Assignment for March 29th, 2011

Read chapters 1-10 of The Awakening by Kate Chopin and respond to the following questions. 

Also, write a 3-4 reader response essay about your feelings regarding the first 10 chapters.  Reflect on what you read and make predictions about the rest of the novel based on what you know so far.

Study Questions 

Chapter 1
1. What kind of bird is hung in the cage?

2. Why does Leonce return to his own cottage?

3. What are the Farival twins doing at the main house?

4. Who is Edna bathing with?

5. How does Leonce look at Edna when she returns?

6. What does Leonce give to Edna upon her return?

7. What are Edna and Robert laughing about?

8. Where is Leonce going to spend the evening?

9. Why doesn’t Robert go with him?

10. Does Leonce keep his promise to the children?

Chapter 2

1. How does Edna look at objects?

2. How does Edna’s appearance differ from other women?

3. What about Robert’s appearance makes him seem immature?

4. Why does Robert smoke cigarettes?

5. How do we see the intimacy between Robert and Edna at this point?

6. Why does Robert want to go to Mexico?

7. Why does Madame Lebrun take in guests?

8. How is Edna’s background different from the other guests at Grand Isle?

9. What is Edna’s sister doing in the East?

10. Why does Robert assume Leonce wouldn’t be coming home for dinner?

Chapter 3

1. Why does Edna have trouble talking to Leonce when he comes home from Klein’s?

2. What does Leonce do after he tells Edna that Raoul has a fever?

3. What is Leonce’s opinion of raising children?

4. Why is Edna so upset after she checks on Raoul?

5. What does the sea sound like when Edna goes outside?

6. What is different about this particular argument with Leonce that causes Edna to cry?

7. What does Edna feel while she cries?

8. Is Edna upset about the fact that she is crying?

9. What does Leonce send to Edna while he is away?

10. Is Leonce considered a good husband?

Chapter 4

1. What is given as an example of Edna’s lack of mothering?

2. What is a “mother-woman”?

3. Who is considered a classic mother-woman?

4. What are three differences between Adele and Edna’s appearances?

5. When are Adele’s hands considered most beautiful?

6. Why did Edna cut a pattern for winter clothes for her children?

7. How do Edna and Robert know that Adele is pregnant again?

8. Why does Edna blush when Robert tells Adele it is safe to eat a bonbon?

9. Why doesn’t Edna feel entirely comfortable at Grand Isle?

10. According to Edna, what is the most distinguishing characteristic of the Creoles?

Chapter 5-6

1. What is clear about Edna and Robert’s relationship?

2. Why is Robert allowed to spend so much time with married women at Grand Isle?

3. How does Edna feel about Adele’s beauty?

4. Why does Edna sketch?

5. Why does Edna repulse Robert’s head from her arm?

6. Why does Edna crumple up the picture of Adele?

7. How is the sea described here?

8. Why did Edna go bathing with Robert?

9. What is Edna beginning to realize?

10. Why is Edna’s realization potentially dangerous?

Chapter 7

1. What is Edna’s attitude toward sharing confidences?

2. What is it about Adele that started to bring Edna out of her shell?

3. Why does Adele insist on bringing her needlework to the beach?

4. What is the difference in the way Edna and Adele dressed for the beach?

5. What is Edna gazing at when Adele begins questioning her thoughts?

6. What does Edna’s childhood meadow story tell her and us about her present state?

7. Why is Edna confused when Adele begins stroking her hand?

8. What is different about Edna’s relationship with Leonce and the other men she talks about?

9. How does Edna feel when she is away from her children?

10. How does Edna feel after sharing about herself with Adele?

Chapter 8

1. What is different about Adele’s eyes when she talks to Robert?

2. What is Adele’s fear when she asks Robert to leave Edna alone?

3. How does Adele explain that fear to Robert?

4. Why is it important that nobody take Robert seriously?

5. What does Robert tell Adele about Alcee Arobin?

6. What is Robert’s thought about Edna?

7. How do the lovers walk?

8. Why does Madame Lebrun have someone else working the treadle of her sewing machine?

9. How does Madame Lebrun account for things going wrong in her life and the world?

10. What news does Madame Lebrun have for Robert?

Chapter 9

1. Why is the hall lit up and decorated?

2. Why are the Pontellier children exerting authority over the other children?

3. What songs do the Farival twins play?

4. Why does Adele keep up with her music?

5. What is Edna looking at when she sat on the windowsill?

6. What does Mademoiselle Reisz look like?

7. What does Edna think of when she hears the song Adele plays that she calls “Solitude”?

8. What is different about Edna as she hears Mademoiselle Reisz’s first chords on the piano?

9. What is Edna’s reaction to Mademoiselle Reisz’s music?

10. Why does Mademoiselle Reisz think Edna is the only one worth playing for?

Chapter 10

1. How does Edna feel when Robert is not around?

2. What is the odor Edna smells down by the sea?

3. Why had Edna not been able to learn to swim?

4. What is different about this night?

5. How does Edna feel when she starts swimming?

6. What is she looking for when she swims out?

7. What does Edna experience after she swims a certain distance?

8. How does Edna describe the night to Robert when he walks her home?

9. How does Robert describe it?

10. What happens in the silence when Edna is in the hammock and Robert is sitting by her?