“Awakening” (In Chopin K. “Awakening and Other Stories” Random House, New York, NY: 2000) involves issues of feminism whereby Edna Pontellier, the center of the American Creole/New Orleans story, often and perplexedly reflects on her role of mother-of-two who is married to a well-off and often traveling (for business or pleasure) brokerage-business husband (Leonce Pontellier). The book garnered a lot of controversy for many decades after it was written in 1899, but eventually became and has endured as Kate Chopin's most famous work.
The community views Leonce as the epitome of the ideal husband, for Leonce greatly adores and provides for wife and children, he is quite consistently concerned about the welfare and happiness of his household. Yet Edna does not look at Leonce as her choice of husband, she says their marriage was accidental, that as she was growing up there are particular men that came around her that she would have wished to take her hand. Leonce is disciplined, insistent and low-toned, often dissatisfied about Edna’s attention to the children and other household issues, more so because he is often away on business and Edna has a lot of help, Leonce sometimes causes Edna to walk off and cry.
Perhaps Edna was the precursor of the modern era American woman…one who is prevalently independent (or at least longs to be), one who has more power in making decisions about what she prefers, one whose identity is not predominantly defined by wealth, looks, family, husband, or children. In her state of psychological disillusionment (”An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with vague anguish” [179]), Edna’s love for the two boys she gave birth to is uncharacteristically distant, the mother’s instinct seemingly weak, the kids have more fondness for their father. “If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother’s arms for comfort….Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman…” (181).
The author Chopin hence paints a picture of a soul plagued by a mixture of feminist and psychological issues. It is to be remembered, that even in this age of feminist liberation, providing men who love and care for their wives and children are still held in high esteem and are still in high demand. Chopin implicitly displays that female emancipation and longing can be of numerous forms. Further, Chopin often compares and contrasts main characters in terms of their beauty and body textures/ forms, illustrating that this issue has been strong in the United States for centuries.
“[Edna] was rather handsome than beautiful…face…captivating by reason of a certain frankness of expression and a contradictory subtle play of features” (174). Chopin writes of Edna’s companion and friend Adele Rattignolle (as somewhat contrasted with Edna) that, “…her beauty was all there, flaming and apparent…two lips that pouted…the grace of every step, pose, gesture… (182). Many writers have noted that Kate Chopin was not a suffragist and did not join any feminist movements; and indeed, many feminist writers reduce the value of the aesthetic features and comparisons of women, aspects that can remind of Hollywood vagueness.
Eventually, Edna wants to leave her family big house and settle “…in a four-room house along the corner” (294). A woman who had great difficulty at learning how to swim, one who is still sophomoric at it, Edna will ultimately find disturbing comfort in introspectively walking alone to the sea, in taking off all her clothing, reflecting on her life and swim into and allow herself to be swallowed by the sea, a fatal blow to the self-possession and psychological emancipation that she sought. Edna was born a reserved child, she was miserable and felt stifled, her marriage and sketches did not reach the standards she wanted them, there was something lacking in her “ideal, loving family; her comfort and big house,” the lustful affair with the lad Robert the conspicuous and philandering son of Madame Lebrun the property owner was full of gaping holes and would not last. Edna did not fit in the conventional mode of the beginning of the 20th Century American dream woman. She instead provides a window into what the woman, over the numerous decades to come, would perhaps evolve into as the individualist and the emancipated female.
In “Awakening,” Edna Pontellier is supposed to be one of the most fortunate women in the world. She has a present, fidel, hardworking and earning, capable, loving husband, who sired with her two male kids, she does not have to go outside of home to work. Yet, she is dissatisfied with her status quo, a rich homely situation that many women crave to be in. The narrator is telling us that women are complex persons, each of individual personality, one size does not fit all; needs and interests, and ambitions of each woman vary. Edna is horrifyingly distant from the two boys she gave birth to. “If one of the little Pontellier boys took a tumble whilst at play, he was not apt to rush crying to his mother’s arms for comfort….Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman…” (181). But indeed women (and female animals) have been known to neglect and even kill their children, reasons for which vary from psychological to dislike for tending to offspring. Women have been known to chase down and drown their children in bathtubs (Andrea Pia Yates, in 2002, drowned all five offspring in a bathtub; she has had a history of post-partum depression and psychosis), or let a car-full of their children roll into a river and get them drowned (Susan Smith, in 1994 did this to her two sons).
