraged Edna to be more freely with her emotions and encourage being more self-reliance about her work/self. The night she swim out into the sea this was her first moments of emotional, sexual, and intellectual awakening, now what Mademoiselle told her opened her up even more.
Soon or later Robert returns back to New Orleans and finally express his feelings to Edna. He tells her that he can’t be with her, because he would be committing adultery do to the fact that she’s still a married woman. “You have been a very, very foolish boy, wasting your time dreaming of impossible things when you speak of Mr. Pontellier setting me free! I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier’s possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose. If he were to say, ‘Here, Robert, take her and be happy; she is yours,’ I should laugh at you both” – Edna. Edna was telling Robert basically she is free from all of the possessions that the society tries to tie her down too, He still was in denial about making that decision with her. As you can see Edna was still trapped into society that she couldn’t escape. She moved out, got her own place, was sexual active with another man, pursed her art career, still society had a way to sneaks up on her. Edna left her home with Robert there and came back to Robert gone with a farewell note stating that he can’t be with her. At this point this was the last but devastating awakening Edna ever experience. Even when Edna had the power to leave the ties of the society, she was still stuck in it because Robert didn’t want to violate the rules of marriage. After this happen Edna sees herself alone in the world, and feels that she doesn’t belong here. So she went back to where she first got her first awakening which was at the Grand Isle shore to give herself to the sea because that’s where she feel that’s the only way she can escape society to gain her own freedom from everyone. Edna felt that she didn’t belong to this world and society, because even when she tries to escape the standards of society it still followed her. This is why Kate Chopin genius was taking from all libraries, because it shown a female knowing her own worth, and finding her own independence. At this time, a “female being independent” Wasn’t even a statement to begin with. “The Awakening” was made around a time when many females didn’t have any rights or privileges for themselves men was the dominant sex back then.
Chopin art work destroyed her career badly just like the character Edna in the book; the society turned their backs on her. I believe Emerson sparked a fire within many artists to push the self-reliance agenda forward throughout the world because; this was a great genius from Chopin. No female around that time discussed about a female leaving her husband, and kids to become independent in a book, but Kate Chopin did. I agree with the character also, because she wasn’t happy at all, with her husband, her children and just her life. If I was in her shoes I’ve would’ve done the same thing, because if I’m not happy and have to sacrifice myself to please others then I would never live up to my own potential. Edna which Chopin wrote about described how she awakened from her sleep and decided to not live up to society standards. This book destroyed her career bad, but If Chopin would’ve wrote and published this book in this era the reaction would’ve been totally different, because females in this era already is acting upon being independent, learning how to know they worth, and learning how to do many things that males are doing. The reaction would be different; her career wouldn’t have been stepped on as it was in the early 20th century.
You think just only being a female was tough back then? Nope. In the situation that occurred with Rena was more then just being a female, it was being a black female at that. Cause of “The House Behind The Cedars” Charles Chesnutt career was destroyed just like Chopin’s, because this was never seen or heard of before that there were a white female mixed with African American and a very popular white man falling in love with each other. As you can see we is talking about a time where Black African Americans didn’t have no rights, couldn’t read a book, couldn’t talk to any white fellows, or be seen with them in public. This time period was even worst on the African American females. This the book that destroyed Chesnutt and was band from shelves for many years. The story starts out when Warwick came to visit his mother and his sister Rena. Warwick is a successful lawyer and was married until his wife passed way leaving him with his son. Warwick asks Rena if she can come to live with him and help take care of his son. `
Once Rena moved in with her brother in Clarence, they attended a tournament where all black knights were in competition with each other. That’s when she met George Tryon, the winner of the tournament & a client of Warwick. He names Rena his Queen of Love and Beauty because she gave him good luck during the game. They began to become very close and Tryon would invite her to the games all the time. At this point, Warwick see that Tryon love for Rena is growing fast and is scared that Tryon would find out about their family secret which is that they are apart of a black heritage.
Warrick really don’t want Tryon to know about their secret because this would destroy his image as well. Warrick seeks to warn Tyron that they have a family secret, but Tyron said that he doesn’t really care about it, because he really loves Rena. This made Rena keep her secret to herself and away from Tryon. Rena really wanted to be with Tyron but knows that even if she do be with him and have a family together without him knowing the family secret, she cant escape it because her kids can come out black.
