Connection is key!

When writing an author uses experiences to connect more with the audience. While reading chapter 5 I got caught up on the idea of intersexuality. Intersexuality is when a species has a connection with both male and female characteristics. It causes them to have feelings from both a male and female stand point so it causes the species to have appreciation for both sexes. In my opinion authors use a form of intersexuality in a way to deepen the connection that he or she may have with their audience. It causes us to be conscious of our own experiences and more appreciative of the story being told. Once we understand this connection, the text becomes more alive and enjoyable to us. These connections can be made on purpose and also can be made without the author even knowing. A novel that comes to mind when I think of authors writing about issues unconsciously is "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. 

Kate Chopin bravely exposed an attitude of feminism to an unprepared society in her novel The Awakening. Her brilliant work of fiction was not recognized at the time because feminism had not yet become popular. Chopin defied societal assumptions of her time period and wrote the novel, The Awakening, using attitudes of characters in regard to gender, changes in the main character, imagery and Edna's suicide to illustrate her feminist position. Society during Chopin's time period believed women to be a weak, dependent gender whose position lay nothing above mothering and housework. In The Awakening, Chopin relays the basic attitudes of society toward women mainly through her characters Leonce, Edna, Madame Ratignolle, and Madame Reisz. She uses Leonce and Madame Ratignolle to portray examples of what was considered acceptable in society. However, Chopin includes the contrasting characters of Edna and Madame Reisz in an effort to express urges and desires disguised by the female gender.

In The Awakening, Edna Pontellier undergoes many changes. She discovers a sense of independence and shows this through her emotions and rebellion against her husband and children. She also experiences a sexual "awakening" as a result of her love for Robert and an adulterous affair with Arobin. Edna's life is changed so drastically that she realizes there is no way for her to live a normal life and be happy any longer. Edna's sense of independence is portrayed in descriptions of her feelings throughout the novel. It is also evident that she has found a new freedom when she rebels against her husband and the norms of society. Edna first feels emotions toward being independent when she swims for the first time. This is a turning point in her life, as she is able to swim off on her own, with the desire to "swim where no woman had ever swum"

Just as Edna did not conform to the standards of her peers, Kate Chopin rebelled against her own peers by writing the novel, The Awakening. She uses attitudes of characters in her novel toward gender, changes in Edna and her suicide to express her own feminist attitudes. Chopin was shunned from communities as a result of her strong feministic views and great ability. but later on she unknowingly helped women to want to find that independence through her story connection.