Edna Pontellier had two sons, she drowns herself in the end. Women have been known to leave their enviable husbands and children in a comfortable life, and fall for top-notch criminals who are locked up in prison. Edna mentions wanting to leave her comfortable home and enviable family, and living in a smaller habitation down the street “…in a four-room house along the corner” (294). Post-partum depression has been mentioned about women, and in Edna’s case it seems to have become indefinite. Many women, even in the contemporary times long for biological or at least adoptive motherhood. Still, there are those who opine their biologically begetting children as one of the most unfair ways a woman is exploited as a painstaking residence of a baby during gestation. Human gestation is a trying experience, compared to that of most other species (consider squirrels and rabbits). Human fetuses comparatively have many defects, miscarriages are common. At the same time the man does not have the burden of carrying the child to childbirth and keeping a sleep-ridden eye on the child. The fathers of the child sometimes wander away, abandoning their offspring.
Edna portrays that a woman can want much more than a family of children and a husband, perhaps she was a lesbian who had not discovered herself as one. She was at least discontented with her husband Leonce who comes off as conventional, disciplined, and inflexible. This discontentment is understandable…it happens. But why the distance from her offspring, and then the lustful interest in the young man Robert, eventually adultery? Edna will always be an enigma! Perhaps Edna suffered from multiple-personality disorder, something psychological irked her. Perhaps she longed to be the independent free woman, one who had the freedom to love or have sex with her choice of person, the precursor of the 20th and 21st Century independent and upstanding woman free to express her sexuality and stick to her preferences. Edna, many times in subtle ways, brings forth into question, feminism in the context of individuality, sexuality, marriage, freedom and choice, reproduction and child-rearing, spousal attachment and power, and the context and role of marriage in a woman’s life. Edna brings it out that each female is of unique individuality, of personal talent and likes that beg to be fully uncovered so she need not be comfortable with how society compartmentalizes women, more so as wives, mothers, home-makers, and as cherished articles of beauty and ownership.
Jonathan Musere
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: A Review
This is a story, set in the rural American south, family house in a pasture, in which an African-American mother, "Mama Johnson," who grew up in the early part of the past century, struggles to absorb, understand, evaluate and appreciate the ramifications of her strongly bucolic and dirty background in comparison with a daughter (Dee) who had obtained an impressive advanced formal education in Augusta in Georgia and migrated to work in an urban environment. Mama, in several ways, views her other daughter, Maggie, who is in the comparison the less fortunate one. Her ungenerous appearance partly stems from a house fire that left her with severe burns from which conspicuous scars remain. In Mama's words: "Have you ever seen a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car, sidle up to someone who is ignorant enough to be kind to him? That is the way my Maggie walks. She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to the ground. Dee is lighter-skinned than Maggie, has nicer hair and a fuller figure."
The story begins with Mama and Maggie awaiting the visit of Dee. Despite Dee's being a direct blood relative, the two went to great lengths, the previous afternoon to make the yard, "so clean and wavy." This is a moving short story that illustrates the conflicts between formal education, rural tradition, urban modernism, culture, individualism, egocentrism, community, cooperation, family relationships, aesthetic appearances, capitalism, morality, abandonment, transformation, opportunism, intimidation, oppression, and emancipation. The story illustrates a common American scene, more so in the African-American context.
It was realized early in life that Dee was the significantly brilliant and ambitious one of the two daughters, she longed for the modern advanced setting; in Mama's words, "She use to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know." She was outspoken and unabashed, loved to dress well and display her beauty, "Dee wanted nice things." Mama, a woman whose formal school education was shut down in 1927 right after she had achieved a second grade education, apparently embraces her daughter's brilliance and ambitiousness by raising money, with the help of their church to send her to school in Augusta. Mama and Maggie, must have, on one hand, been eager to see Dee leave the home habitation, at least for sometime. The aura in the story, of her boldness, ambitiousness, and zeal for sophistication and achievement making people uneasy while struck with awe, is very powerful. Dee was a young lady of beauty and sophisticated language; Mama tells Maggie that she knows of some childhood friends that Dee had. To Mama, such friends were mostly mysterious, grim-faced, and they often seemed to be in a Dee-induced trance...astounded by her knowledge, bombastic articulation, and beauty. Mama says, "She [Dee] had a few [friends]. ...Furtive boys... Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshipped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye." The author, Alice, Walker does not mention the father or fathers of Dee and Maggie, although she is strong on mentioning her, "rough man-working hands." It is hence safe to presume that Mama is a single mother. Walker would also lead us to wonder about the relationship between the two sisters. Mama, in the piece of writing, concentrates on these two so much that it is likely that these were her only children. Dee apparently has a certain level of fondness for her less fortunate sister, but that seems to be overshadowed by her superiority complex, by her looking down upon Maggie because Maggie does not measure up to her aesthetic and intellectual attributes as well as world view. Dee is quite outward looking and ambitious. Maggie is quite the opposite...burned, bruised, poor sighted, ungainly in appearance, abashed to the extent of often hiding in corners and wanting to bury her head in the sand. At some point in the text, Mama says of Maggie, "...she stops and tries to dig a well in the sand with her toe," giving us the impression that she sometimes wished that the world would swallow her. The fire that burned and handicapped Maggie, undoubtedly contributed to her stultified development and reservedness. But it is not clear whether the bullying attitude of her older sister Dee also contributed to this. We must remember that Dee did read to her sister and mother, indicative of her desire for these blood relatives to become of higher social level and esteem. Mama talks of Maggie, "Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright." The author also makes us curious about the house fire that scarred Maggie. Mama emphasizes that Dee hated the house and seemed to rejoice in it's burning down. This would raise suspicion that Dee had something to do with the fire. But hardly anything about how the fire was started is mentioned.
