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Essays on The Awakening

Prompt examples for "the awakening" essays, edna pontellier's awakening.

Discuss the process of Edna Pontellier's awakening to her own desires and independence in "The Awakening." How does she evolve throughout the novel, and what factors contribute to her transformation?

Gender Roles and Societal Expectations

Analyze the role of gender roles and societal expectations in the novel. How do the constraints of late 19th-century society limit the choices available to women like Edna, and how does she challenge these norms?

Symbolism of the Sea

Examine the symbolism of the sea in "The Awakening." How does the ocean represent freedom, escape, and self-discovery for Edna? Discuss its role as both a liberating and destructive force in her life.

Sexuality and Desire

Discuss the themes of sexuality and desire in the novel. How do Edna's romantic entanglements and affairs reflect her growing awareness of her own desires? Analyze the consequences of her pursuit of passion.

Motherhood and Identity

Explore the theme of motherhood and its impact on Edna's identity. How does her role as a mother, particularly in contrast to her friend Adele Ratignolle, influence her choices and self-perception? Discuss the tension between maternal responsibilities and personal aspirations.

The Ending and Its Interpretations

Analyze the ending of the novel and the various interpretations of Edna's fate. Do you believe her actions at the end of the story represent a triumph of self-discovery or a tragic outcome? Explore the ambiguity of the ending.

Conformity in The Awakening

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Analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Act of freedom in the novel "the awakening" by kate chopin, understanding troubled marriage through chopin's the awakening, analysis of whether edna's suicide is a sign of success or failure, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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A Mother-woman Role in The Awakening by Kate Chopin

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The Awakening

By kate chopin.

• The Awakening Summary

In Kate Chopin 's The Awakening , the protagonist Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an autonomous human being and rebels against social norms by leaving her husband Leónce and having an affair. The first half of the novel takes place in Grand Isle, an island off the coast of Louisiana. Over the summer it is inhabited by upper-class Creole families from New Orleans who go there to escape from the heat and to relax by the ocean. During the week, the women and children stay on the island, while the men return to the city to work.

During the summer, Edna Pontellier meets a young gallant named Robert Lebrun , whose mother rents out the cottages on the island. The two spend almost all their time together, and Edna greatly enjoys his company, especially since her husband is generally preoccupied with business. Due to Robert's constant presence, Edna starts to experience a change within herself: she begins to develop a sense of herself as a whole person, with unique wants, interests, and desires. She realizes that she is not content to be simply a wife and a mother, and she begins to assert herself to her husband.

Edna's moments of self-discovery are closely tied to the ocean. At her great moment of awakening, she suddenly learns how to swim, after being frustrated in her efforts before. She and Robert also spend a lot of time in and near the ocean. One day they take a spontaneous day trip to another island in a boat, and Edna undergoes a metaphorical rebirth when she falls asleep for hours on the island.

When Robert realizes that he and Edna are becoming too close, he suddenly departs the island and goes to Vera Cruz for business prospects. Edna is upset when Robert leaves with only a few hours' notice, and she becomes depressed after he leaves. That summer Edna also befriends the pregnant Madame Ratignolle , who is the epitome of maternity, and Mademoiselle Reisz , an eccentric, unmarried old woman who can make Edna weep by playing the piano.

The Pontelliers return to the city, where Leónce busies himself with making money and purchasing extravagant possessions for their home on Esplanade Street. At first Edna settles into her usual routine, receiving callers on Tuesday afternoons and accompanying her husband to plays and musical events on other nights. Soon, however, she stops taking callers, much to her husband's displeasure. She begins to take up painting and starts behaving in what her husband considers an uncharacteristic manner. A little bit confused, Leónce goes to Doctor Mandelet, an old family friend to ask for advice. The doctor advises him to leave his wife alone, and even though he suspects that Edna may be in love with another man, he says nothing.

Edna is simply deciding to do what she wants, regardless of what her husband or society may think. She continues to think about Robert, and on some days she is happy and on some days she is sad. Edna discovers that Robert has been writing letters to Mademoiselle Reisz about her, and she starts to visit her frequently to read the letters and to listen to her friend play the piano.

Edna's father, the Colonel, comes to visit the Pontelliers for awhile. Although Edna is not particularly close to her father, she finds him entertaining and devotes all her energies to him when he is there. They leave on bad terms, however, when Edna refuses to attend her sister's wedding in Kentucky. After the Colonel's departure, Leónce and the children also leave Edna on her own. Leónce has extended business in New York, and the children go to stay with their grandmother in the country.

Edna enjoys her new-found freedom. She eats solitary, peaceful dinners, visits her friends, and does quite a bit of painting. She also goes to the racetracks to bet on horses and begins spending a lot of time with Alcée Arobin , a charming young man who has the reputation of being a philanderer. She wins a great deal of money gambling, and her relationship with Arobin starts to border on the sexual.

While visiting Mademoiselle Reisz one day, Edna decides that she is going to move out of the Pontellier house on Esplanade Street. With her gambling wins and the sale of her paintings, she has enough to support herself and intends to move to a smaller "pigeon house" just around the corner. She wants to be independent and doesn't want her husband to have any sort of claim on her. That same day she hears that Robert is returning to New Orleans, and she admits for the first time that she is in love with him.

Later that day Edna sleeps with Arobin for the first time and feels a medley of emotions, but no shame. In a few days she throws a small dinner party to celebrate her birthday and her moving out of the house. The event is very pleasant and elaborate, and the guests all have a good time. Edna enjoys her new abode: it makes her feel free from the usual social constraints. She continues her affair with Arobin, yet she does so without forming any real attachment to him.

One day she runs into Robert at Mademoiselle Reisz' apartment, and their meeting is somewhat strained and awkward. Robert keeps himself at a distance, much to Edna's frustration, and afterwards she is alternately happy and sad‹unsure whether or not he is in love with her. She runs into him a few days later at a suburban garden, and he returns home with her. While he is sitting with his eyes closed, Edna gives him a kiss, to which he passionately responds. They profess their love to each other, and Robert expresses his desire to marry her. Suddenly, a message from Madame Ratignolle arrives, saying that she is in labor. Edna has promised to go to her, and she leaves Robert, who promises to await her return.

