My High School Experience Elloquently Written by Kate Chopin

“There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. She began to look with her own eyes; to see and to apprehend the deeper undercurrents of life. No longer was she content to “feed upon opinion” when her own soul had invited her.” (127)

Personally, this passage speaks to me in a way that I rarely find with assigned books. I know that this might be a rather informal comparison, especially when Kate Chopin has so eloquently written it, but this seems to sum up my entire high school experience into one paragraph.

When I first came to Severn, I tried to conform into being one of the “popular” kids and tried to have, or what I thought was, a typical high school experience, much like Edna Pontellier did in the beginning of the novel with her husband and family. However during this period of my life, I was the unhappy with myself and with my surroundings. Of course I still pushed myself in the classroom because that’s just my personality, but outside of my courses, I felt like I had no purpose, or as if I was just fulfilling the footsteps of everyone before me and not forging my own path. Whilst reading The Awakening I detected the same exact feeling from Edna.

However, at the end of my sophomore year, I joined the sailing team, which was very atypical for someone in my family who was born and bred playing lacrosse. Here, although I believe it is the road less travelled by at Severn, I found my niche. Just as Edna found passion in her art, I found passion in my sailing. But more so than most sports, sailing is extremely time consuming and because of that I slowly began to distance myself from my “popular” friends towards my newfound sailing friends, which many would consider lowering myself on the social ladder. However, simultaneously I began to feel like I found my place. Every step which I took toward relieving myself from the conformity of high school added to my strength and expansion as an individual. Instead of looking at high school through the eyes of my siblings and my peers, I began to make my own decisions about high school and about life in general. I began to look with my own eyes, just as Edna, and I began to develop my own views of the world and of my surroundings rather than to just listen and accept the views of those around me.

In all honesty, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel and the ease with which I could relate to the characters, especially Edna. I admire the courage that is found in Edna with her defiance of the social norms and in Kate Chopin for writing such a controversial novel for her time period, especially when it destroyed her career. I aspire to one day reach that level of bravery in whatever I end up doing in my life; I hope to challenge the norms and find my calling, no matter how disruptive it is to society just as both of these women did in the late 19^th century.

The Culture of the Creoles

During Edna Pontellier’s stay at the Grand Isle, the reader becomes better acquainted with the Creole culture in the late nineteenth century through the community that inhabits the resort throughout the summer. Unlike the majority of people that stay at the Grand Isle, Edna was not raised as a Creole, therefore she does not fully understand their culture, and sometimes feels very uncomfortable when she is faced with some of it’s more eccentric aspects. However, Edna’s perspective is very helpful for the reader to see the differences between normal Southern culture, which was Edna’s upbringing, and the Creole culture that is apparent at the Grand Isle. For Edna and the reader, it becomes blatantly obvious that the Creole culture is much more open in discussion than typical American culture during the conversation in which Adèle Ratignolle discusses, in great detail, the birth of one of her children. This topic would generally be avoided in quotidian conversation, especially with people who are not family members, however, in Creole culture, it was spoken about in full disclosure, without anyone – pardon Edna – thinking twice about the privacy that generally surrounds it. Another rather strange aspect of Creole culture that was rather atypical during the time period in which The Awakening takes place is the close relationship that takes place between a married woman and an unmarried man, such as Edna Pontellier and Robert Lebrun, and specifically how her husband was in complete support of their friendship and did not think twice about the possibility of there being anything immoral occurring. These rather peculiar incidents that take place in the novel during the Pontellier’s stay at the Grand Isle portray the differences of the Creole culture in stark contrast to the culture of the United States during the same era, and introduces the reader to a culture that is often forgotten in society today – except for on Shrove Tuesday of course!

Six Word Story of the Awakening by Kate Chopin

Up to the point to which I have read, which is page 95 (of 155), I have created two "six word stories" that summarize the novel, and I cannot seem to choose between the two of them. Due to my bewilderment, I have decided to put both of them in this blog post.

1. Young wife discovering love and freedom.

2. Wife contradicting the era's social expectations.

The first was my original sentence, however as I read a bit further, I decided that the main character, Edna Pontellier, was not necessarily discovering freedom, since she has so many restrictions set upon her by society.