The Awakening
Why study this text?
"MERIT AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Awakening provoked controversy and was censored when it was first published in 1899. Largely neglected in the decades that followed, the novel received renewed critical attention in the 1960s and is now regarded as an important precursor of modern feminist literature. The novel is significant for its depiction of social and cultural constraints, particularly the tedium and oppressiveness of middle-class female existence and confining gender roles. The female heroine and voice provide a perspective that was unusual for the time. The character’s unconventional views on femininity and motherhood bring her into direct conflict with the moral and social codes and attitudes that prevailed in the American Deep South at the close of the 19th century. HSC Annotations 2015–20 English (Standard) and (Advanced) – Common Content 9
"NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF STUDENTS
The novel explores how we follow paths in life unquestioningly until something happens to awaken us to other possibilities. The main character chooses to focus on discovering her own untapped resources and potential, ignoring social expectations in the process and ultimately accepting responsibility for the direction her life takes. Through her novel, Chopin clearly delineates the characteristics required to discover oneself: courage, bravery, persistence and an independent spirit.
"OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHALLENGING TEACHING AND LEARNING
Students will analyse how metaphors of light, clothing, art and music, and open and closed spaces are used in the novel to represent the ways individuals are confined and liberated. Through close examination of techniques of characterisation and the unflinching use of the omniscient narrator, students will appreciate how they reveal characters’ material realities and psychological identities. Students will have opportunities to consider and evaluate the effect of the author’s extensive use of irony, understatement, wit and dry humour in the novel."
Source: NSW Board of Studies. Annotations of Selected Texts.
Read it online at Gutenberg [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/160] or listen to it on YouTube.
Quick Summary (don't write your essay like this - you doh't get marks for telling the plot!)
Article myriad [http://www.articlemyriad.com/awakening-kate-chopin-ednas-awakening/]
Character Map [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/~/media/C855BAA86A474967B77ACD7A93DB313D.ashx] Print this out! It will keep all the key people and their relationships fresh in your mind.
Cliff notes [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/book-summary] has a chapter by chapter summary that may be useful if you are trying to find out
Novel Guide [http://www.novelguide.com/the-awakening] has a detailed summary with some very useful analysis of themes and metaphors
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/the-awakening/] has its usual excellent summaries and analyses. An excellent second or third discovery.
Kimmi Johnston's blog has some very readbale reactions to the situations in The Awakening. Try this if you're having trouble getting to the book or seeting it's relevance to your own life
Starting points
60 second Recap [http://www.60secondrecap.com/study-guide/kate-chopin-the-awakening-theme-2/] has qwuiick intorcurtions to the plat, characters and themes
Tutor Tales [http://www.tutortales.org/belonging/related-text-the-awakening-by-kate-chopin/] has a quick response to her initial reading of the text, with a few painters about how it relates to discovery.
Spark Notes [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/awakening/section2.rhtml]
Analysis
Ryan Cofrancesco has written a feminist anaysis of the novel
Wing Imagery [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/critical-essays/wing-imagery]
Literature Reverie's analysis [https://literaturereverie.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/sexuality-and-the-body-the-awakening-by-chopin/] concentrates on the theme of sexual discovery, an important point in feminist ananlysis
UKEssay [http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/symbolism-in-kate-chopins-the-awakening-english-literature-essay.php] has an excellent page anaysing the signficance of metophors usch ares the arts, birds and the sea
Cody Grigger's essay [http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/pdf/griggers.pdf] discusses Edna's relationship with nature, viewing her a a wild caged animal.
Mary Bird [http://departments.knox.edu/engdept/commonroom/Volume_Three/number_one/mbird/print.html] analyses different readings of Edna's suicide
Sarah Bommarito's Honours thesis [http://departments.knox.edu/engdept/commonroom/Volume_Three/number_one/mbird/print.html] compares Chopin' bold depiction of female emotion and sexuality with an other author (Wharton) writing around the same time, another useful comparative essay is Samira Taheri's analysis [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a6gn-CqNpjxx2sZnBiWwb1G17QNLgwxD0cjmae_-B3A/edit?hl=en&pli=1] of passive and agressive female stereotypes.
Carley Rees Bogard discusses The Awakening as a classic bildungsroman (novel about a character's journey to self-discovery)
christina R williams [http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=tor] argues against a feminist reading of the novel
Rula Quawas [https://journals.ju.edu.jo/DirasatHum/article/viewFile/452/450] examines the concept of individuality within the novel
Deanna Henessy [http://portfolio.snc.edu/deanna_hennessy/wp-content/blogs.dir/96/files/sites/96/2013/08/Psychoanalytic-Final1.pdf] gives a thorough (Freudian) psychoanalytical reading of the novel
Reviews
BookMarks [http://lithub.com/the-voice-of-the-sea-speaks-to-the-soul-a-1899-review-of-kate-chopins-the-awakening/] has a copy of an 1899 Review
Good Reads [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58345.The_Awakening] has hundreds of reviews. Have a look at the one star and five star reviews to discover what people love and hate about the novel.
