We Never Learn

Human kind is the most intelligent and advanced animal on earth. Over time we have developed skills that have allowed us to evolve without boundaries. But every good thing has its negatives, and humans are not the exceptions. Hand in hand with evolution, has been the oppressed of the weak and their struggle to break the injustices. Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening,” and Ken Kesey’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” both show injustice oppressions made by society on people who are considered less.

In the first, we see the oppression of women, and in the latter, we see the oppression of people who do not seem to fit society’s rules, and are seen as mad, and how the people try and break the ties of society that are holding them down. In “The Awakening,” there’s Edna an atypical women for her era, who goes against the role of women during her time. The book was written in 1899, were women were supposed to be two things: wives and mothers. Their life revolved around their family and they were the ones in charge of making the household work. On the contrary, Edna decides to forget her house duties, and “completely abandons her Tuesdays at home, and does not return the visits of those who call upon her.” (pg. 110) On the other hand, in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” two characters are the ones responsible to go against society. For many years, people have been placed in a mental ward because they are not considered normal; they have traits that go against what was accepted by society. One example is a man called Harding that was put in the ward because he had feminine attributes and liked men. The Chief, with McMurhpy’s help, take “arms” against the combine and disturb the running of the hospital. They end up winning because the Chief escapes. In both books we see the struggle that the oppressed groups have to go through to win the battle against the injustice. Through history, people have been degraded fro being what they are. Even though there can be people that support them, the common view of society is a phenomenon that controls many. It is this common view that ends up degrading the oppressed, and they alone have to stand up for themselves and beat society.

This phenomenon has been seen all through history. Various groups, such as women, black, gay, Indians, have been affected by the rules of society. Unfortunately, masses of people go with the current and fear what’s different. Most of the people follow society’s law, and look down at the people that don’t, and here is where the oppressions starts. With these two books we can see the injustice that these two groups suffered, and we can see that it had no reason to be. Never the less, it seems as though we don’t learn fro our mistakes, because as some oppressed groups win the battle and gains acceptance, another starts being oppressed. 

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, presents a character that way ahead of her time. Published in 1899, Edna Pontellier has characteristics that appear many years after the book. During this time, the role of women revolves around the household, taking care of the husband and children. It is more accurate to name these women wives. But Edna is different. She feels uncomfortable with her situation, as surely more women did, but defies society, and gives more importance to herself as a human being, than to her role of a wife. Her characteristics portray her as a women of today.

Edna is a woman who does not fit the image of the women of that time. She is always defying the authority of her husband over her, and the chores that were given to her for being a woman. It is more the time that she spends wondering the streets, and failing her duties, than being a good wife or a mother. She never says he does not love her husband or her children but we are given the impression that she does not like to be with them.  In fact she says that she would give her life for her children, but not her self. On the contrary to almost every other women, she feels that her self is more important that her children and husband. That inner self that defines her is the most important thing in her life.

She is a complicated character, full of mixed emotions. Even though she gives the impression that she could live with out her family, when her husband left to New York, “she cried…calling him dear, goo friend, and she was quite certain she would grow lonely before very long and go to join him in New York.” (Pg. 136)  But at the same time, her children also left, and she felt “a radiant peace settled upon her when she at last found herself alone.” (Pg. 136) She even took over the kitchen and the meals, something that she had resigned of doing, maybe because she was doing only for herself, and not doing work for anybody else. Edna is happy alone, she feels relieved, but at the same time she misses her family and thinks about them; she cannot decide on what she really wants. It’s as if she was on a road to self-discovery, but is a long way from getting there. She knows for sure that the duties of the woman do not fit her, but she fails to know where she stands on love and relationships.

Edna does not fit in the society she lives in. She is much more similar to the women of today, who know give the same importance to work and the family. Back then women were 100% devotes to the household, but know it’s more balanced. Women are still related more to the household than men, but they are also given importance in the work force.  Clear examples are the high positions that women have, such as CEO or even presidencies of countries.