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Summary: Not usually my type of book, but I loved it!
Review: The Awakening is one of the few books I could read over and over again. I'm usually into more cheerful, cheesy romance novel types of books, but I loved this book even though the plot frustrated me. It is one of those books that really gets you thinking about the underlying issues and it is also a great way to learn a little bit more about history, and since I love stories set in old New Orleans Creole society it was really a joy!
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Summary: Wonderful History; Exquisite Inner Conflict
Review: Kate Chopin's tale of a married woman discovering herself--apart from her marital identity--still resonates. Set in 1890s Louisiana, Edna Pontellier meets a young man on Grand Isle while vacationing with her husband and two sons. Mrs. Pontellier is young, beautiful, genteel, and wholly innocent of herself. That is, she is what she was raised to be--an obedient wife and mother. Ah, but this Summer, something stirs within her, some unknown creature which she had scarcely dreamed of, begins to squirm and demands "Recognize me; don't let me wither." Her defiance of social standards is subtle at Grand Isle, then blossoms into a revolution once she and her family return to New Orleans. The question of her marriage becomes clear: She does not love her husband. And what of that young man she met at Grand Isle? Robert LeBrun, young, handsome, well-mannered, and remarkably sensitive to Edna Pontellier's desires . . . she has fallen hopelessly in love with him. Kate Chopin's writing is sensuous, to wit: "The sea was quiet now, and swelled lazily in broad billows that melted into one another and did not break except upon the beach in little foamy crests that coiled back like slow, white serpents." This story is something to savor.
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Summary: hmmm--Plath, where are you?
Review: A highly reverved novel that left me numb. I prefer Plath when it come to the self-loathing female. Indeed, a southern writer at heart, he short stories seem to be more effective and less heavy-handed.
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Summary: Very draggy but good story
Review: The Awakening by Kate Chopin is the story of a woman who is not enjoying her married life. The story begins with the narrator telling us quite a bit of detail about the characters. We learn about Mr. Léonce Pontellier, and his wife, Mrs. Edna Pontellier, the character who will be "awakened" in the story. It is important to know that she is the only person in the story who is not a Creole. The Pontiellier's spend their summer on an island off of New Orleans called Grand Isle with their children. We later find out that Edna is not enjoying her husband, but all her friends think Léonce is a perfect husband. When they later go back to New Orleans for the winter, Mr. Pontellier has to go to New York for business purposes and the children go away with his mother. Mrs. Pontellier does not want to go. During this time, Edna moves to another house without her husband's approval. She begins to "awaken" and see other men, but her first love has always been Robert, a man she met on Grand Isle last summer. But Robert went to Mexico for a job, but probably he goes because he loves Edna but does not want to enter into an affair with her. Later, Alcée Arobin is another man whom Edna flirts with. Mrs. Pontellier also has a couple woman friends. One of those friends is Adèle Ratignolle, who is a married Creole woman with many children. She is quite different from Edna because she enjoys her married life. She also knows Madamoiselle Reisz, an unmarried musician who Edna likes to visit and to listen to her play the piano. Mrs. Pontellier gets the idea about doing some painting from her. These fine friends of her guide her to her "awakening" which changes her life. Throughout the story, things are going on in Mrs. Pontellier's mind. She's constantly evaluating her married life with Léonce and the children. Although she loves the children, Edna is unable to commit her life to them. The main theme of this story is that she is struggling within her own boundaries trying to awaken herself. She is married to a Creole, but not one herself, which adds to her life trouble of being with an incompatible husband. Perhaps some women around the turn of twentieth century were coping with similar struggles, but with no feasible solution.
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Summary: Chronicle of a lonely and disturbed woman
Review: 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.
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Summary: Great Book---I think...
Review: Nobody really wakes up in this book so I dont get the title. But I did like it anyway, particularly the picture on the cover---Stan Wertheim, Wm Patterson College
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Summary: A masterpiece.