As Mama and Maggie await Dee's arrival, Mama imagines what it would be like for her to be introduced alongside an imagined celebrity Dee in a Johnny Carson-like high audience show, a situation in which she would get to travel in a luxurious limousine. She knows it is mostly a dream, and she knows that there is some pretentiousness and vanity in such shows, much of it scripted. Mama opines that in the TV spotlight, it is people of such attributes as slender build ("hundred pounds lighter" than she is) and fair-skin ("like an uncooked barley pancake") that are preferred. She displays unappreciation for staring straight into a ("white") stranger's eyes, and she was raised to be wary of whites. She marvels that Dee can look anyone in the eye, without hesitation. It is indeed a new generation of blacks, and more are coming. Mama knows that TV leaves out a lot of reality. She is a good example of reality, and she is proud of her bucolic strength: "In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. ...I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." Unlike this era, such comparisons between masculine and feminine strength seem to have been quite common.
The visit, by Dee, to such close blood relatives that she had not seen for years, is notably short. Mama and an intimidated Maggie are astounded by the glamorous, brilliant, luxurious attire and jewelry on Dee. They are also awe-struck by the appearance of her, "short, stocky," companion from the other side of the car. Dee starts by uttering, "Wa-su-zo.Tean-o." Although, nothing further is mentioned about those words, some, with some knowledge of African languages would know that it stands for, "Wasuze otya nno?," 'How was your night,' in the Luganda east African language. The man starts with the Arabic-Islam greeting, "Asalamalakim," which Mama, at first, thinks is his name. Dee says she is no longer Dee, but now goes by the African names, "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." No explanation of these African names is offered, aside from Dee's dubious mentioning that they attach her to her indigenous African heritage, and displace names given to her by "oppressors," this in reference to her legacy of slavery. Walker does not tell us that Leewanika is probably a misspelling of the name of southern African King Lewanika who collaborated with the British. Neither does Walker elaborate further on the other names. "Ngero," in Luganda, means "stories" or "tales," "Wangero" meaning, "the one associated with stories/ tales." Kemanjo is probably a misspelling of some African name, or it is not a common African name. Mama gets to learn that "Asalamalakim" is Hakim-a-barber, probably a mishearing of the Arabic Islam names, "Hakim Akbar." All this is quite representative of the movements toward Africanism and black power in the 1960's and 1970's. Many of the quite formally educated, started adopting African and Islamic names, many times they did not know the meaning or histories of these names, and many became misspelled. It was an attempt at Africanization of identity, and embracing of Islam as an alternative religion to Christianity which was often perceived as the religion of oppressors. Indeed, many slavers and their ancestors have been Churchgoers. The paradox here is that the Dees and Hakims of this world are disdainful of their black-African heritage that is closest to them. Compared to the African culture of the Deep South, adopting African names is only a token of African culture. This ambivalence is becomes even more profound as Dee attempts to plunder his family of valuable crafts, such as quilts (put together over ancestral generations) and a churn handed down from previous ancestors. Dee likely wants to keep these valuables, as tokens of her heritage, as souvenirs, displayed in her home. Dee even belittles Maggie who owns some of them, saying she was only capable of putting them to, "Everyday use," and laughingly saying that, "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's" (also meaning that she has a good memory). Both Mama's and Maggie get disturbed and angered by Dee's demeanor of disrespect, insulting, selfishness, and aggression. Maggie still wants to give in to Dee, over the quilts that she really wants. An animated Mama, strongly declines and throws the quilts into Maggie's lap. Dee and Akbar leave shortly, soon after Dee implying to Mama that she did not understand the value of heritage and that Maggie should elevate herself out of the southern black rural environment. It is in this last incident that Mama gets to appreciate the strength and value of her younger daughter as against the seemingly foreign brash mannerisms of her older sister.
