"Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual you have an obligation to be one," wrote Eleanor Roosevelt in her novel, You Learn by Living. Roosevelt was signifying that individualism is not an option but an obligation to yourself. Being your own individual allows you to believe that you are capable to learn and shape yourself into a powerful person and therefore act the part. This idea is a potent influence that can have an effect on the way people act as a whole. Throughout the novel The Awakening, Kate Chopin uses allegory to show a psychological struggle for happiness, independence, and relationships through the character of Edna Pontellier.
One way Edna's behavior changes throughout the novel is with her struggle for her own happiness while trying to live up to expectations of society. While Edna was having a conversation with her friend, Madame Ratignolle, she was thinking about how her title as a wife was only for the benefit her husband and did not allow her to think for herself. She explained, "'I would give up the unessential; I would give my money, I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn't give myself. I can't make it more clear; it's only something which I am beginning to comprehend, which is revealing itself to me'" (Chopin 47). Later we see that Edna has gained a new sense of what it is like to be truly herself and liberated. Edna remarks, "There were days when she was very happy without knowing why. She was happy to be alive and breathing, when her whole being seemed to be one with the sunlight, the color, the odors, the luxuriant warmth of some perfect Southern day. She liked then to wander alone into strange and unfamiliar places. She discovered many a sunny, sleepy corner, fashioned to dream in. And she found it good to dream and to be alone and unmolested" (Chopin 58). Even further into a story, it is clear that Edna has focused her intentions on herself by abandoning her obligations as a married woman.