The Awakening

The story started out plainly in a good written style. The imagery towards the sea, and all the symbols that include the parrot, the sea, the piano, and Adele, were very smart and intellectual.

But as I kept reading, I was horrifid at what Chopin is trying to say in this book.( I am not a chauvinist or anything, and I do believe in a person having it's total freedom in deciding, and doing whatever he/she wants.) Edna decides to leave her husband, and all society, for her whims.

At one point, Chopin describes Edna like an animal, and that is exactly what Edna is. She doesn't care for her children, her friends, anybody around her, but for 2 guys that are totally shallow and dumb. Suddenly, in chapter 23, Edna is sounding like a whore. Looking at guys, and ignoring her kids and husband.

This may sound harsh, but I agree with those critics that condemned the novel. Society gets worse if people read this book.(not just women). If we need to become animals, to find ourselves then you go ahead.

And one more thing. this book could have had a better lead character. edna can't make her mind,and instead gives up on her "war". (Although people say it's a victory.

It's not bad, for its literary symbols, but don't take this book any more seriously than you have to.


Surprisingly not heavy-handed   April 1, 2004
 16 out of 18 found this review helpful

I've finally gotten around to reading this book, in the original, without editorial intervention. It was worth it.

Kate Chopin wrote this story of female self-actualization back in the late 19th century, but it's as applicable today as it was then. I think we all feel trapped by decisions we've made capriciously, and we all consider, even briefly, escape. The main character in this novel not only realizes that she has trapped herself, but she actively seeks to free herself. Her action, rather than just emotion and despair (a la Goethe), is what separates her from the herd.

Here's the low-down: Edna is a woman, probably in her 30s or so, married to a successful financier and mother to two charming children. She summers on an island, probably to escape summer diseases in the city, New Orleans. One summer she acquires a friend, Robert. Although married women in this society frequently have male friends, Edna is an outsider, and she takes Robert's attentions far too seriously. Apparently, he is similarly infatuated. Basking in Robert's attention, Edna understands at last that she has discarded her youthful dreams and hopes and that her current life is unfulfilling. She takes small steps toward freeing herself, and Robert seems a willing accomplice for a while.

But Robert sees the hopelessness of such an infatuation: Edna is married, after all. Abruptly, Robert leaves the island and heads off to Mexico, presumably to seek his fortune. Edna is devastated. Even after she returns to town, her emotions are in turmoil. But loneliness actually proves helpful. She relearns who she is, reclaims the dreams of her youth, and abandons her husband and children. The author is careful with this last, making it seem tragic and irresponsible, yet ultimately unavoidable. By the last 20 pages, Edna is free.

And then Robert returns. Edna says that she does not feel obligated by their mutual love; she says that she is an independent woman now who is not the property of any other person. But she's lying. Her actions show that she is dependent on Robert, needy for his love and attention. I still can't decide if the author created this break between words and behavior on purpose, or if she really intended us to believe that Edna was wholly independent.

In fact, the only weak part of the story, in my opinion, is that Edna does not take responsibility for her own awakening. She claims that Robert "awoke" her.

Edna does in the end devise a solution that proves her ultimate freedom and independence, and it is the only solution that works. But I won't spoil it by writing it here.

The thing that makes this book so lovely is that it isn't preachy. So many modern girl-power novels just sort of slam you over the head with the girls-first-and-men-suck mantra. This book is about Edna; it doesn't purport to be about all women. It's a very personal work, and the narrative hand is light. It leaves us, the readers, free to recognize the little bits of Edna in us all, and although the rest of us may not ultimately choose Edna's course, it gives us hope that such freedom is possible, even after the fact.


Chronicle of a lonely and disturbed woman   July 30, 2000
 15 out of 21 found this review helpful

The Awakening is one of my more-read classic books--it allows the reader to slip into the identity of another human being who is totally unlike them.

Edna is an average, middle-class mother married to a respectable yet dull man with a pair of fairly nice children. Yet she realizes that her life is stifled--she is expected to fall into a mold of behavior and thinking that a thousand other women fall into. In addition, she is attracted to a young man working with her husband.

Edna soon breaks free of all ties, living as she wishes and doing as she wishes, but her newfound freedom comes with a price...