Madame Ratignolle is in great pain, and Edna masochistically remains with her, even though she feels that it is torture to do so. Before Edna leaves, Madame Ratignolle warns her that she must always consider her children in whatever she does. Edna is slightly depressed at her friend's words, but is excited to rejoin Robert. Sadly, however, she finds Robert gone forever.

The novel closes with Edna returning to Grand Isle. Having already decided on her course of action, she walks down to the beach and stands naked in the sun. Without really thinking, she begins to swim out into the ocean. She thinks triumphantly about how she has escaped her children and their claim on her and continues to swim until she is exhausted. Memories of her childhood flash before her eyes as she slowly drowns.

The Awakening Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Awakening is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

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The Awakening Chapter 16 Help

I think this is part of the nonconformist theme of the book. Edna embarks on a path of emotional, intellectual, and sexual awakening after spending a very pleasant summer with her young admirer, Robert Lebrun. In trying to gain a sense of herself...

The sea is wild cold and limitless: Edna plunged and swam about with an abandon that thrilled and invigorated her.

Study Guide for The Awakening

The Awakening study guide contains a biography of Kate Chopin, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Awakening
• Character List
• Chapters 1-3 Summary and Analysis
• Related Links

Essays for The Awakening

The Awakening literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Awakening.

• Morality and Self-sacrifice
• Symbol of Clothing
• The Only Ending for Edna in The Awakening
• Womanhood in The Awakening and The Yellow Wall-Paper
• The Open Sea: The Centrality of Ambiguity in Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Lesson Plan for The Awakening

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Awakening
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• The Awakening Bibliography

E-Text of The Awakening

The Awakening E-Text contains the full text of The Awakening

• Chapters 1-3
• Chapters 4-6
• Chapters 7-9
• Chapters 10-12
• Chapters 13-15

Wikipedia Entries for The Awakening

• Introduction
• Film and television

The Awakening

Kate chopin, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Kate Chopin's The Awakening . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Awakening: Introduction

The awakening: plot summary, the awakening: detailed summary & analysis, the awakening: themes, the awakening: quotes, the awakening: characters, the awakening: symbols, the awakening: literary devices, the awakening: quizzes, the awakening: theme wheel, brief biography of kate chopin.

Historical Context of The Awakening

Other books related to the awakening.

• Full Title: The Awakening
• When Written: between 1897 and 1899
• Where Written: St. Louis, Missouri.
• When Published: 1899
• Literary Period: late Victorian
• Genre: Bildungsroman , a novel tracing a young person’s emotional and intellectual maturation.
• Setting: Grand Isle and New Orleans in the late 19th century.
• Climax: There are several potential climaxes in the story. One could choose the night Mademoiselle Reisz’s music moves Edna to tears; her first kiss with Arobin; or her last, fatal swim.
• Point of View: Third person.

Extra Credit for The Awakening

Divorce in the Family. Kate Chopin’s great-great-grandmother was the first woman in Mississippi to legally separate from her husband. She went on to raise five children and run a successful shipping business.

Fame After Death. Female desire and nonconformism were so taboo in turn-of-the-century Louisiana that The Awakening was largely forgotten after its publication; Chopin herself died in disgrace. Not until the 1960s did critics recognize Chopin’s last novel as a canonical work of literature.

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English literature essays, kate chopin's the awakening.

A study of the extent to which Edna Pontellier marks a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century American novels

by Emma Jones

The Awakening was published in 1899, and it immediately created a controversy. Contemporaries of Kate Chopin (1851-1904) were shocked by her depiction of a woman with active sexual desires, who dares to leave her husband and have an affair. Instead of condemning her protagonist, Chopin maintains a neutral, non-judgmental tone throughout and appears to even condone her character's unconventional actions. Kate Chopin was socially ostracised after the publication of her novel, which was almost forgotten until the second half of the twentieth century. The Awakening has been reclaimed by late twentieth-century theorists who see Edna Pontellier as the prototypical feminist. A woman before her time, Edna questions the institution of marriage, (at one point she describes a wedding as 'one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth') [1] has sexual desires of her own, and becomes completely independent of her husband. The central purpose of this essay is to assess to what extent the figure of Edna Pontellier marks a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century American novels, such as the character of Hester Prynne, of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter , Cora Munro from James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans , and the unnamed protagonist (and narrator) of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper . How does society, and its effect on women change throughout nineteenth-century American literature? Society of the nineteenth-century gave a heightened meaning to what it means to be a woman. According to the commonly known 'code of true womanhood', women were supposed to be docile, domestic creatures, whose main concerns in life were to be the raising of their children and submissiveness to their husbands. Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper capture, in their respective works, two women who have turned down these expected roles, and, consequently, suffer because of it. The husbands of these women, entirely because they stand to represent patriarchal society, are a great deal to blame for the "condition" of their wives. In the first scene of The Awakening , after being scolded by her husband about not being a good mother, Edna responds by crying, and later with defiance, refusing to come in to sleep, according to her husband's wishes. This behaviour, as well as the journey into the sea at the end of the novel suggests that she has become awakened to the oppressive nature of her husband, and that of the institution of marriage in general. The very act of Edna's struggle, her resistance, suggests her awareness that there is a way of speaking and thinking that will accurately reflect her desires, her worldview and her 'self'. She muses on the gap between what she feels and what society decrees must be:

The Yellow Wallpaper is a story which shows the anatomy of an oppressive marriage. Simply because the narrator does not cherish the joys of married life and motherhood, and therefore, is in violation of the rigid code of true womanhood, she is classified with a nervous condition, and sentenced to passivity. Under the cover story, the compliance of a woman to her husband, is the story of a heroine rebelling against the social constructs that deny her. In The Awakening , Edna Pontellier also rebels against the social constructs that confine her, especially the notion of 'true womanhood'. She tells Robert:

This outburst tells us how Edna predicts the society around her will react to her ability, and need, to express her feelings, and relate her thoughts to others. The opinions of others are of little concern to Edna. She refuses to change herself in order to fit into the restrictive mould that society has created for her. The novel is an account of Edna's rite de passage - her movement out of ignorance into knowledge - the account of her quest to discover self; the moment when she begins to loosen and unfetter all her repressed desires. It is interesting to compare the character of Edna with that of Cora Munro, from The Last of the Mohicans . Cora is the elder sister of Alice, and the voice of reason and strength. She is one of the most admirable characters, with a mothering, selfless nature that cares only to keep her sister safe. Cora's relationship with Alice demonstrates a distinct mother-daughter pattern that manifests itself in every interaction between the two women. Throughout the novel, Cora continuously hides her sister's face in her bosom as an indication of undying protection from the ravages of the American frontier. Alice depends on Cora as her champion and defender, but, most unmistakably as a mother figure. When Alice shows doubt and fear, Cora immediately rushes to protect and soothe her. Cooper writes:

