CJ’s Comments (group member since Feb 04, 2022)

CJ’s comments from the AP Literature and Composition (SHHS) group.

Edna's mental state is rapidly reaching an all-time low and her frustration is taking over her. However, her problem is rooted in isolation rather than missing her husband and kids. She pays very little mind to the absence of her family and almost sees them being gone as an opportunity to explore her newfound identity, going to races and interacting with others. But where another problem arises is where she notices how she misses Robert more and finds herself finding attraction in Alcee.

Leonce's position as a husband plays a large part in the development of the plot in the way that he enforces a motherly role on Edna. He's traditional and will take no part in taking care of his kids, only going out to provide for his family and going to bed at the end of the night. It's mentioned several times throughout the novella that Edna wasn't the maternal type, opting to let her kids learn through experience rather than her nurture and her feeling as if she was stuck after having them. Leonce's expectations of her enable Edna's realization of her potential as an individual rather than this woman whose societal responsibility is to stay home and take care of some kids.
Because of this, the feminist lens is the easiest to take in reading The Awakening. The novella covers the topic of gender norms, those being 'woman=caretaker, man=breadwinner' and the expectations put on women to be delicate, homely, and loving. Edna is none of these things, instead being "neglectful" of her kids and ignorant when her husband is talking to her. Her lack of motherly instincts paints her out to be a failure of a woman according to society, but Edna slowly begins to realize that those stereotypes and norms are set to oppress her.