protagonist of Kate Chopin's book, The Awakening, Edna Pontellier, starts a one way voyage to find herself. A young wife and mother living in New Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century makes surprising discoveries about who she is, abut what is essential and what is not. As she explains to her friend, Mrs. Ratignolle, there are things that are far more important to someone than one's own life. The finding of her true self will cost Edna one "unessential" possession in the end: her life, but she proved the trip worth the cost. She chooses to distance herself from everything she knew before in order to gain the clarity and the objectivity she needed to explore the new world within.

Although, Edna's marriage to Leonce Pontellier was a conflict in itself, it was nothing out of the ordinary for the first six years. A young girl who dreams...
[ View Full Essay]