Her motherly feelings towards Alice verge on the saintly; Cora often rises above common human sensibility and takes on the role of a martyr in the manner that a mother would for her child. Edna, on the other hand, neglects her children throughout the novel. She sees them as a hindrance to her freedom, feels "relief" when they are away and irresponsibly leaves them in the care of the pregnant Madame Ratignolle so that she can be with Robert. She almost seems to have an 'out of sight, out of mind' attitude when it comes to her children. In a significant conversation with her friend Adele Ratignolle, Edna declares:

Edna is unwilling to give up her individuality for her children, although she would give her life for them. She finds it difficult to express how she feels about this, she seems unable to put her finger on it, which reminds of us a novel written by Betty Friedan, about "the problem that has no name" [6] which confined women to the sphere of domesticity and consequently, an unbearable feeling of emptiness. Edna is not satisfied with devoting her life to her husband and children, she craves more, she needs to be her own person. She wants to be Edna, a woman, instead of merely a mother, or a wife. Whereas, in The Last of the Mohicans (published in 1826), it is implied that a maternal nature is instinctive to women, even, in the case of Cora, when the younger dependent is not actually one's offspring. Cora is willing to do anything for Alice, yet there are things that Edna would not do for her children. Cora reinforces the stereotype of the doting mother, whereas Edna refuses to conform, and questions the codes of the society in which she lives. Somewhere in between these two extremes lies the character of Hester Prynne, protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter . The novel, which was published in 1850, yet set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England, tells the story of Hester, an adulterous woman who is punished for her 'crime' by being made to wear a scarlet letter 'A' on her bosom. Hester harboured an intense love for her child Pearl although the child's mischievous and imp-like qualities brought nothing but pain to the child's mother. This is demonstrated as Hester, after having her talents as a seamstress publicised, began to change the attire of her family. For example,

This demonstrates that although Hester herself would dress only plainly in order to redeem her lost purity, she wished to make her child stand out. She had such an intense love for the child that she wanted only the absolute best for Pearl. Also, Hester was simply astounded and horrified at the idea of Pearl being taken away from her when this question was brought to the governor. This is demonstrated in the lines,

Hester's speech demonstrated that her only true reason for life was the child, and that if that the one richness of her life was devoured by Puritan thought and society, she would have lost all. Her child was her heart, love, and life. It was all that she had left to lose, and she would do anything to protect her Pearl. Hester seems to love Pearl to a greater degree than Edna loved her children, and in that respect, in her devotion to little Pearl, Hester could be seen as fitting the mould of a stereotypically 'true woman' more accurately than Edna does. Yet Hester does not fit this mould perfectly. There is the obvious discrepancy of her adulterous affair with Reverend Dimmesdale, but Hester also secretly disobeyed the codes of her society by harbouring visionary thoughts:

These forbidden thoughts were of social reform, especially concerned with the role of women in society. Hester believes that,

• Aristotle: Poetics
• Matthew Arnold
• Margaret Atwood: Bodily Harm and The Handmaid's Tale
• Margaret Atwood 'Gertrude Talks Back'
• Jonathan Bayliss
• Lewis Carroll, Samuel Beckett
• Saul Bellow and Ken Kesey
• John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress and Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales
• T S Eliot, Albert Camus
• Castiglione: The Courtier
• Kate Chopin: The Awakening
• Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
• Charles Dickens
• John Donne: Love poetry
• John Dryden: Translation of Ovid
• T S Eliot: Four Quartets
• William Faulkner: Sartoris
• Henry Fielding
• Ibsen, Lawrence, Galsworthy
• Jonathan Swift and John Gay
• Oliver Goldsmith
• Graham Greene: Brighton Rock
• Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
• Ernest Hemingway
• Jon Jost: American independent film-maker
• James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Will McManus
• James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Ian Mackean
• James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Ben Foley
• Carl Gustav Jung
• Jamaica Kincaid, Merle Hodge, George Lamming
• Rudyard Kipling: Kim
• D. H. Lawrence: Women in Love
• Henry Lawson: 'Eureka!'
• Machiavelli: The Prince
• Jennifer Maiden: The Winter Baby
• Ian McEwan: The Cement Garden
• Toni Morrison: Beloved and Jazz
• R K Narayan's vision of life
• R K Narayan: The English Teacher
• R K Narayan: The Guide
• Brian Patten
• Harold Pinter
• Sylvia Plath and Alice Walker
• Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock
• Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea. Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre: Doubles
• Jean Rhys: Wide Sargasso Sea. Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre: Symbolism
• Shakespeare: Twelfth Night
• Shakespeare: Hamlet
• Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Women
• Shakespeare: Measure for Measure
• Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra
• Shakespeare: Coriolanus
• Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale and The Tempest
• Sir Philip Sidney: Astrophil and Stella
• Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene
• Tom Stoppard
• William Styron: Sophie's Choice
• William Wordsworth
• William Wordsworth and Lucy
• Studying English Literature
• The author, the text, and the reader
• What is literary writing?
• Indian women's writing
• Renaissance tragedy and investigator heroes
• Renaissance poetry
• The Age of Reason
• Romanticism
• New York! New York!
• Alice, Harry Potter and the computer game
• The Spy in the Computer
• Photography and the New Native American Aesthetic

“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin Essay

Descriptions.

Edna Pontellier is the protagonist of the story. She is a relatively young woman with a husband and two young children and the person who ‘awakens’ referenced in the title.

Leonce Pontellier is Edna’s husband. He is seen to be middle-aged and immensely satisfied with living the ‘status quo’ by having all the right appearances. He adheres to the patriarchal view in that everything, including Edna, belonged to him (as in possession) and existed solely for his pleasure.

Pontellier’s sons , Raoul and Etienne, seem to exist merely because they are supposed to exist. Edna loves them sometimes, like an affectionate aunt, and Leonce even forgets them sometimes. They are looked after by a nurse who seems equally apathetic.

