the novel report

8/7/2019 The Novel Report

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Donna K. Smith

English Composition II

03 March 2011

Novel Report

1. Title and author: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

2. Date of initial publication: July 1972

3. Setting: 1890’s the story begins at the Grand Isle off the Coast of

New Orleans. Robert leaves and goes to Vera Cruz Mexico. After the

summer, the family returns to New Orleans and then the story ends

back at the Grand Isle.

4. Write the names and brief descriptions of the protagonist, his or her

closest friend or ally, and the antagonist: The protagonist is Edna

Pontellier, who is a 28 year old wife of a successful businessman. As

she tries to maintain her role in the high society of the New Orleans

Creole women, she begins to feel that she is confined in her

marriage, which leads her to falling in love with Robert Lebrun, who

is a clean shaven, young, good looking man. Robert always spends

time with the women who are vacationing at the Grand Isle and this

time, it happened to be Edna. The antagonist is the society of the

Creole women. She is expected, by them, to uphold the Creole

morals and values as they do. She is also expected to live this way

by her successful husband Leonce Pontellier, who is a very well



know businessman.

5. Primary conflict and how it is resolved: The primary conflict in this

story is Edna’s external conflict. She cannot be the way that society

in her time period expects her to be. She eventually gives up on

trying to uphold the standards of the Creole women and goes her

own way, which leads to adultery and finally her death. She drowns

herself in the sea; the same sea she first experienced her

awakening.

6. The theme (or message) of the story: Sexism is the idea that

women are not equal to men.

7. Write a plot summary of 200-300 words: The Awakening opens at a

well-to-do resort called the Grand Isle located about 50 miles off

the coast of New Orleans. Edna Pontellier, her husband Leonce

Pontellier and their children are vacationing at this resort when

Edna meets a handsome vacationer named Robert Lebrun, who is

well known for flirting with the married Creole women at this resort.

As Edna begins to have an affair with Robert, she also starts feeling

like she is trapped in her marriage to Leonce. Her husband begins

to berate her for neglecting their children, and for being

unconcerned about keeping up social appearances. She then takes

off on a journey to feel what she has never felt before, free. Edna

goes through a series of emotional awakenings, one of which she



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learns to swim. Something that she had always wanted to do. After

a summer affair, Robert decides to leave Edna and go to Vera Cruz

with a family friend to seek his fortune. This devastates Edna. But

upon returning home to New Orleans, she begins to neglect the

duties at home and her children, whom she sends to live with their

grandmother. She begins to go to races and other events with a

woman that her husband has discouraged her from socializing with.

She also decides to move from her husband’s house into a house

around the corner. As Robert returns to town she runs into him a

couple of times. One instance was at a garden coffeehouse, at

which time Edna invites him back to her place. Here she confesses

her love for him. Just as the moment was getting romantic, Edna is

called away to attend to one of her friends who is giving birth to her

fourth child. Robert begs her not to go but Edna feels obligated

since this is one of her good friends. Upon returning to her house,

she finds that Robert is gone. She finds a note which says “Good-by

because, I love you.” Edna spends the night on her sofa. The next

day, she goes down to the sea, makes herself naked and goes for a

swim. She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of

her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess

her, body and soul. She looked into the distance, and the old terror

flamed up for an instant, and then sank again. She started



remembering key events in her life as she drowns in the sea.

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