琐碎的book report.

The Awakening is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899.
In writing The Awakening , Kate Chopin was well ahead of her time. The novel was met with a great deal of controversy.

She was a pioneer creating women characters beyond the role of wife and mother. She wrote about women's feelings, sexuality, and independence.
 It took America decades to catch up with Kate Chopin.

This novel explores how not all women are content being wife and mother.
This is an American novel of self awareness.

Edna is married to a New Orleans businessman and has two small sons. She is 28; the year is around 1899. While spending the summer at Grand Island with her family she is aware of changes in her feelings.

She loves her sons, but will not give up her inner essence for them. She respects her husband, but does not love him.

She decides to do things because she wants to, not because someone else expects her to. She finds herself attracted to another man.
When he suddenly leaves the area she is lonely. As the summer turns into winter, the family returns to New Orleans. Her feelings do not diminish.
 Edna realizes she needs more.

She discovers the strength of will to explore what she can be. Women were not to seek an affair, part of her desire. Does she have the strength of will to carry it out?

I couldn't identify well with The Awakening. Although a feminist book, this could speak to anyone trapped in a role not of their own making.

The Awakening opens at the summer resort of Grand Island, a small hotel located fifty miles off of the coast of New Orleans.

The action begins as Léonce, the husband of the novel‘s protagonist, Edna, sits on the porch of his cottage reading his day-old newspaper. Léonce is a self-important man who accepts as his due the deference of others to his perceived superiority.
 As Léonce sits on the porch, his wife returns from the beach with Robert, the son of the resort owner.

Léonce leaves for his club to play billiards. He invites Robert to join him, but the younger man declines the invitation, choosing instead to remain with Edna.


Each summer, Robert "constitutes himself the devoted attendant of some fair dame or damsel," but always chooses women who are safe—either girls who are too young to marry or matrons.

Edna does not fit in with the Grand Isle crowd. She is the only person at the hotel who is not a Creole, and she is embarrassed by the Creole society's openness on subjects such as sex and childbirth . Instead of experiencing this fulfillment, Edna is restless and subject to spells of depression that she does not understand.

Edna's performance of her motherly duties does not satisfy her husband, either. The more Léonce chastizes Edna for her shortcomings, the more resentful she becomes until she finally dismisses his complaints altogether .


Edna's feelings of boredom grow, and the more restless she becomes, the more she finds herself drawn to Robert. The two become nearly inseparable, sitting together and talking in the afternoons, going to the beach to swim, and taking boat trips to neighboring islands.

As Edna's infatuation with Robert becomes obvious, one of Edna's friends, Adèle, warns Robert to stop flirting with Edna, because she is not like the Creole women with whom Robert has flirted in the past. Adèle tells Robert that Edna is different because she might make the mistake of taking him seriously. Robert becomes angry at the suggestion that he is not a man who a woman should take seriously, but retreats from his position when Adèle reminds him that should he allow himself to become involved with a married woman.

Adèle's warning may ultimately precipitate Robert's premature departure from Grand Island. Edna's restlessness leads to a series of emotional awakenings from which she begins to gain a sense of the parts of her life that she must cast off.

These awakenings cause her to try to break away from the traditional role of wife and mother that turn-of-the-century society.


Although Robert feel Edna’s love, but in order to save himself and her fame, he still leave Edna and gone to Mexico.
Edna returned to New Orleans ,missing Robert day and night, and her husband go to New York to do business, resist the temptation of lust, and finally succumb to the dandy, Robin,but she know she does not love him.

Robert suddenly returned from Mexico, they meet again,fall in love again.At that time.Enda’s friend sent to help. Edna ask Robert to stay at home waiting for her, but when she returned,couldn’t find Robert.

Edna dispirited and discouraged, came to Grand Island alone, naked and into the sea.

Edna‘s awakening make she walk on a path of rebellion.
This awakening is the essence of longing for independence and freedom. In seeking independence, she realized that in itself is not perfect, and finally understand at that society to change their way of life is impossible.

This is the contradiction which Chopin facing to, the female facing to,and that society facing to .Enda realized that even if she got Robet,she will lose him someday. Therefore, Edna has no other choice, in order to protect the true love to others and herself.She walk toward the sea.

To Edna, the sea is not only stand for freedom, but also a symbol of independence. The sea like a mother, make Edna forget the pain.

She came to Grand Island, she got relief from the loneliness ,forever.