Results for "Kate Chopin" in Coming of Age

Set in New Orleans at the close of the 19th century, The Awakening follows Edna Pontellier, who, while vacationing with her husband and their two sons, finds liberation from her prudish behavior and repressed emotions and desires. At the coastal resort of Madame Lebrun, Edna struggles to reconcile her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood with the prevailing social attitudes of the turn-of-the-century American South.

“I would give my life for my children, but I wouldn’t give myself.” So said Edna Pontellier to her friend one summer as they sat beside the sea. It was the summer she learned to swim, fell in love, and awoke to the reality of her empty role in a loveless marriage. But she was a good wife. Edna dutifully returned home to the prison of her well-ordered life in New Orleans. Although close friends offered advice, the search for herself was a journey she must make alone. And in the end, Edna found herself returning to the sea where it all began.

The Awakening, written by American novelist Kate Chopin, revolves around a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier, who grapples with her burgeoning awareness of self in late 19th century Louisiana. Through a series of encounters with fellow women and a select assortment of men, she finds herself questioning the entirety of her existence at a time when thinking outside the box was something of an anomaly.