The Awakening Study Guide
The Awakening Study Guide
CHAPTER 1
1. Explain how the parrot and the mockingbird are used to introduce this chapter.
They provide disruptive sound images. The parrot is saying, “Go away! Go away! For Heaven’s sake!” The mockingbird whistles with “maddening persistence.”
2. Describe Léonce Pontellier.
He appears to be a successful New Orleans businessman. He is neat and orderly in appearance and has an impatient manner. He and his wife, Edna, and their two children are vacationing at Grand Isle for the summer.
3. What does the following quotation tell you about Léonce’s attitude toward his wife? He looked “at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.”
He considers her as property, not as a person; he also considers the appearance of his possessions as very important.
4. Who is Robert Lebrun?
He is the son of Madame Lebrun, the woman who owns the main house and the cottages that make up the summer resort at Grand Isle.
5. Discuss the use of the following sounds in Chapter I: the other birds, the piano, Madame Lebrun, the children, Edna, and Robert.
• The birds are “chattering and whistling.”
• The young girls are playing the piano.
• Madame Lebrun’s “bustling in and out, giving orders in a high key.”
• The Pontellier children are playing.
• Edna and Robert return from the beach, laughing and talking.
6. How do these sounds indicate something about the setting of the novel?
They suggest a warm, pleasant, carefree, summer day.
7. What indications are there that the Pontellier marriage is strained?
Léonce takes Edna for granted, seeing her as a part of his neat, orderly world. He seems unconcerned about the shared familiarity between Edna and Robert. Léonce and his wife speak only in passing; he leaves for Klein’s and perhaps a game of billiards rather than spend time with her.
CHAPTER 2
1. Describe Edna Pontellier.
She is attractive, handsome rather than beautiful. Her eyes are “quick and
CHAPTER 1
1. Explain how the parrot and the mockingbird are used to introduce this chapter.
They provide disruptive sound images. The parrot is saying, “Go away! Go away! For Heaven’s sake!” The mockingbird whistles with “maddening persistence.”
2. Describe Léonce Pontellier.
He appears to be a successful New Orleans businessman. He is neat and orderly in appearance and has an impatient manner. He and his wife, Edna, and their two children are vacationing at Grand Isle for the summer.
3. What does the following quotation tell you about Léonce’s attitude toward his wife? He looked “at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.”
He considers her as property, not as a person; he also considers the appearance of his possessions as very important.
4. Who is Robert Lebrun?
He is the son of Madame Lebrun, the woman who owns the main house and the cottages that make up the summer resort at Grand Isle.
5. Discuss the use of the following sounds in Chapter I: the other birds, the piano, Madame Lebrun, the children, Edna, and Robert.
• The birds are “chattering and whistling.”
• The young girls are playing the piano.
• Madame Lebrun’s “bustling in and out, giving orders in a high key.”
• The Pontellier children are playing.
• Edna and Robert return from the beach, laughing and talking.
6. How do these sounds indicate something about the setting of the novel?
They suggest a warm, pleasant, carefree, summer day.
7. What indications are there that the Pontellier marriage is strained?
Léonce takes Edna for granted, seeing her as a part of his neat, orderly world. He seems unconcerned about the shared familiarity between Edna and Robert. Léonce and his wife speak only in passing; he leaves for Klein’s and perhaps a game of billiards rather than spend time with her.
CHAPTER 2
1. Describe Edna Pontellier.
She is attractive, handsome rather than beautiful. Her eyes are “quick and