Wake Up

1
Wake Up!

• Feraco
• Search for Human Potential
• 5 February 2009

2
Self-Identification

• What kind of an artist are you?
• Visual? (Photography, painting, drawing)
• Auditory? (Speaking, singing, music)
• Kinesthetic? (Athletics, coordination)
• Practical? (Mathematics, science, etc.)
• Some sort of hybrid?
• Whats your favorite thing that you took the time
  to create during the past month?
• How about during the past year?

3
Influences

• Has anyone helped, taught, or influenced your
  work or your creative process?
• If youre a musician, do you listen to others for
  inspiration?
• If youre a painter, do you try to incorporate
  elements of other styles into your own?
• If youre a writer, do you read works and try to
  figure out how you can use that writers skills
  for your own benefit?

4
Art and Compromise

• Do you mainly create for others, or for yourself?
• Will you create something you dont care about on
  demand?
• Are you good at creating things that arent
  deeply personal?
• Would you sell out change your work in the
  name of profit, or bow to ideological or popular
  pressure?
• Should we blame those who do?

5
Early Childhood

• Kate Chopin was born Katherine OFlaherty in St.
  Louis, MO
• Grew up around women
• Her father and brothers died when she was young
• Raised by Catholic nuns (Sacred Heart Academy)
  and her mother, grandmother, and
  great-grandmother
• French-Creole aristocratic ancestry

• Became exposed to a great deal of music,
  literature, and language

6
Marriage and Family Life

• Married Oscar Chopin at 19 in 1874.
• Also descended from well-to-do Creoles
• If youre wondering why theres so much French in
  The Awakening, or wondering why the author seems
  to fixate on Creole culture, heres why!
• Settled permanently in Louisiana
• Six children in ten years!
• Unusual degree of freedom within society
• Oscar was supportive, and Kate was independent
• When one is raised by wealthy, intelligent,
  independent individuals, one tends to mirror that
  lifestyle

7
Tragedy Ensues

• Kate moved to a much smaller town in 1879 when
  Oscars interests fell through
• She was an oddity in the community
• Oscar died of malaria in 1882
• Time to raise six kids!
• Moved back to Missouri two years later
• Her mother died shortly after their arrival

8
Rising Like a Phoenix

• Chopin began writing when people started dying
• Her early work grappled with many of the themes
  that The Awakening would eventually explore
• Love
• Passion
• Female repression
• Women were still denied many freedoms, from the
  right to vote to the right to a divorce

9
Wake Up!

• Awakening controversy
• Adultery, abandonment, and suicide
• Its central protagonist, Edna, is bent on
  violating the social conventions that governed
  womens lives
• Public reaction to the book Shun her! Ban her!
• Chopin only published three more short stories
  over the next five years, then died in 1904 of a
  cerebral hemorrhage

10
A Blessing or a Curse?

• Born before her time
• Strength and independence good or bad?
• She was the subject of gossip and innuendo in the
  19th-century South, and her society frowned on
  women who pursued these things at the expense of
  their familial duties.
• It didnt matter that Chopin was a dedicated
  mother and wife
• Her willingness to write frankly about things
  that everyone thought about, but no one talked
  about, made her an easy target

11
Died a Failure

• Her works greatness, skill, and profundity were
  never truly appreciated while she was alive
• Largely ignored until the 1960s and 1970s
• Were no longer quite as terrified by the idea of
  a sexually free woman, although many contemporary
  readers still react viscerally to the things Edna
  does
• After all, many of her actions are still
  considered to be unacceptable today
• Perhaps proving that things dont change as
  quickly as we believe they do...or perhaps simply
  proving that some things remain socially
  unacceptable

12
While Youre Reading

• Dont simply judge Edna based on what you see her
  do
• Look for the little touches that Chopin
  masterfully seeds throughout the text!
• For example, the parrot that screams what appears
  to be random French words is actually quite
  important its a stand-in for Edna Pontellier,
  our trapped protagonist
• Its speech translates roughly as Go away! Go
  away! For Gods sake!
• As a result, the first line of dialogue we hear
  is a primal scream of rejection and a plea to
  be left alone, albeit a futile one
• Notice how irritated Ednas husband grows when he
  has to listen to the parrot express its
  desires?
• Remember, parrots are mimics the birds yelling
  something its picked up
• Where did it hear that plea?
• Finally, note that the birds in a cage
• The bars are just wide enough to prevent escape
  the bird remains trapped inside, painfully aware
  of the freedom outside of the cage but utterly
  unable to access it and be free