Russ Sprinkle's essay looks at the reason's for the initially difficuylt reception of the novel
PBS [http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/transcript.html] has a transcript of their documentary about Kate Chopin which includes interviews with important critics
Quotes can be found at
Book Rags [http://www.bookrags.com/notes/awa/quo.html#gsc.tab=0] or
Essay writing
This essay at 123helpme [http://www.123helpme.com/assets/17270.html] has some useful discussion of how the language features develop the theme of self-discovery
This sample essay [http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/49182.html] is a feminist reading on the theme of self-discovery (it is blocked at school - try at home or a library)
"MERIT AND CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The Awakening provoked controversy and was censored when it was first published in 1899. Largely neglected in the decades that followed, the novel received renewed critical attention in the 1960s and is now regarded as an important precursor of modern feminist literature. The novel is significant for its depiction of social and cultural constraints, particularly the tedium and oppressiveness of middle-class female existence and confining gender roles. The female heroine and voice provide a perspective that was unusual for the time. The character’s unconventional views on femininity and motherhood bring her into direct conflict with the moral and social codes and attitudes that prevailed in the American Deep South at the close of the 19th century. HSC Annotations 2015–20 English (Standard) and (Advanced) – Common Content 9
"NEEDS AND INTERESTS OF STUDENTS
The novel explores how we follow paths in life unquestioningly until something happens to awaken us to other possibilities. The main character chooses to focus on discovering her own untapped resources and potential, ignoring social expectations in the process and ultimately accepting responsibility for the direction her life takes. Through her novel, Chopin clearly delineates the characteristics required to discover oneself: courage, bravery, persistence and an independent spirit.
"OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHALLENGING TEACHING AND LEARNING
Students will analyse how metaphors of light, clothing, art and music, and open and closed spaces are used in the novel to represent the ways individuals are confined and liberated. Through close examination of techniques of characterisation and the unflinching use of the omniscient narrator, students will appreciate how they reveal characters’ material realities and psychological identities. Students will have opportunities to consider and evaluate the effect of the author’s extensive use of irony, understatement, wit and dry humour in the novel."
Source: NSW Board of Studies. Annotations of Selected Texts.
Read it online at Gutenberg [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/160] or listen to it on YouTube.
Quick Summary (don't write your essay like this - you doh't get marks for telling the plot!)
Article myriad [http://www.articlemyriad.com/awakening-kate-chopin-ednas-awakening/]
Character Map [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/~/media/C855BAA86A474967B77ACD7A93DB313D.ashx] Print this out! It will keep all the key people and their relationships fresh in your mind.
Cliff notes [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/book-summary] has a chapter by chapter summary that may be useful if you are trying to find out
Novel Guide [http://www.novelguide.com/the-awakening] has a detailed summary with some very useful analysis of themes and metaphors
Schmoop [http://www.shmoop.com/the-awakening/] has its usual excellent summaries and analyses. An excellent second or third discovery.
Kimmi Johnston's blog has some very readbale reactions to the situations in The Awakening. Try this if you're having trouble getting to the book or seeting it's relevance to your own life
Starting points
60 second Recap [http://www.60secondrecap.com/study-guide/kate-chopin-the-awakening-theme-2/] has qwuiick intorcurtions to the plat, characters and themes
Tutor Tales [http://www.tutortales.org/belonging/related-text-the-awakening-by-kate-chopin/] has a quick response to her initial reading of the text, with a few painters about how it relates to discovery.
Spark Notes [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/awakening/section2.rhtml]
Analysis
Ryan Cofrancesco has written a feminist anaysis of the novel
Wing Imagery [http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/a/the-awakening/critical-essays/wing-imagery]
Literature Reverie's analysis [https://literaturereverie.wordpress.com/2014/02/14/sexuality-and-the-body-the-awakening-by-chopin/] concentrates on the theme of sexual discovery, an important point in feminist ananlysis
UKEssay [http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/symbolism-in-kate-chopins-the-awakening-english-literature-essay.php] has an excellent page anaysing the signficance of metophors usch ares the arts, birds and the sea
Cody Grigger's essay [http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/pdf/griggers.pdf] discusses Edna's relationship with nature, viewing her a a wild caged animal.
Mary Bird [http://departments.knox.edu/engdept/commonroom/Volume_Three/number_one/mbird/print.html] analyses different readings of Edna's suicide
Sarah Bommarito's Honours thesis [http://departments.knox.edu/engdept/commonroom/Volume_Three/number_one/mbird/print.html] compares Chopin' bold depiction of female emotion and sexuality with an other author (Wharton) writing around the same time, another useful comparative essay is Samira Taheri's analysis [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a6gn-CqNpjxx2sZnBiWwb1G17QNLgwxD0cjmae_-B3A/edit?hl=en&pli=1] of passive and agressive female stereotypes.
Carley Rees Bogard discusses The Awakening as a classic bildungsroman (novel about a character's journey to self-discovery)
christina R williams [http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=tor] argues against a feminist reading of the novel
Rula Quawas [https://journals.ju.edu.jo/DirasatHum/article/viewFile/452/450] examines the concept of individuality within the novel
Deanna Henessy [http://portfolio.snc.edu/deanna_hennessy/wp-content/blogs.dir/96/files/sites/96/2013/08/Psychoanalytic-Final1.pdf] gives a thorough (Freudian) psychoanalytical reading of the novel
Reviews
BookMarks [http://lithub.com/the-voice-of-the-sea-speaks-to-the-soul-a-1899-review-of-kate-chopins-the-awakening/] has a copy of an 1899 Review
Good Reads [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58345.The_Awakening] has hundreds of reviews. Have a look at the one star and five star reviews to discover what people love and hate about the novel.
Russ Sprinkle's essay looks at the reason's for the initially difficuylt reception of the novel
PBS [http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/transcript.html] has a transcript of their documentary about Kate Chopin which includes interviews with important critics
Quotes can be found at
Book Rags [http://www.bookrags.com/notes/awa/quo.html#gsc.tab=0] or
Essay writing
This essay at 123helpme [http://www.123helpme.com/assets/17270.html] has some useful discussion of how the language features develop the theme of self-discovery
This sample essay [http://www.exampleessays.com/viewpaper/49182.html] is a feminist reading on the theme of self-discovery (it is blocked at school - try at home or a library)