Rhonda Massengill "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin was raised in a fairly rich home. She was sent to a Catholic school to learn French. At age nineteen she married Oscar Chopin. They had six children together and lived on a plantation. Her husband had died of swamp fever and she was left to raise her children on her own. She had written several stories and editorial pieces in newspapers. She had written the story "The Awakening" in hopes that it would be the story that spike her career. Unfortunately it had done the opposite it was what had destroyed her career. With the harsh criticism, that the story was too rough because it had scenes of infidelity, Kate Chopin had given up on writing. Five years later she died.

"The Awakening" was a great story after I got pass the first fifty pages. I thought that the story could have been better if they would have gone into more details based on her emotions. The first fifty pages went in to the setting more than the events that were forming. In the beginning of the story we have a woman that is married to a man for the mere reason that he is a good provider. Years ago women didn't marry someone because they loved them, they married for money reasons. Mr. and Mrs. Pontellier was an example of what could go wrong if you marry for the wrong reason. Her husband treated her like a child always worried about what others would think. She had to have the house cleaned a certain way, food cooked a certain way, and expected her to treat the children a certain way. Mrs. Pontellier started feeling like she could never please him so she refused to try. During this time she had falling in love with a man named Robert Lebrun. Robert Lebrun knows that Mr. Pontellier will never put her away and because he loves her he leaves. He stays gone for four months and then returns to see her. At the time that he arrives she has left her husband and moved in her own home. She is seeing someone else (Alcee Arobin) but she isn't in love with him. Her heart belongs to Robert and she loves him. He returns and tells her that he loves her too. There is an emergency Madame Ratignolle was in labor and wanted Mrs. Pontelliel there. She leaves Robert and when she comes back home she finds a letter there and he is gone. She reads the letter that says that he had to leave because he did love her. He knew that her husband would never put her away and that it would hurt her more if he stayed. At the end of the story Mrs. Pontelliel loves Robert and decides to end her life if she can't have him.