To Read & To Write

I don't think Kate Chopin's intention with her novel, The Awakening, published in 1899, was to shock or entertain. Both reactions indeed took over the masses when the book was published. But Chopin, I believe, meant to teach, meant to illustrate an example. I also do not think that Chopin's main character, Mrs. Edna Pontillier, was one to entertain or one who wanted to. However, Mrs. Pontillier did entertain by way of beginning to perform and act out her life for herself, and herself alone. Her witnesses and acquaintances looked on with curiosity and concern, and love.  Put simply, The Awakening is a novel exploring societal values regarding women during the turn of the 19th century (1899). The lush backdrop of the Grand Isle in Louisiana only compounds the emotional turmoil the protagonist, Mrs. Edna Pontillier, finds herself coping with one oppressive summer. As a married woman with children, Mrs. Pontillier finds it difficult to express the psychological changes...