The Awakening: Beaten to Death (Get It?)

Given the circumstances that we talked about The Awakening all week, one more time wouldn't hurt. But then, I was at work reading A Thousand Splendid Suns when a lady approached me and said, "Wow that is such a great book, I read it in one sitting. It makes me feel great that I am a woman in America." And I thought to myself, that is a true statement. But I compared what it was like for Edna and what it was like for Mariam and Laila. Aren't they the same? As stated in class, it was always, "Well in Edna's situation.... And in Edna's society..... In Edna's time period....." But the things that Edna faced are still faced today. The whole thought process between the women characters in these novels really makes me angry. Because it is unfortunate that we live a sheltered life in Oxford where everyone lives in the (almost) ideal lifestyle, where men and women are equal. But that's not how things work in the world and literature. But characters such as Edna, Laila, Mariam, and Nora live lives that are so unbearable that they have to change their entire lives. They have these drastic changes that men don't have to change, which is unfair to them. I cannot stand inequality between genders and it infuriates me reading these novels where women live in these backwords societies. When women are put into situations like Laila was, where she was rescued, then forced into marriage, it really stinks that they have no other options in Afghanistan. Even if these situations are fictional, they really happen in all across the globe. It can be very difficult for women to move up in society whether it be through a dominant husband who doesn't allow her to work, or a country that doesn't allow women to be alone in public. These novels can be a real eye opener. Thank you for letting/making me read them.