World Literature and Composition 1 Wednesday, November 14, 2001 A Way of Her Own Kate Chopin, the author of The Awakening, uses Edna Pontellier to reveal that solitude and simplicity are needed in order to for her to identify her true self. At Edna’s party one of her guests, Gouvernail, makes reference to desire as “a graven image” (Chopin 119), as a thing in itself to be worshipped. Desire is an ancient and sometimes brutal urge, as “a …showed first 75 words of 474 total…

…showed last 75 words of 474 total…themselves; she wants her desires fulfilled. She has renewed her life by giving rein to her childlike desires to always have her way despite the wants and needs of others. Overall, Edna’s strength of mind is powerful enough to begin her resurrection but too fragile to keep it up. She left in a triumphant escape from those personal and social forces that she perceived as enslaving her from living a way of her own.