Awakening Vs. Greenleaf :: essays research papers

A strong critique by existentialist writers of modern society is the delegacy 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 unfulfilled lives. They eventually converge, however, upon an elevated life and death filled with pertly 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 certain phylogeny of mind and body. This process involves a beginning (komogenese), a development (biogenese), and then a peak (noogenese) in which humans reach an Omega Point of high being. Though his ideas were actually apply on a much broader scale of humanity over a large timespan, the theory can be applied to the ind ividuals process of human development. Single humans begin as common clones of one another. From this commonality many examine their lives and develop the things inside 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 understanding 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 path 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 happy unify woman living a secure, fulfilled life. It is quickly revealed, though, that she is deeply oppressed by a male dominated society, evident through her marriage 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 ma rriage to Leonce was more an act of rebellion from her parents than an act of love for Leonce. She cares for him and is favorable 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.