Rena went back to make sure that her mother is ok knowing that she’s sick and at the same time Tryon went back to Patesville also, because his mother want him to take care of some business with her cousin Dr. Green. At this point Warwick finds a note from Rena stating that she have to go back to Patesville, because of her mother. Sooner or later, Tyron spotted Rena with her mother at the drugstore with Dr. Green. Tyron finds out about their family secret and feels devastated that she was hiding this from him all along, so he writes Warwick a letter saying that he can not marry her no more, but would keep the family secret to his self. At the same time Rena was really depressed and sad about the situation knowing they can’t be together anymore.
Molly friends visit Rena and ask her do she want to go teach at a school for colored children with her cousin Jeff Wain. She agreed to go teach and they threw a party for her and Wain. In mean time Tryon went back to Patesville to take care some business, but also wants to see Rena despite the secret. Tryon went to go see Rena but accidently when Rena decided to dance with Wain, he see’s her happy this made him even more devastated. Rena went to go teach at the school, but does not like it do to the fact by how Wain was acting, and what she heard about his past, she didn’t feel safe staying alone with Wain. So she decided to stay with a student’s family.
Once Tyron found out that Rena was teaching at the school of colors, Tyron decided to make up bribes to the black student name Pluto to deliver a letter to Rena to meet up, but Rena denies it and tells him that there’s no way they can ever see each other again. So Tyron continues to try to meet up with her decided to catch her while she was walking with Pluto back home. Once Rena seen Tryon coming and then seen Wain coming towards her, she ran into the woods where she became very ill. Rena she was very ill and started to loose her mind. She had left her sick bed and ended up collapsing on the ground by a road side where Frank was camping at. He takes her home, but while he’s going home everybody see’s that he’s with white a women. While they were the talk of the town, Tryon hears of this and follows the trail to the house; Rena realizes that Frank was the one that loved the most out of everyone despite her flaw. Once Tryon came to see her that’s when she passed away.
Rena was trapped. Even though she was mixed and Tryon was fully white, she was in love and this book discusses on how love can over look things, but society would always have a say in it. Once Tryon found out that she wasn’t fully white, he didn’t want any parts of her anymore this devastated her completely, even before he found out he was really in love with her and ignored any other flaws. Warwick even warned him that they have a family secret and he over looked it. This shows how society can stop people from being with each other, because at that the time period that Chesnutt wrote this book being a color man was just disgusting to white people, they talked down on them with many mistreated acts. Rena was wrong for falling in love with a white man and Tyron was wrong for loving a black mixed woman in the society eyes. Society took over at the end and stopped them from marrying each other. Once she realized that her best friend was the one that loved her most out of everybody else, that’s when she dies.
Many people didn’t like Chesnutt after this book was made. Chopin & Chesnutt careers were both destroy just because of their own genius. Emerson was used in both novels by both artists very well. Chopin was a white lady that talked about independence from the society standards while Chesnutt was an African American man mixed with white, which talked about a mixed white women falling in love with a pure white man. It wasn’t the fact that these two artists’ nationality and sex were different from each other but it was just the fact that their genius wasn’t acceptable at that time? Emerson played a big part in their genius; self reliance was used throughout these two books. “Greatness is a property for which no man can receive credit too soon; it must be possessed long before it is acknowledged.” – Emerson, I believe both artists gave a little sparked to many revolutions, protests, and movement that’s happening today. Back in the early 20th century females didn’t have a voice to speak out without any punishments giving to them. They were violated against the natural rights under laws such as the Napoleon code. Under such law many had to ask for permission from there husband or father to leave their own homes/property. The kids, property, all documents were under the male name besides the female. We talking about a time that females didn’t have any freedom at all base on what the society was regulating against them.
In conclusion, Emerson was use throughout both books. Chopin and Chesnutt express they genius through their art. At that point of time female was treated badly. It didn’t matter of the race; all female’s was being mistreated wrong. I believe that both books helped start many movements for female rights today. Many couldn’t live their own lives, many couldn’t be with the one they really wanted to be with, and many couldn’t be their selves without the society input in it. I’m very happy the females are getting the rights they deserve today, because back in the 20th century they were treated very badly with many laws and regulations towards them.
REFERENCE
• Chesnutt, Charles, The House Behind the Cedars, South of America, Houghton & Miffin, 1900, 224 pages.
• Chopin, Kate, The Awakening, Louisiana & New Orleans, 1899, 128 pages.
• Emerson, Ralph, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics), 2000 Modern Library, Sept 2000, 880 pages.
• Porter, Anna, Created equal: Voices on Women’s Rights, Palgrave Macmillan, Sept 2009, 224 pages.
• Stott, John, Our Social and Sexual Revolution: Major Issues for a New Century, Baker books, Nov 1999, 256 pages.