Review: I was given this book as part of an assignment for an advanced literature class. When I picked it up I thought, "Great, a romance novel." However upon reading the first twenty pages I was the one falling in love. The characters, both major and minor, are real. The complexity of every person that the reader meets is stunning. I found myself imagining where these people lived and how they spent their weekends. When relationships began to develop they had a quality of realism that I had never experienced before. Like a stunning painting the book expresses a feeling and an idea, instead of merely conveying a thought. This book is amazing. Few writers have ever come so close to uncovering and examining the human soul. Kate Chopin touched it.
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Summary: Good symbols and story, but terrible advice
Review: I was a juniow in high school, and I had to read this for my summer work. I like reading books, so since I've never heard of the book before, I was in anticipation to see what's it all about. 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.
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Summary: excellent novel - must read for women especially
Review: Kate Chopin, a woman far ahead of her time, did a remarkable job in writing The Awakening. She most likely felt many of the same things as her fiction character, writing them through her novel. It is so unfortunate that the book was rejected when first published, that people could not accept such a revolutionary and dynamic female character like Edna Pontellier. She was a strong-willed woman who discovered her independence, self-worth, inner strength and sexuality. In a time when wives were submissive and subservient, Edna breaks free of the confines of society's traditional role for women. Empowered by the realization that she can make her own decisions and act according to her will alone, not simply her husband's, her life becomes more fully real. It is then that she can also truly love. Edna had always been quietly rebellious and independent, but had slowly given in more and more to society's rules and the males in her life. She did not want to be seen and esteemed only for being a mother and proper woman. It was refreshing to see such a strong woman, especially considering the time period the novel was written, long before the times of civil or women's rights. Edna's happiness and freedom, her true self and being, are the most valuable things in the world to her. She does not want to be treated as a possession any longer. Edna's thoughts and actions were quite radical for the late 19th century, but many of the ideas from the novel still apply today, even in a time of supposed equality and freedoms. People must learn to look inward for true happiness; self-realizations and preservation. Today, people, women, tend to look outward for their contentment and acceptance, basing it on other people and material things. Kate Chopin and her character were attempting to break free of this a century ago. Reading The Awakening was a pleasurable experience from start to finish. We both really enjoyed the novel and definitely recommend it to others, especially women.
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Summary: Ruthlessly perceptive
Review: "The Awakening" is ruthless in its complete exposure of social oppression and in its avoidance of hypocrisy. Although the novel was written more than one hundred years ago, most if not all of its themes are relevant today. "The Awakening" examines both women's social position and the perception of that position from the point of view of both genders. When Robert makes his first amorous overtures to Edna Pontellier a mutual friend warns him to act carefully because Edna will not behave in the same manner as other women. She is warning Robert, that Edna will respond to him in an independent and emotional fashion instead of playing the role dictated to her by society. This becomes clear when Robert returns from his self-imposed exile and informs Edna that he wants to ask her husband's permission to share her. Edna mocks this proposal and tells Robert that her life and her feelings are hers alone to give not her husband's. Unfortunately, Robert is unable to love Edna in a manner that is not socially sanctified. In fact, Robert prefers the absurdity of sharing Edna with her husband to having Edna give herself to him of her own volition. To Robert the choice must still be the husband's not Edna's. His affection for Edna is both shallow and inextricably conditioned by social parameters. The most difficult part of the novel is Edna's decision to commit suicide, knowing she will leave her children behind. From an emotional perspective this is probably difficult for any reader to endure. But it accurately conveys Edna's plight. No man and very few women are capable of accepting Edna on her own terms. They cannot even conceive of her as an independent person so much as an eccentric. Edna's suicide is not meant to promote suicide as a means of female social emancipation. Instead, it demonstrates that if a woman really wants to escape the pervasive restrictions imposed on her by men, she has few, if any, alternatives. While the legal and social status of women has improved considerably in the developed world, I wonder to what extent men really view them independently of social convention? And in the end, don't the men get a raw deal in this novel? Edna's husband is never able to grasp who she is. Her lover does not even know whom he loves or why? Most of the men in "The Awakening" are in love with the perception of a woman more than with the woman herself. I feel sorry for them.
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