Summer Reading

Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition

2010-2011

Mrs. C.M. Pastor

Tremper High School

Room 246

The summer reading for this year’s AP English Literature and Composition is

The Awakening by Kate Chopin. Students may purchase this novel at www.doverpublications.org. Please read the background information and complete the following assignment prior to beginning class in fall. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Pastor during the summer.

·  Biography

Kate Chopin,(1850-1904) the author of The Awakening, was a bit of a 19th century rebel. Happily married and the mother of six, her husband allowed her independence and supported both her unconventional dress and actions. Widowed at the age of thirty-one, Kate took over her late husband’s business responsibilities and assumed his debts. Although she had lived in both New Orleans and Natchitoches, Louisiana, after her husband’s death, she returned to St. Louis with her family. There, she lived with her mother and devoted herself to writing. Her unconventional heroines and daring subject matter raised eyebrows, but her editors continued to print her work. When The Awakening was published in 1899, she was denounced and shunned by friends; the result was that no one would publish her next book. Her work was virtually ignored until feminists rediscovered it in the late 1950s. She finally achieved the renown she deserved in the 1980s, and her work took its place in the American canon. The Awakening continues to be recommended reading by the College Board.

·  19th Century New Orleans Society

In the 19th century, the Creole was the aristocrat of New Orleans and of south Louisiana. They are defined as whites descended from the original French and Spanish settlers, and many of their ancestors held titles. The Creoles were proud, exclusive people who lived in their private circle, accepted only the “genteel and cultured” in their homes, and took “great care to maintain the purity of their blood.” According to M.H. Herrin, their civilization was distinguished by “the courage and honorable bearing of the men, the beauty and refinement of the women, and the genteel manners of both sexes.” (Herrin, The Creole Aristocracy.

New York: Exposition Press, 1952). As you read the novel, annotate the author’s comments on Creoles and their various characteristics. The protagonist, Edna, is not a Creole.

·  French terms from The Awakening.

If you speak some French, The Awakening will be easier for you. However, here is a list of French and archaic nineteenth century terms to familiarize yourself with:

Parterre flower bed

Vingt-et-un game of 21

Tignon chignon (hair in a bun)

Piroque small bayou boat

Banquette sidewalk

Bourgeois ordinary man

Peignoir dressing gown

Coup d’etat overthrow of a government

Accouchement childbirth

Ménage household

Patois subliterate dialect

Coupe carriage

Quartier Francais The French Quarter in New Orleans

Porte cochere covered carriage entrance

Marron glace glazed chestnut

Atelier studio

Cot cottage

Lugger carriage

Mules heelless slippers

Tabouret low stool

Drag carriage

·  The Awakening’s Men: Husbands, Seducers, Romantics, Philosophers

Use a composition book to respond to the following questions in your journal. Both the annotations on Creole characteristics and journal questions are due two weeks after class begins. Please support all your interpretations with quotations from the text.

The Husband Figure

1. Describe qualities that make Leonce a good husband. Describe actions and dialogue in chapters 1 and 3 that suggest he may not be such a good husband.

2. Ch. 11 takes place after Edna’s successful swim and her silent moments with Robert. Reread the chapter (three pages) and comment on what it reveals about Leonce.

3. In Ch. 17, Leonce reacts to Edna’s going out on her at-home day and to the cook’s food. In the first six paragraphs of chapter 18, comment on what he expects of Edna as his wife.

The Seducer Figure

Alcee Arobin can be visualized as the serpent of temptation that lured Edna into adultery. His attributes are almost stereotypical, since they portray males in countless books and movies: rich, handsome, charming, suave, personable, available. Chopin writes: “He possessed a good figure, a pleasing face, not overburdened with depth of thought or feeling…”

“It was no labor to become intimate with Arobin. His manner invited easy confidence. The preliminary stage of becoming acquainted was one he always endeavored to ignore when a pretty and engaging woman was concerned.”

“Alcee Arobin’s manner was so genuine that it often deceived even himself.”

4. Comment on what these details suggest about his character. Focus on the connotations of the diction and Chopin’s irony.

5. Does Edna love Arobin? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

Speculate on why she gets involved with Arobin instead of Robert.

6. Edna’s epiphany continues as she revels in her new-found freedom. Comment on the significance about the scene in the little pigeon house after dinner.

The Romantic Figure

7.Every summer Robert becomes attached to a married woman at his mother’s Grand Isle resort. Everyone knows he isn’t serious. Edna’s awakening makes her consider Robert as more than a flirtatious summer friend. Does Robert ever become serious about her at Grand Isle? Support your answer with proof from the text.

8. Describe the characteristics that make Robert a romantic rather than a realist. Note actions that make him seem to be a perpetual adolescent, and list suggestions in the text that indicate he has been involved with other women.

9. After they again meet accidentally at the coffee house, Robert confesses his feeling and says that he dreamed of marriage if Leonce would set her free. At the end of Ch. 36 Edna responds to this in a short speech that baffles Robert. Reread the speech and determine why it confuses him.

The Philosopher-Sage Figure

Dr. Mandelet appears three times in the latter half of the novel: when he gives advice to Leonce; when he observed Edna at dinner; when he gives Edna advice after the birth of Adele’s baby. On each occasion, he serves as a neutral observer who offers advice without the interference of passion or possession.

10. What is the advice Mandelet gives Leonce when he asks him about Edna’s much-changed behavior? What question does he not ask?

11. During dinner, Mandelet notices the change in Edna. Comment on the metaphor used to describe her.

12. After the birth of Adele’s baby, note the warning and the advice Mandelet gives Edna. Comment on what it foreshadows.

·  The Awakening’s Other Women: The Mother, the Artist

13. Compare and contrast Adele the mother with Mlle. Reisz, the artist. Both represent two extremes, while Edna struggles to find a position between the two.

Does she succeed? Hint: It is useful to construct a Venn diagram to contrast the two women and determine where Edna falls between them, if she finds any middle ground at all.

·  The Death Scene

There is no single, simple view or opinion of Edna’s death scene. Your view of her death depends on your values and life definition. Read these comments by various critics about Edna’s death. Select one of them to comment on and support it with quotations from the novel. This should be your longest journal entry.

“Edna’s suicide represents her final attempt to escape---to escape her children, her lovers, and most important, time and change. For only by complete isolation of self can Edna be truthful to her inner life.” Susan Rosowski

“Unfortunately, she fails to see that her passion is for herself, and this error perhaps destroys her.” Harold Bloom

“Prizing her freedom above all else, disdaining to trample on the’little lives’ she loves, Edna gives back her life to the waters that had awakened it.” Barbara H. Solomon

“Edna has driven the blood until it will drive no further, they have played their nerves up to the point where any relaxation short of absolute annihilation is impossible…And in the end, the nerves get even. Nobody ever cheats them, really. Then the ‘awakening’ comes.” Willa Cather (1899).