• Whelan, Richard, Self-Reliance: The Wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emerson as Inspiration for Daily Living, Crown Publishing Group, 2012, 208 pages.
– Dequan Frederick Research Paper
Phillip Ramones
Society kills Everybody
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of
Dr. Julian Williams
English 2200. Section E244
December 18, 2014
NYCCT
Every group of people in United States history has been pushed, rejected, shunned, and just isolated by society at least one. This caused a bunch of social, economic, racial and political problems for hundreds of years just because society saw these people of different origins as uncommon. When I say society, I don’t mean a different group of people who just don’t like certain people but I’m talking about men. That’s right not white people but men exclusively. Dedicated to making people of color oppressed just because they look “different” or talk “different” or even dress “different”. These men clearly did not know the meaning of the word different. The word different to them, meant if they saw anything that wasn’t familiar to them it had to be taken away and replaced with theirs. The real question is why do they get to choose what’s different or bad, just because they were born into better lives or maybe cause they have more weapons? These men even created harm to women, yes even white woman. Saying women should be a specific way and no other, and if women didn’t meet the requirements they were automatically ruled as unladylike or even worse, prostitutes. These men even noticing the natives dressed unusual and communicated in a language unheard to them, and they started taking their homes to build new houses for they can settle. They soon got to work on the Africans, bringing them to America, as slaves. They even went out of their way to call Africans there property, holding auctions to sell them, and even raping and beating them while they were on their farm working their fields. These are human beings here, and there being sold to other people with a slavery certificate of ownership! The Americans just free from the British empire was preaching about liberty and freedom but didn’t dare include any other race or gender the freedom that came with this glorious document called the Declaration of Independence, that was society’s chance to be equal, in fact there was no black, natives, or women in forming the government that has lasted till today and that is why we are still facing this problem.
The British first landed on pre-America looking to colonize this New World and profit off of it as they did with other colonies. The process of settling meant bringing people over to work and build houses and towns, to do this they needed workers and were seeking cheap, young men so they brought people from Ireland, Scottish, and Germany who were seen by society as degenerate, uncleanly people who deserved it. The British society justified this act by not seeing them as people but savages, with nothing in common. They made them sign a contract that said there were to serve years of labor then would be free to work on their own, this was called indentured servitude. The Irish, Scottish, and Germans saw it as a way for opportunity into the New World, but British saw it as a way to get profit and show their dominance in society. After contracts ended, they would just be bought and the workers sometimes would live their whole life as a laborer. But as society took a piece of the pie, they wanted the whole cake, and sought another group of “different” people as there was many tensions rising within this labor system. The indentured slaves like they had the support of the Christian church and many started to see this against religion. Also, these Europeans were not passive, they constantly revolted against the British every chance they got. And finally the obvious fact that there skin is no so different and they could pass as British.
The British could no longer bring more people so why not take people who were already settled like the Natives, thus the new savage emerged. Society was familiar with other Europeans but did not know anything about the Natives that were way darker. The contracts were stricter now involved farming and were repeated most of the times starting this debt peonage that caused there to be smaller years in contracts but more buying and selling of contracts. If the Native under the contract passed away and there was still debt to be owed, family would work to repay the debt, both women and children were now dragged into this labor. This early form of slavery eventually failed because of many reasons, to start off, Natives were more vulnerable to the new world diseases that the Europeans brought with them also the Natives were hunters not farmers, they didn’t know how to maintain the fields. However a huge advantage that set back the British was that Natives were more accustomed to the land and had a could chance of escaping within secret spots they had. One could argue that the failure of these two systems led to the next cruel system, Enslavement.
With Enslavement, the British sought out to find a group of people that weren’t white, or acquainted with the land. Basically, the group society knew couldn’t fight back. The next ethnicity targeted was the Africans, of West Africa which included many countries and different people of different groups. This was called Chattel slavery, which is defined by law as “A movable article of personal property” ([1] Sutter Para 1) and was the strictest of these because it was legally protected as a law and this was when beating, killing and raping became ordinary. The biggest difference between pass servitude and chattel slavery was that the Africans was now perceived as property. They were no longer humans or savages, society now called these human beings “things” that can be sold or bought and you’d even be given a receipt for this purchase. Society completely demolished African culture, tradition and way of life. They emasculated the black race by sexually abusing female slaves and having them keep the child for they can gain a new slave. They had two slaves unwillingly mate to create the “perfect slave”, I can’t even imagine the psychological damage that did to these Africans, and their families. The raping also caused this new evolution of Mulatto people, a term used to describe people that have both black and white ancestry. Instead of questioning why it happened, I wanted to question why it happened so well for hundreds of years. First off, the Africans did not get any oversea, or religious help because other countries were using Africans as slaves and they had different religious views. Africans background affected this because there were agricultural people and knew a lot of fields and was not affected with the new disease. Also when they arrived, this was a complete new land, even the British were casual around the land. The biggest reason I think this was not other than it was law was because they took Africans from different countries and they could not communicate with each other.
