A Naturalist Perspective To The Awakening

Since 1960's, with the development of feminist movement, the most controversial novel among Kate Chopin's works, The Awakening, has drawn more and more critics' attention. Most critics analyze the novel from a feminist perspective and a psychoanalytic perspective. In recent years, some American critics such as Donald Pizer have noticed the influence of naturalism on Kate Chopin and tried to seek the traces of naturalism in The Awakening. In this thesis, the writer will analyze the novel's theme, character and writing style from a naturalist perspective.To start with, the writer briefly narrates the background of the studies of The Awakening and Kate Chopin's life and literary career. Then in Chapter 2, the thesis gives a brief but overall introduction of the origins of American naturalism, the important American naturalists and the main ideas of American naturalism. In 1859, Darwin published his influential book—The Origin of the Species, in which he emphasized the role played by the struggle for existence in creating or destroying different species of plant and animal life. Later, British philosopher Herbert Spencer interpreted Darwin's theory as "survival of the fittest", the basic theory of Social Darwinism. These theories exerted great impact on the development of naturalism in Europe. Impressed by Darwin's theory of evolution, the French novelist Zola put forward naturalist ideas. American naturalism was greatly influenced by French naturalism. Meanwhile, the social condition after the Civil War also promoted the development of American naturalism. In their works, American naturalists expressed the pessimistic determinism, excluding the influence of religion and ethics on the lives of human beings.In Chapter 3, the writer analyzes the naturalist themes of The Awakening in detail. Two controlling forces—Edna's inner emotions and the surrounding environments—drive Edna to search for a full, meaningful and satisfying individuality. In addition, Chopin portrays Edna as hostage to her biology to show that nature is an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings. As a female, she can not avoid being mother and wife in a society that dictates behavioral norms based on those conditions.In Chapter 4, the writer focuses on the naturalist character in The Awakening. On the one hand, Chopin portrays Edna's sexual desire to emphasize man's animal nature. Edna makes no attempt to suppress her amatory impulses. In order to satisfy her sexual desire, she has affairs with Arobin whom she does not love at all. On the other hand, Chopin underscores Edna's futile struggles for individuality. Her death indicates her failure in the conflict between her desire for selfhood and social restraints.In Chapter 5, the writer gives a detailed description of naturalist writing styles in The Awakening. Chopin uses a facts-only approach, a style of detailed observation of the truth of human experiences. In order to search into her secret recesses of the soul, Chopin also gives an exquisite description of how Edna feels in many scenes of the novel. Moreover, symbolism is employed a lot to reinforce a given natural reality. In the novel, birds, clothes, art and music and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the novel and the character.In the American canon, Chopin is always labeled as a realist writer or local color writer. However, inspired by the French naturalist—Maupaussant, Chopin shows naturalist themes in some of her works. Through the analysis of naturalist characteristics in The Awakening, the writer is firmly convinced that Chopin does express some important naturalist ideas—such as the emphasis on the controlling forces of instinct, emotions and environment and the pessimistic determinism.