Robert Lebrun is the mid-20s son of Madame Lebrun, the proprietress of the vacation property where he meets Edna, and the two fall in love.

Alcee Arobin is the young man Edna meets back home in New Orleans who keeps much closer company with her than is ‘proper’ and would be her lover if she’d allow it. Edna realizes, though, that she doesn’t have any real feelings for him.

Adele Ratignolle is the other young mother that vacations at the Lebruns’. She is the perfect Victorian example of what Edna is expected to be, but Edna is incapable of keeping up the act, which is all her marriage and family really are to her.

Mademoiselle Reisz is an artist who also vacations on the island at the Lebrun. She has opted for a single life of artistry rather than losing her identity to marriage and family. She warns Edna that a woman must be very strong to follow that path and worries that Edna will not be strong enough.

Doctor Mandelet is the old family doctor that attends both the Pontellier family and the Ratignolles. Leonce consults him about Edna and he realizes that Edna has discovered a sense of her own identity and the love of another. He also tries to help Edna by telling her to come to talk with him, that he would understand, but she doesn’t think of this until she is tired out from swimming.

Edna vs. Leonce: Edna thinks of herself as a person, Leonce considers her a piece of his property. Edna struggles to be free of him to be truly herself through the entire story but is never able to accomplish this as she cannot experience love as she wants because of his prior claim, which destroys her spirit.

Edna vs. her children: Edna sees herself as chained by her children in bonds of love on one side and irritation on the other. They are symbols of her ties to Leonce and drags upon her desire to discover her own identity. This conflict is also not resolved because she cannot determine whether to follow her heart one way or another.

Edna vs. Robert: Neither character envisioned true emotion blossoming in their relationship, but once it was recognized, Edna began her awakening. While she is willing to overlook her previous ties, Robert is not. The conflict is resolved when Robert decides to leave her. This destroys her as she realizes she is fully possessed by Leonce.

Edna vs. Alcee: Alcee would like their relationship to go to the next level of intimacy. His continued admiration keeps Edna’s spirits up but his persistence forces her to evaluate her feelings and, finding them lacking, cannot accept his advances further.

Edna vs. her father: Edna’s father is not a character in the story, but is instead a character in her memory that played a significant role in her definition and current life because he was a strict Protestant. To a high degree, it is described how his reaction to the idea of her marrying a Catholic played a role in her decision to marry Leonce.

Edna vs. Adele: Adele is the perfect Victorian wife and mother. She is absolutely and completely devoted to her children and husband to the point that she would have no definition without them. While Edna is expected to be the same, she realizes she is not.

Edna vs. Reisz: Reisz is well aware of who she is and takes pleasure in being just who she wants to be. She is condemned by society on many counts because of her ‘rude’ manner, but she is also highly respected because of her talent and self-sufficiency. While Edna can attain a degree of self-sufficiency, she cannot live a life like Reisz’s because she cannot escape the bonds of her earlier life.

The idea that Edna is considered Leonce’s property is introduced early when Leonce comes home late from Klein’s hotel, probably somewhat drunk, and gets annoyed when Edna, who was fast asleep, doesn’t answer him with dutiful and eager attention. He also seems to treat her like a broken tool the first time she decides not to receive visitors on a Tuesday in Chapter 17.

The story illustrates how the Creoles enjoy a more sensual existence in the form of playful and harmless flirting, but, because of their religious convictions, there is never any chance that this flirtation will cross the bounds of family. However, Edna’s life has always been very withdrawn and exclusive, so when she is introduced to this world, she is captivated and begins to realize what she’s been missing. Because she is unable to share these feelings with either her husband or Robert, her awakening remains incomplete and unfulfilled.

Edna has lived in the shell of social expectations as a deadened soul and rebels against the dual life of women, but the belief in “that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” only seems to apply to her. Adele is intelligent as shown when she points out Edna’s difference from Robert, but she is also fully expressing her own identity in her ability to mother while Reisz is also fully aware of who and what she is and does not feel the duality of spirit that Edna complains of.

Edna is not a successful character because she is not able to resolve her conflicts. I believe Chopin intentionally made Edna’s death ambiguous as to whether or not she died intentionally. Regardless of whether it was suicide or an accident, Edna died because she couldn’t be free to follow her own passions. The inclusion of childhood memories and recent events in her final thoughts suggests that this was the pattern of her life from which she was attempting to be free.

Edna is a sympathetic character. Chopin makes it easy to understand how Edna might feel by including such thoughtless behavior as Leonce’s expectations after waking her up from a sound sleep. Her detachment seems reasonable given her circumstances and her reaction to her senses is perhaps predictable.

The infatuations of Edna’s youth all seem to share the common denominator of tragedy. The first man was ‘sad-eyed’, she would always be ‘nothing, nothing, nothing to the second and the third was a ‘tragedian’ and even more remotely out of reach. They reveal Edna’s infatuation with the impossible, her resonance with the ‘caged bird’, and her tendency to the dramatic.

Edna’s desire for both union and freedom in the way in which she expressed it does not seem possible even today. This is not necessarily because a woman must necessarily give up her identity in order to be a ‘proper’ wife and mother, but because anytime two people live together, regardless of the relationship from something as casual as roommates to something as intimate as partners, there has to be some give and take on both sides. A woman can be a wife and a mother and corporate executive in today’s world, but she will probably not be the absolute best wife and mother and corporate executive at all times. A woman may also choose to devote herself entirely to one vocation – wife, mother, career, etc. – and thus become the best, but at the expense of all the rest. The same can be said of men who once devoted all of their time to business only to discover they had no relationship with either the children or the wife at home and thus were living the same sort of empty life Edna wakes from.

Edna’s first awakening comes as she realizes she has a sensual side that she’d never dreamed of that, once touched, seemed to fill some of the emptiness she felt inside her. This leads her to realize she wants the freedom to be a ‘real’ human being rather than the possession of her husband. Her second awakening comes as she finally realizes that regardless of what she wants, she remains the property of her husband as the greatest desire of her heart, on the verge of being fulfilled, is removed as a result of this fact. No matter what she does or how autonomous she makes herself, her efforts will all be wasted because, in the end, she will still be Mrs. Pontillier, Leonce’s wife, rather than herself.

