I have always believed that in order to write something well, you have to write with passion and fire. The topic you are discussing has to be something that you feel very strongly about and wish to share with others around you. While one can simply write about things that they know based solely upon facts, those works are not going to be the kind to penetrate into someone's emotions and change the way they see things or look at things in the world. In order to truly write well you must evoke an emotional response from the reader.
The idea of evoking an emotional response from the reader is a core principle of Realism (Werlock). Realism is the use of emotional pictures and verbage and techniques, mixed with facts and understood ideas, in order to evoke an emotional response from the reader. This use of both facts and emotions then makes the conviction that takes place even stronger than if only one of the two were used (Werlock).
In her novel and the excerpt that we read from it, Kate Chopin used Realism brilliantly. First off, she appealed directly to the heart of a common housewife by portraying her character in this excerpt as just that (Chopin 491). The character is simply a married woman who is sitting alone in her house crying to herself. It is not the cry of a woman who has just lost something dear to her heart or been given bad news, but it is simply the cry of a woman who feels as though there is something more to life that she has just not achieved yet (Chopin 491).
It is amazing to realize just exactly how many women go through this every single day. Specifically towards middle age, many women find themselves wondering if there is more to life than just being what she is to her family. Through her novel, Kate Chopin gives them an answer: yes, yes there is (Chopin 491).
The purpose of her writing this novel was to inform women just like this all over the country that there is in fact more to being a wife and a mother. Her purpose was to empower women to believing that they can do more than be a housewife like society has always told them. In this way, Kate Chopin almost began to start a revolution. Through this novel and others that surfaced around that time period, the motion for women's rights and feminism began to slowly rise up.
By discussing an important issue of the time period, Kate Chopin did a wonderful job of depicting Realism. Realism is all about what is real and what is happening at the time that it is written (Werlock). It is about appealing to the readers in order to hopefully affect change. Also, Realism is about creating an everyday hero (Werlock). Where before the heroes had all been uppity, well educated white men, the hero had now become an average, ordinary, everyday woman (Chopin 491). This was an important step for women that Kate Chopin was leading. And Realism did that for people. It opened all kinds of doors for new voices to be heard throughout the country.
Chopin, Kate. "The Awakening." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. pg. 491.
Werlock, Abby H. P. "realism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gamshrtsty0575&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 14, 2011).
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