Dissenting Action

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a great example of how everyone should be given equal opportunities to an extent. Obviously not everyone can have the exact same opportunities because of different economic statuses that can't be controlled, but uncontrollable statuses should not affect opportunities. In the past, it was a very common occurrence for the white male to be chosen in the case of two equally qualified candidates. Since then, affirmative action was instated to help correct this action. In my opinion thought, it did not fix the error, it only made it happen in a different way. With affirmative action, the minority would likely be chosen instead. This could help adjust for more white men being chosen in the past to give minorities a boost at first, but it still doesn't seem right to me.
Recently though, Affirmative Action is being overturned in supreme court cases. For example, Michigan banned affirmative action last year, but the case made it to the supreme court where it was upheld and decided that affirmative action was as bad as choosing whites over other races because it was still racial profiling. In my opinion, the better way of handling the issue is with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which protects U.S. employees from being discriminated upon by their race/sex/religion etc. This act was passed in 1965, but affirmative action has still taken place for a while even though it goes against Equal Opportunity. It makes sense that they need to make up for wrongdoings in the past, but it still seems like rejecting whites in favor of others to get subsidies isn't right.This issue of equal opportunity is seen in The Awakening where the protagonist, Edna, ultimately chooses to kill herself because she realizes she will never get the opportunity to fulfill her dreams. The ending is controversial because some believe that her never achieving her goals was not a good way to end it. However, I agree with Chopin's decision to end the book the way she did because it showed how the society that existed when she wrote it would not let her ever break free no matter how hard she tried.