The idea that motherhood necessarily brings with it all suppression of a mother’s previous or future identity in duty to the family repulses Edna about her children. This is her withdrawal from them and her antagonism toward them. However, as children, there are several scenes in the story where Edna is seen to ‘mother’ them – such as when Etienne won’t go to bed and she rocks him to sleep. Although she is not completely free like Reisz and not completely motherly like Adele, Edna recognizes in both of these women that they are fulfilled in their roles and forms a bond with them to try to discover their secret.

In the final analysis, Edna doesn’t have many choices. As a married woman in the early 1900s, she might not have even had the legal right to rent property without her husband’s permission, or at least not for long. She would have either had to break things off with Leonce completely and destroy her children or go back to Leonce and hope he would continue to be the same ‘loving’ husband he had always been, now more aware of her previous and probably additional constraints. Robert’s refusal of her emphasizes that even if she managed to break off with Leonce, she would forever be ruled by his influence rules out her first option, and her newly awakened senses rule out the second option. The only option left is death.

When Dr. Mandelet talks about youth being given up to illusions, I think he is talking about the difference between procreation and passion. As a younger girl, Edna married Leonce to both irritate and escape from her father, believing Leonce to be somehow different. After marriage and the disappointments this may bring, motherhood becomes the only means by which a woman might acceptably express her individuality in some form. Passion, on the other hand, is an inner uncontrollable feeling, something sensual and deep that doesn’t abide by the laws of the land or the cultural influences of a given society.

Edna’s failures to develop her full potential are greatly evident by the end of the book as she was neither the best mother nor the greatest artist, free or constrained, fully awakened or completely asleep. Adele remains constrained within the confines of motherhood. Although this is where she is happy, she is nevertheless bounded by her responsibilities to her children. Reisz, in attempting to assert her right to be and do whatever she wishes, is prevented from expressing her own desires to their fullest. While she has already been ostracized from society, the object of her desire remains inextricably linked within that same society that would condemn the expression.

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The Awakening Critical Analysis Essay

Caught in a Wake of Illusions To remain, or not to remain: that is the question. In The Awakening, a novella by Kate Chopin, the main character, Edna, explores the depth of this question as she awakens from her blind submission to society’s demands. Realizing for the first time in her life that she is trapped in a box culturally deemed appropriate for women, she struggles to break free and pursue individuality. In the processes of trying to find herself, she sacrifices society’s approval, her husband’s desires, her home, and her social standing.

Reflecting on her life Edna says, “Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than remain a dupe to illusions all one’s life. ” These lines encompass the overarching moral of the story and emphasize that the self-awareness and wisdom that come with awakening are far more important than any comforts ignorance might provide. Therefore, it is crucial that individuals understand the implications and sacrifices involved in both yielding to and refusing social conformity. Remaining conformed to cultural standards is a sacrifice of independence and uniqueness.

This is most noted when the narrator describes, “In short, [Edna] was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual… How few of us ever emerge from such beginning! How many souls perish in its tumult! ” In other words, it is nearly impossible to come back to life as it’s been after having a taste of freedom because it would require sacrificing one’s individuality. Edna is experiencing a new state of understanding as the narrator describes, “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. ” This indicates that before Edna was awoken she did not have her own identity and merely “fed upon opinion. ” She was brainwashed by society and followed its standards without questioning. This need to sacrifice independence to seek culture’s endorsement is a high price to pay. Likewise, pursuing individuality requires sacrificing the approval of others. Once Edna discovers her feelings for Robert and the two of them are on the island she inquires, “How many years have I slept? The whole island seems changed.

A new race of beings must have sprung up, leaving only you and me as past relics. ” This fantasy both reveals Edna’s desire to be alone with Robert and personifies the only circumstance under which the relationship would be possible. Since society would not approve of their love, each of them would have to relinquish their reputation to be with one another. Right before the story ends Edna repeats Robert’s last words which were, “Good-bybecause I love you. ” And she perceives, “[Robert] did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand.

In other words, Robert refuses to be with Edna because he does not realize the importance of sacrifice and is unwilling to give up their society’s conventional traditions. Although the journey toward freedom may stir up desires for that which is unattainable, or even forbidden by society, it does not have to be the moral issue that it was in Edna’s case. Her particular adulterous yearning is simply an example of what could also be a genuine longing to do things unconventionally. Whatever the pursuit may be, going after a sense of eccentricity will elicit forgoing the approval of others.

Furthermore, prioritizing freedom and desiring to break away from authority involves a sacrifice of personal relationships and the risk of alienating loved ones. Edna faces this struggle with her husband, Mr. Pontellier because she feels like he controls her. After her first awakening experience, Edna’s husband demands that she come inside and go to bed and it is noted that, “She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered that she had.

But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did. This realization that her husband used to control her and Edna’s refusal to continue obeying him demarks the first steps she takes toward taking control of her own life. The second prominent example of blatant disregard for her husband’s wishes is when Edna moves into her own house. No longer wis to live in her husband’s house, she moves to her own as the narrator points out, “The pigeon-house pleased her.

It at once assumed the intimate character of a home, while she herself invested it with a charm… Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individual. This validates Edna’s desire to be free from her former life and highlights the fact that she is only able to truly flourish when she is on her own. Sadly, one must be willing to give up relationships in order to fully achieve this sense of independence. At first glance, oblivion’s seductive incentives of peace and tranquility may seem inviting, but upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that living a mundane, robotic existence is artificial and lacks the vivaciousness of life. However, acting upon this realization, or awakening, necessitates giving up society’s approval and separating oneself from loved ones.

Kate Chopin gives an excellent example of these sacrifices in The Awakening, in which Edna must pay the price for removing civilization’s blindfold to establish her own identity. Remaining conformed is a sacrifice of independence, while pursuing individuality and freedom is a sacrifice of relationships and society’s validation. Although Edna must suffer in light of this epiphany, she discovers that the self-cognizance and understanding that accompany an awakening are far more important than the inconsequential luxuries that come from remaining a victim of delusions.