Society did not only attempt to enslave Natives but also went out of their way to assimilate and kick them out of their homes to build houses for Americans can settle in the West and profit off the land. Not only did the Natives agreed and moved more west they were constantly pushed back and were forced to learn English, accept Christianity as their religion and dress more “American”. As Americans were colonizing new land, the Natives were put into reservations which were open land areas strictly for Natives after they were kicked out and offered money for the land. The Natives never saw the land they lived on as property like the Americans, they actually don’t have a word for owning land. Americans offered them money to pay for the land but how can they accept money for something that’s not there’s to begin with. And even though they rejected the money they could not reject the deal because they would be forced off the land by force. The Natives actually only agreed to move because they are against violence and anything that promotes it. When I think of how the Natives were assimilated, I think of Ralph Waldo Emerson famous essay “Self Reliance”, (Butler paragraph 10) Emerson was a Transcendalist, and philosopher that tackled ideas and thoughts of individuality. “Self-Reliance” is about following your own instincts and ideas and not to conform to society and what they claim is “normal”. The Natives would have been inspired by Emerson’s words, one quote that speaks to me that applies to Natives feeling on the matter is “Envy is ignorance but imitation is suicide” which is saying not to desire over what someone has because that is bad but to try and be like that person, that is worse. The Native Indians did not accept American language, religion, and tradition because that meant the killing of their culture, and identity.
The Native Indians believed purely on spiritual beliefs and the afterlife, this disturbed many Americans in society because they had no idea what there ideals and actions entitled. Christians thought they had “God given right” to spread Christianity and force natives to practice it, as if it was doing them a favor. Not only was their homes taken but to be accepted into society they had to forget everything that made them Natives. ([3] Web para 3) Wovoka was a Native from the Paiute tribe that started the Ghost Dance movement to ignite the support of spiritual belief and not forget what they believed. Wovoka said he had a vision that one day all natives and their dead ancestors would rise above the Earth and watch as all whites disappear and the Earth will return to the condition it was before the whites. He said for this to happen the Natives would remain to not perform any violence acts and to dance in a circular motion called the Ghost Dance. This caused a fear in Americans in the South Dakota reservations because they simply did not know anything about it. One day when the Natives were being escorted out of the reservations to smaller reservations, a group of them denied and started to do the Ghost Dance. An army cavalry was called to stop them and get them moving, but went straight to the armed Indians thinking they would attack, as an soldier approached an Indian that was deaf a shot went off and this triggered a huge clash between both. Most of the native Indians were not armed and so died right away and the ones that were armed were killed before they could fire a shot. From the three hundred and fifty natives that were there only about fifty who survived. Yet another time where a group of people were murdered, and assimilated just because of looks, and culture. ([4) HistoryStaff paragraph 3) Native Indians call this incident the “Wounded Knee Massacre” while the US army called it “Wounded Knee” clearly trying to objectify and forget what they started.
Not only do men oppress, and hurt men but they also attack women, one of the hardest battles because this is still going on and society has damaged everybody’s thoughts so much it will probably never change. Since the beginning of time, Women were just seen as things that could reproduce humans. Even in nomadic society, women were just seen as mere gatherers while men were hunters the real providers but in reality, while men came up with no meat sometimes women always had fruits, nuts, and more to feed the family. This idea that women were not strong enough to become hunters develops into the stereotype that women are more useful at home, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. When the Napoleon empire ruled, a certain code of laws were created called the Napoleonic Codes ([5] Louise Hicks para 5) which stated ludicrous laws like that men had full authority of his wife and her wealth or that women could not divorce men but men could and the divorced women had to wait several months to become intimate with men again. And the craziest one for me is if women commits adultery she was fined and could be jailed. This set the standard that men have all the power over women. As the Napoleon Empire spread all throughout Europe and some of Asia it shaped society’s mind set of not only two continents but the whole world. Some countries still follow the Napoleonic code.
