Is the Awakening by Kate Chopin a feminist text? Why or why not? Use evidence from the talks and The Awakening to support your opinion. Ted...

The Awakeningis most certainly a feminist novel, or at least a "protofeminist" novel since the book predates both the word and concept of feminism.  It presents a society, the Creoles, who live in New Orleans and summer in Grand Isle, in which, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says in her TEDtalk, "men are more important than women."  It is not what Edna wants that matters; it is what her husband, Leonce, wants that is important....

The Awakening is most certainly a feminist novel, or at least a "protofeminist" novel since the book predates both the word and concept of feminism.  It presents a society, the Creoles, who live in New Orleans and summer in Grand Isle, in which, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says in her TEDtalk, "men are more important than women."  It is not what Edna wants that matters; it is what her husband, Leonce, wants that is important.  When she is inattentive after he wakes her up in the middle of the night, he accuses her of neglecting her children.  When she rejects his sexual advances, he acts like a petulant child.  She is supposed to put his desires before her own, always.

Adichie says that "We have evolved, but it seems to me that our ideas of gender have not evolved."  Physical strength is no longer paramount in Edna's society, yet men are still very much in control.  They work outside the home and find entertainment outside the home; it is Leonce who can decide when he wants to leave and when he will return—Edna cannot do the same, nor can she weigh in on his decisions.  

When the waiters at restaurants in Nigeria ignore her and only pay attention to the man she is with, Adichie says, "I feel invisible; I feel upset."  Similarly, when no one understands Edna, when her husband fails to comprehend why she is so dissatisfied with their life together, she gets angry, very angry—just like Adichie when she points out the "grave injustice" of "Gender as it functions today."  Edna smashes a vase and flings her wedding band across the room.  She cannot even quite put into words what it is that she wants, but it sounds a lot like freedom.  She does not have the same freedom her husband, or Robert does—Robert can pick up and move to Mexico at a moment's notice.  Edna's desire for equal freedom makes her a feminist, and Chopin's depiction of Edna's ultimate unwillingness to compromise on this desire renders the novel a feminist one.