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Essay: The Awakening – Kate Chopin

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Birds as a Symbol in Different Settings The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, focuses around Edna’s ambition to seek individuality. Taking place in 1890s, Edna tries to detach herself from the oppressive social norms and seek self-discovery. In the novel, The Awakening, Chopin uses the motif of birds in the settings of the ocean and the Pigeon House to illustrate Edna’s awakening with the intent to provide social commentary about women’s repressed roles in society. Chopin uses the setting of the ocean to illustrate Edna’s self-discovery and freedom. The motif of birds represents Edna during the stages of her awakenings. Towards the beginning of the novel, Edna reflects on the differences between herself and the other women of society. The ‘mother-woman’ represents the ideal woman figure during this time period. The ideal woman consists of one who puts aside her own wants for her families, using her ‘protecting wing’ to help secure her family. Edna awakens to the acknowledgment that she will never be pleased with her place in society. Although she shows love and compassion for her children, she is not willing to give up her own identity. Chopin uses this passage and the opinions of Edna to create social commentary directed to the women of this society. As Edna awakens to see the wrong with women’s place in society, she witnesses the women around her being comfortable in their controlled environment. This new perception allows Edna to continue pushing against society’s rules, which inevitably leads Edna to further awaken. Furthermore, Chopin personifies Edna as a bird to convey Edna’s wish to be free from her marriage. While listening to Mademoiselle Reisz playing the piano prior to learning how to swim, Edna has a daydream of a man standing on a beach. The image of the bird flying away from the man awakens desire within Edna. Representing boundless freedom, the ocean awakens Edna’s ambition to branch away from the restriction of her marriage. The man symbolizes the men in society and Edna’s want to not be confined to the restraint of a man. The personification of the bird represents Edna, as the bird directly flies away from any man, and thus any restriction or confinement. Edna’s realization to be free awakens her to become an individual and to no longer be held by the contract of marriage. Chopin uses this image to produce social commentary regarding men’s oppression of women in society. In contrast, Chopin uses the image of a falling bird to represent Edna’s defeat in escaping from the confines of society.As Edna walks into the Gulf, she realizes that the only way to escape from society’s ideals is to end her life. Whilst walking into the water, Edna sees in the distance. In the last scene of the novel, Chopin uses the symbolism of the broken wing of a bird to elude over Edna’s failures to escape from society. The image of the bird with the broken wing embodies Edna’s disillusionment as she learns that her ideals for freedom and individuality are not reality. As the bird falls, it spirals down in a circle, alluding to the fact that one of its wings has not been broken and therefore, it is still fighting to remain above the water. This is connected to Edna in that her last act of rebellion is to take absolute control and to end her life. When in the water, Edna is reminded of the infinite probability around her and of her own position within society. Irony is developed in the setting through juxtaposition of the opposing ideas that although the ocean is the place where Edna meets her death, it was the first place where she began her awakening. Chopin develops social commentary to emphasis how societal perception overpowers individual desire. Chopin uses the setting of the Pigeon House and the motif of birds to depict Edna’s awakening. After Mr. Pontellier leaves to go on a business trip, Edna has the availability to move out and seek her own abode. Edna’s separation from marital restriction enables her to seek her own individuality. The shift in Edna’s tones is evident through the diction of ‘strength and expansion’, which emits a positive connotation. Edna’s awakening of passion is formed to such an extent that she now sees a bigger purpose for herself. The pigeon-house expands upon the motif of birds in that Edna’s freedom is enabled through the exemption of the pigeon-house. The characteristics of pigeons and Edna are closely linked, both expressing rebellious attributes. Chopin creates social commentary through Edna’s rebellious act of moving away from her family. Chopin focuses on the fixed minds of the people surrounding Edna and the prejudiced beliefs of society as Edna searches for herself. Further on, the pigeon-house awakens Edna’s acknowledgement of society’s biased beliefs. Soon after she moves into the pigeon-house, Edna seeks sexual satisfaction with Alcee Arobin. When speaking about Mademoiselle Reisz, Edna states. The purpose of this passage is to illustrate Edna awareness of Alcee’s conformity with society. Edna’s mocking tone is evident in the diction of ‘a sad spectacle’, which reverses to Alcee’s acceptance of the regulation of society. Since Edna is searching for her independence, she pities Alcee and his blatant acceptance of the social norms. As Edna’s confidante, Mlle.Reisz had expressed to Edna the importance of maintaining the strength and bravery to ‘soar above the level of tradition’. This insistence pushes Edna to prevent falling among those who are not strong enough such as Alcee. Chopin develops social commentary through Alcee’s misunderstanding of Edna’s desires. Chopin uses the thoughts of Alcee to illuminate over society’s view of women. Alcee plays an essential role in that his confusion represents societies. Furthermore, although the pigeon-house allows Edna to seek independence, it also holds a false sense of reality. As Alcee and Edna leave the pigeon-house for a walk, Edna gives a detailed description of the house. The descriptive image of the pigeon-house is intended to represent a false sense of security. The ‘locked gate’ is a metaphor for a larger cage,which is only a from her original home. While Edna views her new home as a sign of her independence, the pigeon house represents her inability to remove herself from her former life, Choplin develops social commentary on the deceiving aspects of Edna’s freedom within the pigeon-house. Leaving her former home behind, Edna searched for a means to be free from the restrictions of her marriage, to seek her sexual desire and to pursue her individuality. In conclusion, in the novel, The Awakening, Chopin uses the motif of birds in the settings of the ocean and the pigeon-house to illustrates Edna’s awakening with the intent to provide social commentary about women’s repressed roles in society. In The Awakening, although Edna seeks individuality and freedom, she is controlled by the conforms of society. Chopin uses the character of Edna to create social commentary on woman prejudices during the 1890s. Chopin ends the novel in the same setting where it began. Chopin does so to provide social commentary to emphasis how societal perception overpowers one’s desire.

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The Awakening

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Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-9

Chapters 10-14

Chapters 15-19

Chapters 20-24

Chapters 25-29

Chapters 30-35

Chapters 36-39

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

How do themes of solitude, independence, and identity, apart from husband and children , connect with Chopin’s own life? Do they echo or contradict it? 

Do the issues of gender and marriage brought up in The Awakening seem outdated to you, or do they remain just as relevant today? 

Compare the story of Edna’s awakening with some other female characters in terms of their transformation. How is Edna different from them? How does their social status influence their struggle for independence?