I think that Edna may have had a mood disorder--her sometimes random swings of emotion and her interactions with her husband and children point that even if there were no physiological reason for her dissatisfaction, I think that she may have been disturbed in some way. Even after finding her "satisfaction," she still doesn't seem happy.

A book that was originally condemned for being scandalously immoral, "Awakening" is a fairly tame tale with an un-Hollywoodish ending that leaves the reader feeling sad, yet not regretting their choice to read it.

I don't think this is a feminist tale-more the tale of a human being pinballing into unknown waters.


probably the worst book i have ever read   November 9, 1997
 15 out of 20 found this review helpful

I might as well say that I am a computer engineering major at the University of Kansas, so all bigots who do not even bother to respect what I say because they do not agree with me can chalk it up to the fact that I am a male engineering major and I "just can't understand it" and you will point out that my English here is not always gramatically correct (it's a Sunday afternoon and I don't care). To those of you I say: "Look at the facts and don't make excuses!"

I guess if you like boring writing and a soap-operaesque plot, go ahead and read. This, however, should not the book that is heralded by critics as it is. I cannot see what they see in it. Edna, who is married, runs off to see a second man. He escapes to South America when he realizes he is getting into this relationship much to deep, so Edna looks for a third man, who she knows in her heart and has been advised that he is bad for her; Naturally, she goes after him anyway. After getting too attached to Alcee, her other lover proclaims in a letter that he's coming back. So ends the plot summary of "The Awakening", written in a wash of thinly veiled sybolism and in an excruciating-to-read writing style.

"The Awakening" would have been a great book to read if I had been looking for either a feminist handbook or a book destroying the sanctity of marriage. Many people, particularly feminists, will argue two things, Edna was being oppressed and Edna was a passionate woman. True, Edna was being oppressed, but do three wrongs (oppression compounded with adultery and suicide) make a right. As for passion, Edna is a bland woman who relies on everyone else (Adele, the doctor, Reisz) to make the tough decision for her.

Most of you will not agree with what I just said, but those are what I consider to be the cold, hard facts. I was crucified in my English class (which consisted of 3 males, 15 females, and a feminist teacher), but "such is life". I also write this as a warning to all who would be swayed by the crowd to think of this as a good book when they do not believe this to be true, to give a dissenting opinion, something to balance and use as a measure to compare those other reviews against. And lastly, I write this because I believe this is the truth.


the awakening   April 24, 2001
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

When The Awakening was published at the end of the XIX century, the novel was not well received. The protagonist, Edna Pontellier, was accussed of being a bad wife, a bad mother, a bad person... a bad example to women. Ms. Chopin died a couple of years later without publishing another book. Less than 100 years later, The Awakening has been rescued and it is considered one of the milestones in women's literature. Edna lives a comfortable, pleasant, wealthy life in New Orleans. Edna, like all other women in her same social-economic status, is expected to conform to the images that society and literature has created and perpetuated about them: those of the angel-woman, the mother-woman, the perfect-woman. Edna's friend, Adele Ratignolle, is precisely the embodiment of all these virtues, and is against Adele that Edna measures herself and begins to question her place in the world. When seeing the Ratignolles acting at unison, Edna feels depressed rather than soothed and this picture of perfect married life left Edna with a sense of "pity for that colorless existence which never uplifted its possessor beyond the region of blind contentment." Edna begins to search for her own identity, very much like a man would, the difference is that because of her gender, Edna is not allowed to explore and grow as an individual. Edna begins gradually to awaken not only to her own independence but to her sexuality, as well. She leaves the comfort of her husband's home and moves into her own small place, she begins to paint for a living and she takes a lover. Yet she soon realizes that no matter how hard she tries to be a person, she (and all women by extension) will always be perceived as someone's appendage and never her own person. There are metaphors throughout the book that evoke Edna's increasing awareness: she goes through periods of deep sleep and she swims, which is also a metaphor for her progressive awakening. Overall The Awakening is one of those books that is still pertinent today, for although women are allowed to have careers and speak their own minds, women are still expected to be above all mothers and wives. This dichotomy between being a wife/mother-woman and a woman-woman - still sparks today - 100 years later - controversy.