There's a great chance this book could have been a five star read for me, but unfortunately my edition had a "prologue". It seemed like it was intended to be read prior to reading the book. It was in front of the first chapter. It was a very in depth analysis of the story, and within the first several pages of it, it immediately spoiled the ending.

Are you kidding me?

I immediately ceased reading the prologue and went right to the story, but the damage was done. I knew the ending, and I couldn't unknow it.

The story itself is of a woman who is constrained by the expectations of society. She's married with two small sons and living a traditional life. The Awakening tells the story of how she awakens and in some ways succumbs to her own yearnings to break free and follow her feelings toward another man, Robert. While I am sure at the time of its writing, this book was groundbreaking to some degree, I actually think the stress that Edna feels between duty and happiness, contraints and freedom, still hold true today. While this book is a piece of feminist literature, in reality, Edna's plight is just a human one. ( )

"But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her."

Peace and acceptance of the supreme loneliness of being human found in suicide... Truly not the story I should be reading, but definitely the story I needed. The ending is so happy to me—Edna finds her freedom and her peace in existing alone. I wish so desperately to find that one day too (perhaps with a bit less suicide). ( )

Apparently when The Awakening by Kate Chopin was first published in 1899, it shocked readers with it’s story of a wife’s marital infidelity. The author’s tale of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage who seeks outside fulfillment was considered extremely controversial.

Personally I wasn’t very engaged by this story. I really didn’t like the main character, Edna, finding her too wishy-washy, too unsure of herself and what she wants from life. It didn’t really bother me that was a rather neglectful mother and wife, but she seems to drift through life, expecting others to fill in her gaps. At first she has Robert who spends all his time with her while she is vacationing. She rather takes him for granted until he leaves for Mexico, then she decides that she loves him but when he doesn’t write or come back to her, she allows herself to fall into another relationship with a notorious womanizer. When Robert returns, she once again realizes that it’s him that she loves but when her friend begs her to think of her children, she realizes that society will never accept her leaving her husband and children for Robert.

There are a number of books written about this subject including Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina and I quite frankly had more sympathy for each of those characters. Edna Pontellier acknowledges her awakening and her urge to break free from restrictions placed on her by society, but when push comes to shove, she takes an entirely different route to freedom. For all of that, The Awakening is a classic of American Literature and a well done example of feminist writing. ( )

Read in College English class. Early feminist. Enjoyed greatly, especially the era. ( )

Book Club, 2022

Kate Chopin es, sin duda, la primera escritora norteamericana que se formó fuera de la trama ideológica protestante y de los parámetros de la historia cultural calvinista. Su ascendencia francesa, su bilingüismo y biculturalismo la conectaron directamente con la tradición literaria europea. Las cualidades estéticas e ideológicas de su obra muestran una sofisticación formal y un cosmopolitismo ajenos a la moral o a los juicios de valor convencionales. Cuestiones consideradas trágicas e inmorales en la literatura respetable y edificante, como el suicidio, la infidelidad o el adulterio, que no encontraban eco en la literatura norteamericana de la época, fueron tratadas por la escritora en el contexto local y con el realismo con que lo hacían los escritores contemporáneos franceses. La publicación de "El despertar" en 1899 desencadenó una cascada de críticas negativas que mostraban los condicionantes y prejuicios morales de los críticos norteamericanos de fin de siglo. Considerada a menudo como la Madame Bovary criolla, la protagonista, Edna Pontellier, es una mujer burguesa que entra en crisis al poner en duda el papel del matrimonio y la maternidad, manifiesta abiertamente su deseo sexual y decide romper con toda la seguridad que le otorga su privilegiado estatus social.