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Spring, fertility and an awakening with Spain’s Las Mayas – a photo essay

Since 2014 Spanish photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has been portraying the girl participants in a spring festival held in Colmenar Viejo outside Madrid. His portraits bear witness to his fascination with the enduring nature of Spain’s rituals

W ith obscure origins in pagan customs and dating back to medieval times, the festivities of La Maya offers a strange and colourful spectacle celebrating the arrival of spring. Every year on 2 May the families of girls aged between seven and 11 gather to decide which of them will be chosen to be that year’s “Mayas”.

Lucia Corrales Alfonso

Rich in symbolism, the tradition speaks of fertility and prosperity, and serves as a blessing for the agricultural season. In preparation for the event the families of the girls build intricate and elaborate altars decorated with flowers and herbs, gathered in the surrounding countryside, and weave a wreath that the girl will wear like a crown.

A carpet of freshly picked plants is laid out in front of the altar and cut flowers are placed in vases either side of the “throne”. There are no written rules when it comes to the decorations and styling. Everything has been passed down orally for generations.

Clockwise from top left: Jimena del Valle Lopez; Maria Moreno Guapo; Andrea Ramos Diaz; Eva Maria Olalla Alvarez

On the day of the festival the girls are dressed in petticoats, white shirts and manila shawls tied at the back and take their places on the altars where they are required to sit, perfectly still and silent, while people file past and admire the splendour of their displays.

Paula Gomez Criado

Each Maya has a number of attendants who approach passersby, offering to brush their clothes in exchange for a small donation for the family of the Maya to cover their outgoings for the altar. After about two hours of sitting perfectly still the Mayas walk to the church with their families and other celebrants where a service is held. For some time, churches were cautious about welcoming the Mayas after the ritual as the festival clearly predates Christianity in the Iberian peninsula but nowadays the processions are welcomed and accommodated.

Clockwise from top left: Lucia Espinosa Murillo; Natalia Ciriza Berrocal; Patricia Fernandez Garcia; Natalia Ciriza Berrocal

The festival’s name is thought to originate in Greco-Roman myth. In Greek mythology Maia was one of the Pleiades, the companions of Artemis, the goddess of the fields. The Greek phenomenon became conflated with the Roman goddess Maia Majesta, symbolising fertility and spring which ultimately gave the month of May its name as it marks the height of spring.

A Maya girl sits on an altar on the streets of Colmenar Viejo

Ochoa de Olza has photographed this magical event in the village of Colmenar Viejo, 21 miles (35km) from Madrid, for the past 10 years. Born in Pamplona and having studied in Barcelona, he felt like an outsider when he moved to Madrid, which made him curious about the regional traditions that make up Spain’s rich cultural heritage. Having photographed bullfighting over many years as well, he was fascinated by the huge range of rituals – from the cruel and gory to the gentle and tender – that can be found around the country.

Class of 2023. Clockwise from top left: Lucia Martinez Fermosell; Lucia Lopez Matellano; Berta Leon Turegano; Julia Fernandez Aragon

Speaking about his work on the Mayas, Ochoa de Olza notes that he is more interested in pictures that ask questions than pictures that give answers. This beguiling set of portraits leaves many questions unanswered, working its visual magic around the universal themes of fertility, spring and reawakening.

“I find it interesting that in the 21st century we are still doing these festivals – it is a way to see where we are going and where we have come from – looking back to look forward,” Ochoa de Olza notes.

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Reducing  The Idea of You  to Fan Fiction Is Another Example of Dismissing Women’s Art

I n the spring of 2014, when I set out to write the novel that would become The Idea Of You , I didn’t plan on writing something that was revolutionary or controversial. I wanted to write a story about Solène Marchand, a woman on the cusp of 40 who rediscovers and redefines herself through an unexpected love with a much younger man who happens to be a world-famous celebrity. As someone who was in that age range and who should have just been hitting my stride in my professional life as an actor, I was seeing the sudden shift in parts available to me. The characters had become more staid, the opportunities fewer and further between. I was learning the hard way that in Hollywood , after 40, women are much less desirable. The assumption was that we ceased to be sexual beings and were thus less valuable. I was eager to prove the industry—and our culture at large—wrong, in my own little way.

Shortly after the book’s publication in 2017, I realized I was also bumping up against something else. Some readers were viewing this story about ageism , sexism, the double standard, motherhood, female friendship, agency, and the dark side of celebrity as nothing more than “fluff.” They focused on the love story and the sex to the exclusion of the other pertinent themes of the book. They called it a romance. It was not. Romance novels have specific rules, and my book did not follow them. But it was labeled and categorized as such.

Was it because it centered on a woman’s love story? Because the main characters, Solène  and Hayes Campbell, two consenting adults, had a healthy sexual appetite? Or maybe it was the cover and the publisher’s marketing campaign? I’ll never know. But I started receiving messages from women that began with self-conscious and belittling openings like, “This is not the type of book I typically read, however…” and “I didn’t think I was going to like this book, but…” Then they’d proceed to discuss all the themes I’d set out to grapple with in writing the novel. It was clear they had made assumptions. They didn’t think a story about a woman’s midlife sexual awakening might contain something deeper. They couldn’t imagine it might be both tantalizing and complex. 

I am a lover of literary fiction. I appreciate stories with characters who are not necessarily like me, who expose me to new worlds and new ways of thinking through elegant prose. I crave stories that are multilayered and have something profound to say. But I also enjoy stories that entertain, that provide levity and occasional escapism. And I have always tried to write in a space encompassing both.

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There’s a scene in The Idea Of You when Hayes, a member of the chart-topping British boy band August Moon, is disparaging his work as the group’s founder, and Solène, a sophisticated art dealer, is imploring him to not discredit what he and his bandmates do.

“It’s art. And it makes people happy,” she says. “And that’s a very good thing. We have this problem in our culture. We take art that appeals to women—film, books, music—and we undervalue it. We assume it can’t be high art. Especially if it’s not dark and tortured and wailing. And it follows that much of that art is created by other women, and so we undervalue them as well. We wrap it up in a pretty pink package and resist calling it art.” 

That sentiment has resonated with me more in the years since I wrote this line of dialogue than ever before. I thought about it when Barbie became the biggest box-office hit of 2023 and the highest-grossing film ever directed by a woman, yet Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were not nominated for Best Director or Best Actress, respectively, at the Oscars. I thought about it when I revisited critics’ resistance to Taylor Swift and the dismissal of her fandom for the first decade of her career, writing both off as juvenile and unserious. We all know who got the last laugh there. In April, Swift was named to the Forbes billionaire list, becoming the first musician whose earnings stem solely from her songs and performances to do so. Not so unserious now, is she?