13
While Youre Still Reading

• The characters that seem to be introduced at
  random and never explored are representations of
  societys expectations about women
• The sisters playing the piano are shallow
• Their playing expresses nothing about them yet
  it reveals everything
• Because they exist only to please, the sisters
  develop no personalities of their own
• They simply play the pretty, empty melodies that
  everyone expects them to play and by refusing
  to exceed those expectations, they perpetuate the
  cycle of superficiality and proper behavior
  that suffocates Edna

14
The LIB (Galaxy Defender!)

• On the other hand, the Lady in Black is the dark
  version of Edna
• Both women are independent (or at least become
  independent over the course of the novel), but
  the Lady in Black carries her independence like a
  burden
• Her black clothes smother any sort of joy she
  could have she has dedicated the remainder of
  her life to suffering because that is what is
  expected of her
• Which is worse the shallow sisters at the
  piano, or the woman who throws away the rest of
  her life because society demands it?

15
Character Check Edna Pontellier

• The novels central figure
• A married mother of two
• Feels vaguely frustrated, but does nothing about
  it
• Is she a good parent?
• Her actions (and inactions) shape the course of
  the book

16
Ednas Awakening

• The books title refers to Ednas slowly
  deepening self-awareness
• She discovers that she is unhappy, and tries to
  find happiness at all costs
• Theres a marked contrast between her and the
  women around her, who seem either unaware or
  content
• Reisz and Ratignolle are parallel characters
  but youll get to them later

17
Be Careful What You Wish For Cause You Just
Might Get It

• Edna is trying to carve out her own identity
• The problem is that shes already assumed one,
  for better or for worse, and she doesnt have a
  whole lot of options
• Even when shes trying to discard it, she runs
  into people who either disapprove or refuse to
  help her
• Moreover, once she creates a new identity, Edna
  finds that it is still hard to connect with
  others
• She can have her affairs, but it turns out the
  people she really wants wont have anything to do
  with her because they are unwilling to rock the
  boat

18
Character Check Léonce Pontellier

• Ednas husband
• A bit older forty years old to her twenty-eight
• Hes not uncaring, but he isnt very perceptive,
  and hes barely around
• This places Edna in an odd situation will her
  husband even be hurt if she has an affair? He
  isnt around much how would this even affect
  his life?

19
Character Check Robert Lebrun

• This is the young man who Edna grows attached to
  they flirt and converse, and his presence helps
  motivate Edna to assume her own identity
• However, Robert ultimately embodies as many
  negatives as positives
• His attention seems insincere, but he eventually
  means what he says
• The problem is that he lacks Ednas conviction
  he seems reluctant to buck societys standards
  for her

20
Character Check Adèle Ratignolle

• Adèle is a nicely designed foil, because she
  embodies the feminine ideal that Edna strives to
  avoid
• She is dedicated to her husband and children to
  the point that they are her life, and she pursues
  nothing else
• This may have impressed the men of the time, but
  Edna finds she cannot follow her friends example

21
Character Check Mademoiselle Reisz

• Reisz represents who Edna wants to be who Edna
  may have become if she had faced similar
  circumstances
• Similarly, Reisz is Adèles opposite
• Reisz is single but independent, unconstrained by
  family attachments
• She is intelligent and driven, and lives her life
  on her own terms

22
Thats All for Today!

• I hope you connect with this book, despite its
  slow beginning
• Were building towards a mock trial, and you
  cant perform well during it unless you
  understand this book, this society, and these
  characters on a deeply personal basis
• More on this when we come to the end of the book
• No one comes out of this book looking like a
  saint, so were not searching for saintliness
  were searching for truth, even if what we find
  makes us reevaluate ourselves and the
  preconceptions we treasure
• Dont forget to annotate, and Ill see you in
  class tomorrow!