I Read Banned Books
“The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South. It is one of the earlier American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension. It is also widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, generating a mixed reaction from contemporary readers and critics.”
That is the Wikipedia description of The Awakening, one of my favorite books.
Technically, the novel was never banned, but it was censored and was considered to be immoral because —among other things—it touched on female sexual desire and desire to break away from established social and gender norms. That the protagonist ultimately dies by suicide was a nail in the coffin for this book. God forbid that a woman would feel so trapped by her gilded, restricted life—unable to make changes and feeling forced to find “satisfaction” in being a wife and mother—that she would rather be dead. Different newspapers called The Awakening “poison” and noted “what an ugly, cruel, loathsome Monster Passion can be when, like a tiger, it slowly awakens.” Kate Chopin also was vilified, with one newspaper noting that she was "one more clever writer gone wrong." She never again published another novel, and her next book was canceled. Five years later, Kate Chopin died; The Awakening fell into obscurity.
Then, in the 1960s, a Norwegian literary scholar (Per Seyersted) rediscovered the book, and it came to be regarded as a landmark in feminist fiction.
I have read The Awakening several times. Whenever I read it, I feel the claustrophobic restrictions that women faced at that time. I see how women had limited options: wife, mother, maybe teacher, protected by a male sibling...little more than chattel. I understand how a woman could look at her life and want more. How a woman could want the freedom to do and be what she wanted to do and be. How “polite” society could bully women into positions that gave absolutely no room for creativity or independence. How Kate Chopin was ostracized. How the world lost this gifted writer too soon. How we lost this book for decades.
The banned books I have read—many!—open my eyes. Help me to see “the other side” of a situation or position. Help me feel empathy. Educate me. I do not want anyone—ever—to keep me from reading whatever I want. Just as I do not want anyone—ever—to tell me how to vote or think or live my life.
I read banned books. And I will continue to do so. Following is a short list of banned books:
1984 by George Orwell
milk and honey by Rupi Kaur
Slauterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
and so many other wonderful books that have been banned...
Do you read banned books? What is your favorite banned book? Please comment...