In no other case does Solène’s description of that sentiment feel more personal than with the responses to her story. Labeling it as “fluff” or “fanfiction”—particularly when done by those who have not read it—is both reductive and dismissive. And this is not something that happens to male authors. It’s bad enough that so many novels with female protagonists are labeled women’s fiction , while those with male protagonists are simply fiction , and that these categorizations exist regardless of the fact that fiction readers across the board are disproportionately women. But assuming a novel with a fictional celebrity in a relationship must be based on an existing celebrity—in this case, the internet has decided, Harry Styles —is unimaginative at best and sexist at worst.

There are some brilliant, beloved writers of fanfic out there, but fanfiction is just not what I do. Hayes Campbell, like Solène Marchand and the myriad other characters in this book, was inspired in part by people I’ve encountered and by art I’ve consumed, and he came to life thanks to a healthy dose of my imagination. It’s how most writers I know, regardless of gender, create their characters and their worlds.

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My case is just one symptom of the larger disease in the broader literary world, where comparable works by women and men are given inequitable weight. “First-person narrative by men is still published and reviewed as more serious and gets a lot more money and coverage,” author and academic Kate Zambreno said in a recent New York Times interview. “It’s also usually not dismissed as merely autofiction or memoir, instead read as literature encompassing psychogeography, philosophy, art criticism. Even if a woman is doing exactly that, she’s usually still marketed as merely writing a woman’s experience or, worse, a mom memoir, if she has children.”

What is it about art made by women and marketed toward women that makes us view it as less than—that makes us think they can’t be complex and important? We don’t wrap male writers’ books in pink and tell readers they’re great for the beach. We don’t frown upon consumers of male fiction as juvenile. We don’t reduce their writing to fanfiction and attach a celebrity’s name for clickbait. Bottom line: we don’t undervalue them and their work. 

I never set out to write a novel that would spark this kind of debate. Hayes and Solène’s story has made readers think about their agency and ambition, about love and aging and the meaning of human connection—and it’s made them laugh, cry, wallow, and sigh in the process. Perhaps it is art, after all.

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A Small Island, a Big Mammal and One Girl’s Awakening

Set in a remote Welsh enclave on the cusp of World War II, Elizabeth O’Connor’s “Whale Fall” finds fresh resonance for a coming-of-age debut.

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WHALE FALL, by Elizabeth O’Connor

Can a novel be both blunt and exquisite? I’m not sure I would have known how to imagine such a work before reading “Whale Fall,” Elizabeth O’Connor’s excellent debut. Brief but complete, the book is an example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude.

In the autumn of 1938, our narrator, Manod, is 18 and a lifelong inhabitant of an unnamed three-mile-square Welsh island, population 47, where people eke out a subsistence by fishing and farming. Manod lives with her father, a lobster fisherman, and her younger sister, Llinos, who, in one of the book’s many small mysteries, might have some kind of cognitive impairment or might just be eccentric. Inevitably, the island bleeds people to the mainland. Boys set off in hopes of factory jobs. Girls marry their way out. Both often find disappointment.

In this starkly limited place, women’s lives are further circumscribed. But Manod is bright and restless, resistant to the expectation that, having now finished school, she ought to accept a husband immediately. “I’d seen girls married at 16,” she says, “with children by 20, widowed by the sea by 25, worn out and lost.” That Manod’s own mother is dead is not confirmed until late in the novel, but the fact is not surprising as we are given glimpses throughout of an ominous depression: “At some point after Llinos was born, Mam got smaller, thinner … She stayed in bed most days, sleeping or lying with her eyes cold and open.” Manod isn’t sure what she wants for herself, but not that.

The first outside presence to disrupt life on the island is a baleen whale that washes up on the beach. No one quite knows what to make of the corpse, though the topsy-turviness of such a massive sea animal’s presence on land is unsettling. “A few older people said it was some kind of omen,” Manod says, “though could not agree on whether it was good or bad.” Children play around the body. As it begins to rot, people bring flowers and carve graffiti into its skin.

Not long after the whale’s arrival, human interlopers arrive in the form of Edward and Joan, English researchers making an ethnographic study of the island, who quickly hire Manod as an assistant and translator. Manod is enraptured by their alienness and by the possibilities they represent. She tells Joan that, before meeting her, she had not known women could attend university or choose not to marry. “I would love to study. Like you,” she says.

“I’m saying that you can. You must,” Joan replies casually, without offering any practical advice or consideration of the barriers Manod faces. “You could do anything,” Edward echoes later when Manod says she would like to attend university, willfully ignoring her obvious misconception that he will take her with him when he leaves.

What drops the scales from Manod’s eyes is her growing awareness that the English duo are manipulating and fabricating their depiction of life on the island. Seeing a photo that they have labeled “ An island family enjoys a picnic ,” Manod observes that “no one in the photo was related. And we never ate outside.” Edward and Joan persuade a fisherman to lunge around in the surf for another staged photo and are indifferent to Manod’s protests that not only is this not how islanders fish but that the setup is dangerous, as it is custom there that no one learns to swim.

Edward is weak and weaselly, but Joan is the true villain of the novel. A disciple of the fascist Oswald Mosley, she projects “true Britishness” onto the islanders and romance onto the treacherous ocean. To her, the islanders’ endurance of grinding hardship is “such a wonderful way to live … in tune with nature.” When the researchers ask to borrow the whimsical, treasured embroideries Manod has made over the years, ostensibly just to photograph them, I wished only that her disillusionment would speed along a little more quickly.

While occasionally Manod can seem a bit too cleareyed — “The island that’s in your head. I don’t think it exists,” she tells Joan — the novel does an exceptional job of getting at the tension between the big picture and the small one. To different eyes, the same island might look like a prison or a romantic enclave, but to actually apprehend the truth of a place or person requires patience, nuanced attention and the painstaking accrual of details. Understanding is hard work, O’Connor suggests, especially when we must release our preconceptions. While the researchers fail to grasp this, Manod does not, and her reward by book’s end, painfully earned, is a new and thrilling resolve.

WHALE FALL | By Elizabeth O’Connor | Pantheon | 224 pp. | $27

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