The Struggle to Be a Womyn “Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual” (93) The Awakening by Kate Chopin introduces the reader to the life of Edna Pontellier, a woman with an independent nature, searching for her true identity in a patriarchal society that expects women to be nothing more than devoted wives and nurturing mothers. In this paper I will describe Edna’s …showed first 75 words of 1690 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1690 total…York:Twayne Publishers. Elfbein, Anna Shannon.(1989).Women on the Color Line. Charlottesville:University Press of Virginia. Papke, Mary E.(1990).Verging on the Abyss The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. New york:Greenwood Press. Showalter, Elaine.(1991).Sister’s Choice Tradition and Change in American Women’s Writing. Oxford:Clarendon Press Taylor, Helen.(1989).Gender, Race, and Religion in the Writings of Grace King, Ruth McEnery Stuart, and Kate Chopin.Baton Rouge:Louisiana State Press