Final Response

The Awakening by Kate Choplin is an amazing and detailed story with plenty of symbolism about a woman trying and wanting very much to break away from the life of the expected woman of the time period. The book is based around the late 1800's, where women were expected to be married, have children and tend to their every need and be ordered by men, mostly their husbands. But Edna is definitely not like that, although she starts out with a husband who she marries to rebel against her father and sister becasue she did not like the man she wanted to marry. She then has children with her husband, and then she comes along a man named Robert, who at first she pushes away but in the end she wants him more than anything and feels hopeless without. Before she falls completely head over heels with Roberts she begin to dislike and becomes insanely annoyed of Mr. Pontellier, her husband to the point where she tries to crush there wedding ring because she is so unhappy. Edna is not even happy with her children. She likes her children but does not care and mother them like she should. It really seems like she is very depressed and does not know what love really is or even how to love. One thing that really leads to her depression is the fact that she keeps so much to herself, and the only thing that makes her calm and brings her peace is the ocean.