This story is quite representative of African-American social dynamics and dilemma. Of those who look down upon their past, as well as their less fortunate peers, while looking for fame and fortune in the capitalist world that involves aggressiveness, opportunism, and acquisition of wealth. The rural South is slow, family is important, with traditionalists finding it hard to cope with the extremes of urbanism. Many who leave traditional black culture are ashamed of it, but they still try to hold on to it by keeping cultural artifacts, antiques and souvenirs. Dee delights in seeing their house burn down, yet she comes back to retrieve articles that well could have burned in the same place. She comes to visit with a weird looking man whom she little talks about. But Mama knows exactly the man that Dee will marry. Family, and culture is strong in the rural south; Individualism and ambiguity are strong amongst the black educated elite, who in this piece are shifting to the culture of "oppressors," though they quite deny that they are doing so. It is a story on black identity crisis, and the place of black culture and values.
Jonathan Musere
The story begins with Mama and Maggie awaiting the visit of Dee. Despite Dee's being a direct blood relative, the two went to great lengths, the previous afternoon to make the yard, "so clean and wavy." This is a moving short story that illustrates the conflicts between formal education, rural tradition, urban modernism, culture, individualism, egocentrism, community, cooperation, family relationships, aesthetic appearances, capitalism, morality, abandonment, transformation, opportunism, intimidation, oppression, and emancipation. The story illustrates a common American scene, more so in the African-American context.
It was realized early in life that Dee was the significantly brilliant and ambitious one of the two daughters, she longed for the modern advanced setting; in Mama's words, "She use to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks' habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice. She washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn't necessarily need to know." She was outspoken and unabashed, loved to dress well and display her beauty, "Dee wanted nice things." Mama, a woman whose formal school education was shut down in 1927 right after she had achieved a second grade education, apparently embraces her daughter's brilliance and ambitiousness by raising money, with the help of their church to send her to school in Augusta. Mama and Maggie, must have, on one hand, been eager to see Dee leave the home habitation, at least for sometime. The aura in the story, of her boldness, ambitiousness, and zeal for sophistication and achievement making people uneasy while struck with awe, is very powerful. Dee was a young lady of beauty and sophisticated language; Mama tells Maggie that she knows of some childhood friends that Dee had. To Mama, such friends were mostly mysterious, grim-faced, and they often seemed to be in a Dee-induced trance...astounded by her knowledge, bombastic articulation, and beauty. Mama says, "She [Dee] had a few [friends]. ...Furtive boys... Nervous girls who never laughed. Impressed with her they worshipped the well-turned phrase, the cute shape, the scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye." The author, Alice, Walker does not mention the father or fathers of Dee and Maggie, although she is strong on mentioning her, "rough man-working hands." It is hence safe to presume that Mama is a single mother. Walker would also lead us to wonder about the relationship between the two sisters. Mama, in the piece of writing, concentrates on these two so much that it is likely that these were her only children. Dee apparently has a certain level of fondness for her less fortunate sister, but that seems to be overshadowed by her superiority complex, by her looking down upon Maggie because Maggie does not measure up to her aesthetic and intellectual attributes as well as world view. Dee is quite outward looking and ambitious. Maggie is quite the opposite...burned, bruised, poor sighted, ungainly in appearance, abashed to the extent of often hiding in corners and wanting to bury her head in the sand. At some point in the text, Mama says of Maggie, "...she stops and tries to dig a well in the sand with her toe," giving us the impression that she sometimes wished that the world would swallow her. The fire that burned and handicapped Maggie, undoubtedly contributed to her stultified development and reservedness. But it is not clear whether the bullying attitude of her older sister Dee also contributed to this. We must remember that Dee did read to her sister and mother, indicative of her desire for these blood relatives to become of higher social level and esteem. Mama talks of Maggie, "Sometimes Maggie reads to me. She stumbles along good-naturedly but can't see well. She knows she is not bright." The author also makes us curious about the house fire that scarred Maggie. Mama emphasizes that Dee hated the house and seemed to rejoice in it's burning down. This would raise suspicion that Dee had something to do with the fire. But hardly anything about how the fire was started is mentioned.
