The Awakening

Recently, I read the book The Awakening for class. I enjoyed the book very much, but there was one part that a lot of people in my class had strong feelings about. This was at the very end of the book when Edna committed suicide. Most of my classmates described Edna's suicide was selfish.  For me, I see it has a positive and negative action. Edna felt like she had no control in her life. She was constantly being controlled by her husband and society. By taking small actions, such as going out on Tuesday's instead of staying home and having women come and visit her, she bought the "pigeon-house", and went on her own little adventures. But the ultimate piece of control was when she took her life because she didn't want to be controlled by men and society anymore. However, the part where everyone sees the negative part of her suicide is that Edna left her children and her husband. By killing herself, her children will lost their mother and her husband lost his wife. From my standpoint, Edna had to kill herself. She was in love with another man and three men were trying to win her love and affection in order to have control over her. That's what Edna didn't like. She was only a thing that the men wanted to have so that they could control what she does. That's what I like about Edna. Even though she kills herself in the end and leaves her husband and children, she did one thing that she could control. By taking that swim in the freezing ocean naked, she was able to control how far she swam until she didn't want to go any farther, then she just let go. In that little bit, Edna was able to control how she died and that is all she wanted, control

Beliefs

Not too long ago, I read a book Things Fall Apart. I enjoyed this book very much because you can see a lot of things going on in a different culture than my own. This novel is based on a tribe in Africa. The people there are very strict on their culture. The elders are always respected, the men are judged on their character and not the character of their father. The women don't do much besides cook and clean. The members of the tribe that the novel focuses on is surrounded by many strong men. However, unlike my religion, the members of the tribes believe that many things are bad luck, such has having twins for example. If a woman has twins, the babies are immediately thrown into the Evil Forest, where all the other evil spirits are kept. The members of the tribe also believe that the men should be in charge and that they should protect the women. In my opinion, I feel that this is all wrong. We are at that day in age when women are able to protect themselves and work to get things done. During the time that the novel was based on,the men did all the work and some men still feel that way today. But women have come a long way. We are strong ad wise, we are able to get things done, and we can do anything a man can do. Women are surgeons and pilots and fighting for our country. Men are nurses and dancers and stay-at-home parents. Depending on ones culture will determine how they feel about the subject, but it is my belief that we can keep some of the old habits, like respect our elders is obvious, and allowing some changes to be made. And some of the tribes beliefs were just plain ridiculous. Throwing a pair of twins into an 'Evil Forest' seems cruel because they are ending a life before it even begins. But I can see where they come from, that they believe that it is a sign of evil, but in today's society. I don't know if this would still happen, I am hoping that it would not, but you never really know until it happens.