Human Agency Kate Chopin\'s Protagonist

Human Agency

Kate Chopin's protagonist Edna Pontellier shares a surprising amount in common with both Malcolm X and W.E.B. DuBois. Pontellier, like Malcolm X and W.E.B. DuBois, forges her own path and develops an identity distinct from and in some ways, in opposition to, the dominant culture. Edna Pontellier's identity is formed via a sexual awakening and a redefinition of gender roles and norms of behavior. Human agency in Kate Chopin's the Awakening is that power which enables Edna Pontellier to assert her identity and subvert traditional gender roles. In "W.E.B. DuBois on Woman Suffrage," Garth E. Pauley delves deeper into the intersection between gender and racial politics. Like Edna Pontellier, W.E.B. DuBois was conscious of the ways women are subjugated and oppressed in American society. Yet W.E.B. DuBois takes the analysis one step further to show that one type of oppression is akin to the other: the disenfranchisement of women is the self-same issue as the disenfranchisement of African-Americans. Therefore, woman suffrage was a natural extension of black suffrage for W.E.B.DuBois. In Malcolm X's Autobiography, the author does not dwell overly much on gender. However, several passages in Malcolm X's autobiography do show how race, gender, and power do share points of political intersection. Ultimately these three texts present self-assertion and political empowerment as a function of human agency. Moreover, Chopin, Pauley, and Malcolm X show that conflict is a catalyst for human agency.

Malcolm X notes that he was raised in an environment of institutionalized racism, one in which racism was so entrenched that even his anti-white father seemed to favor his children with lighter skin. After his father's death, the white-controlled state legislature takes over the family and imposes what Malcolm X correctly observes to be a surrogate form of slavery. Malcolm X, his family torn apart, flees to New York where he becomes involved in the Harlem Renaissance as a street punk. His deviant behavior can be easily re-framed as a reaction to institutionalized racism. Lacking legitimate means to achieve upward social mobility, Blacks in America had three choices. They could sell out and conform to white social norms by participating in the white economy and social structure. They could maintain community ties with African-Americans but accept that poverty goes hand-in-hand with that choice. or, African-Americans can forge new means of acquiring wealth and power. If those means included criminal activities, then that was simply the way by which Malcolm X and others like him asserted themselves -- used their human agency to create personal and communal change.

Human agency is expressed in Malcolm X's Autobiography as deliberate subversion, just as human agency is expressed in Kate Chopin's Awakening as a blatant undermining of proscribed gender roles. Edna Pontellier acts promiscuously, following her heart rather than submitting to domestic slavery. Likewise, Malcolm X avoids symbolic and actual slavery by creating his own community. Influenced by the teachings of Marcus Garvey and later the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X understood that crisis and conflict can precipitate change. In prison, Malcolm X learned how to direct his will, his human agency, towards personal empowerment. Personal empowerment and self-education led to his forging ties with powerful Black leaders. Therefore, Malcolm X presents human agency as being instrumental to creating positive social change. As the author points out, genuine anger was transmuted into the ultimate goal of achieving universal human rights.

Universal human rights was also the main concern of W.E.B. DuBois, as Garth E. Pauley points out. W.E.B. DuBois was keenly aware of the devastating fact that many who supported the 14th and 15th Amendments were also willing to denigrate women. It was as if Americans felt the need to distinguish between racism and sexism. Supporters of the 14th and 15th Amendments held backwards views about women, and were willing to accept the outlandish notion that women were incapable of voting. Excluding fifty percent of the population from political empowerment was anathema to human rights, W.E.B. DuBois was trying to say. On the other hand, the so-called Southern Strategy segregated racism and sexism in a different way: by supporting the right of white women to vote but not blacks. W.E.B. DuBois tried to present a reasoned argument that showed how no suffrage could be considered universal unless all adult Americans regardless of gender or race were included. Woman suffrage "would have practical benefits for the Black race" and would also empower all women (Pauley p. 384). Human agency was the power by which W.E.B. DuBois created consciousness changes.