As Mama and Maggie await Dee's arrival, Mama imagines what it would be like for her to be introduced alongside an imagined celebrity Dee in a Johnny Carson-like high audience show, a situation in which she would get to travel in a luxurious limousine. She knows it is mostly a dream, and she knows that there is some pretentiousness and vanity in such shows, much of it scripted. Mama opines that in the TV spotlight, it is people of such attributes as slender build ("hundred pounds lighter" than she is) and fair-skin ("like an uncooked barley pancake") that are preferred. She displays unappreciation for staring straight into a ("white") stranger's eyes, and she was raised to be wary of whites. She marvels that Dee can look anyone in the eye, without hesitation. It is indeed a new generation of blacks, and more are coming. Mama knows that TV leaves out a lot of reality. She is a good example of reality, and she is proud of her bucolic strength: "In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. ...I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." Unlike this era, such comparisons between masculine and feminine strength seem to have been quite common.
The visit, by Dee, to such close blood relatives that she had not seen for years, is notably short. Mama and an intimidated Maggie are astounded by the glamorous, brilliant, luxurious attire and jewelry on Dee. They are also awe-struck by the appearance of her, "short, stocky," companion from the other side of the car. Dee starts by uttering, "Wa-su-zo.Tean-o." Although, nothing further is mentioned about those words, some, with some knowledge of African languages would know that it stands for, "Wasuze otya nno?," 'How was your night,' in the Luganda east African language. The man starts with the Arabic-Islam greeting, "Asalamalakim," which Mama, at first, thinks is his name. Dee says she is no longer Dee, but now goes by the African names, "Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo." No explanation of these African names is offered, aside from Dee's dubious mentioning that they attach her to her indigenous African heritage, and displace names given to her by "oppressors," this in reference to her legacy of slavery. Walker does not tell us that Leewanika is probably a misspelling of the name of southern African King Lewanika who collaborated with the British. Neither does Walker elaborate further on the other names. "Ngero," in Luganda, means "stories" or "tales," "Wangero" meaning, "the one associated with stories/ tales." Kemanjo is probably a misspelling of some African name, or it is not a common African name. Mama gets to learn that "Asalamalakim" is Hakim-a-barber, probably a mishearing of the Arabic Islam names, "Hakim Akbar." All this is quite representative of the movements toward Africanism and black power in the 1960's and 1970's. Many of the quite formally educated, started adopting African and Islamic names, many times they did not know the meaning or histories of these names, and many became misspelled. It was an attempt at Africanization of identity, and embracing of Islam as an alternative religion to Christianity which was often perceived as the religion of oppressors. Indeed, many slavers and their ancestors have been Churchgoers. The paradox here is that the Dees and Hakims of this world are disdainful of their black-African heritage that is closest to them. Compared to the African culture of the Deep South, adopting African names is only a token of African culture. This ambivalence is becomes even more profound as Dee attempts to plunder his family of valuable crafts, such as quilts (put together over ancestral generations) and a churn handed down from previous ancestors. Dee likely wants to keep these valuables, as tokens of her heritage, as souvenirs, displayed in her home. Dee even belittles Maggie who owns some of them, saying she was only capable of putting them to, "Everyday use," and laughingly saying that, "Maggie's brain is like an elephant's" (also meaning that she has a good memory). Both Mama's and Maggie get disturbed and angered by Dee's demeanor of disrespect, insulting, selfishness, and aggression. Maggie still wants to give in to Dee, over the quilts that she really wants. An animated Mama, strongly declines and throws the quilts into Maggie's lap. Dee and Akbar leave shortly, soon after Dee implying to Mama that she did not understand the value of heritage and that Maggie should elevate herself out of the southern black rural environment. It is in this last incident that Mama gets to appreciate the strength and value of her younger daughter as against the seemingly foreign brash mannerisms of her older sister.
This story is quite representative of African-American social dynamics and dilemma. Of those who look down upon their past, as well as their less fortunate peers, while looking for fame and fortune in the capitalist world that involves aggressiveness, opportunism, and acquisition of wealth. The rural South is slow, family is important, with traditionalists finding it hard to cope with the extremes of urbanism. Many who leave traditional black culture are ashamed of it, but they still try to hold on to it by keeping cultural artifacts, antiques and souvenirs. Dee delights in seeing their house burn down, yet she comes back to retrieve articles that well could have burned in the same place. She comes to visit with a weird looking man whom she little talks about. But Mama knows exactly the man that Dee will marry. Family, and culture is strong in the rural south; Individualism and ambiguity are strong amongst the black educated elite, who in this piece are shifting to the culture of "oppressors," though they quite deny that they are doing so. It is a story on black identity crisis, and the place of black culture and values.
Jonathan Musere
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