Feminism is the equality of men to women in political, social, and economical form. Women have always been judged by looks. If they look attractive, they are girly, if they if they are unattractive, they are ugly and since there women and not men they don’t deserve the same rights. Feminist disagree with all of the above and believe just like men we all have eyes and are all humans. This led to three waves of feminism in United States that resulted in women’s rights to vote, run in office, and hold the same jobs as men. This also led to the sexual revolution ([6] PBS para 2,3) which was women’s attempt to have society accept sexual problems like premarital sex, nudity, birth control, the double standard, and providing open information to everybody. These were considered huge victories for women and these movements spawned great works of film and literature that women could appreciate.
In the novel The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the main character goes exactly what these feminists fought for, breaking the status quo and realization of what she really wants in life. Upon publication Kate Chopin a beloved author was scolded by society for her novel. She was even looked down upon by feminists, the same people who had the same goals as Chopin. In the novel, Edna awakens from her unhappy life and dreams to be an artists and goes out to attempt it leaving her husband and children. This speaks straight from Emerson’s Self-Reliance quote “I shun father, mother, wife, brother, when genius calls me”, this applies both to Chopin and Edna. Chopin because this novel was her awakening, this was her genius that she wanted to share with the world. And in Edna’s case her genius was to become an artist. Edna dies at the end when she commits suicide and gives herself to the ocean. Her suicide was meant to be her finally realizing that she cannot live in society anymore and deal with being controlled by societal roles and expectation. Because she was not ready to suffer the criticisms from society and from her own conscience for leaving her children and her definitely could not continue to perform her role as mother and wife after awakening, the only choice was to die. Chopin knew society would never accept the fact that a women would leave her family and actually live a happy ending.
Just like the Chopin-Edna relationship Charles W. Chesnutt and his novel House behind the Cedars followed same critical reception, resulting in the death of Chesnutt’s career and the death of his main character Rena. House behind the Cedars follows, Rena an African-American as she is trying to “pass” as a white female in society with the help of her brother. John is successful at passing because unlike his sister he is able to cut off any connections he has with his past life, he even says he owns black slaves. Unlike women, men have an option where they can just get up and leave. Also because of what the judge tells him when he is a child which is that he cannot be a lawyer, helped shape him. Rena cannot pass as successful as her brother because she is not able to just forget about her family and past life. Also like the judge stated, they did not go far away, only to North Carolina which was to close. Rena’s awakening is that she will give herself to her people and give back. She must be punished for committing a sin in their eyes having a relationship with a white person. The sin later turns into the secret and foreshadows that her passing won’t work. They find and she decides to go home to teach as she is rejected. Rena’s fear of her having children that will come out black also foreshadow that it wasn’t going to work. Chesnutt followed some criticism after this novel, because it depicted that John succeeded while Rena failed. Chesnutt’s purpose was to bring attention to the racial divide and to show white people that black people had lives other than slavery and to show that there life was complex and so whites could see them has human beings not property.
This isn’t called White Supremacy, this is called the Man Supremacy, which any man will try to control anybody who is weaker. Men are born with the instinct to kill, since the beginning of time and Society has always oppressed, hurt, assimilated and ridiculed people that were different. The first indentured slaves the Irish, society had to judge Irish as drunks, criminals. The second group of indentured society simply said they were nothing like Americans. For both these group’s society had to transform these human living things into savages to justify what they did. The Africans they turned them into property. They completely dehumanized these people by taking them from their home countries and bringing them to a new land where they would be raped, beaten, worked to death, and just humiliated. Society was destroying a whole culture without no sympathy. For the native Indians, society was willing to “accept” them into society, only and only if they were Americanized. Natives were given English religious names and forced to embrace this culture that destroyed theirs. Women on the other hand may have it hardest as there body and looks will always have a big influence on society. Chopin and Chesnutt knew this in writing their novels and continued to write it and embrace it even when it destroyed her career, because it was there awakening, there realization that society must change and be individuals as Emerson said. One of Emerson’s quotes that hits me the most is “Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not.” This is exactly how I feel, Emerson is saying that the people who make up society will change, but society will never move forward for the better. Society will never get better until men stop trying to destroy each other.
Works Cited
[1]John D. Sutter. “Chattel Slavery.” Fight Slavery Now. CNN, 26 June 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
[2] Tom Butler-Bowdon. 50 Self-help Classics:. N.p., n.d. Web.
[3] PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
[4] History.com Staff. “Wounded Knee.” History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2014.
[5] Louise Hicks. “Women and the Code NapolĂ©on.” Women and the Code NapolĂ©on. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2014.
[6] PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2014.