Week Sixteen

Monday, December 9, 2024 10:02 AM

Monday and Tuesday

Finish with passage analysis and small group discussions.

Homework Monday Night- Read chapters 23-29.

Homework for Tuesday Night- Read chapters 30-37.

Wednesday

Finish the book in class and discuss the last page.

The Final Page Analysis- Carefully consider the following passage and the colored sections/words. Put it all together!

Edna walked on down to the beach rather mechanically, not noticing anything special except that the sun was hot. She was not dwelling upon any particular train of thought. She had done all the thinking which was necessary after Robert went away, when she lay awake upon the sofa till morning.

She had said over and over to herself: “To-day it is Arobin; to-morrow it will be some one else. It makes no difference to me, it doesn't matter about Leonce Pontellier—but Raoul and Etienne!” She understood now clearly what she had meant long ago when she said to Adele Ratignolle that she would give up the unessential, but she would never sacrifice herself for her children.

Despondency had come upon her there in the wakeful night, and had never lifted. There was no one thing in the world that she desired. There was no human being whom she wanted near her except Robert; and she even realized that the day would come when he, too, and the thought of him would melt out of her existence, leaving her alone. The children appeared before her like antagonists who had overcome her; who had overpowered and sought to drag her into the soul's slavery for the rest of her days. But she knew a way to elude them. She was not thinking of these things when she walked down to the beach.

The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water.

Edna had found her old bathing suit still hanging, faded, upon its accustomed peg.

She put it on, leaving her clothing in the bath-house. But when she was there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, pricking garments from her, and for the first time in her life she stood naked in the open air, at the mercy of the sun, the breeze that beat upon her, and the waves that invited her.

How strange and awful it seemed to stand naked under the sky! how delicious! She felt like some new-born creature, opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known.

The foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out. The water was chill, but she walked on. The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

She went on and on. She remembered the night she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end.

Her arms and legs were growing tired.

She thought of Leonce and the children. They were a part of her life. But they need not have thought that they could possess her, body and soul. How Mademoiselle Reisz would have laughed, perhaps sneered, if she knew! “And you call yourself an artist! What pretensions, Madame! The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies.”

Exhaustion was pressing upon and overpowering her.

“Good-by—because I love you.” He did not know; he did not understand. He would never understand. Perhaps Doctor Mandelet would have understood if she had seen him—but it was too late; the shore was far behind her, and her strength was gone.

She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father's voice and her sister Margaret's. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.

The Prompt:

•Prompt: Write a literary analysis of The Awakening by Kate Chopin

•Purpose: To interpret.

•Audience: Fellow 11^th graders who are already familiar with the story. Assume they know what happens but not why the author wrote it that way.

•Requirements: Minimum: 1,000 words. Maximum: 3,000 words. MLA formatting.

•Good vs. Great: A great essay will probably engage with a targeted, timely theme and develop its analysis not just through examining Chopin’s literary choices in isolation, but in comparison with historical information about the period during which she wrote. A good essay will probably engage with a universal, timeless theme. It’s certainly possible to write a great essay about a universal, timeless theme, but the timely theme gives you more readily accessible material to work with. And, of course, it’s possible to write a bad essay of either kind!

•Guidance

The goal of literary analysis is to interpret one of a writer’s main arguments or themes through an examination of the techniques the writer uses to tell the story. Literary analysis answers questions like: what does J.K. Rowling’s use of allusion say about sacrifice? (Harry Potter sacrifices himself to save the world and then comes back to life…Who does that remind me of?) How does Stan Lee use symbolism to talk about prejudice? (The X-men are persecuted because they were born different from other people…What real life groups might they represent?).

Your essay should focus on a fairly narrow interpretive question that analyzes how Kate Chopin uses literary choices to say something about…something. You may write about how Chopin develops a universal, timeless theme (Harry Potter: Love is more powerful than death!), or you may write about how Chopin develops a targeted, timely theme (X-Men: Fighting for civil rights in the 1960s is as important and heroic as fighting to save the world from supervillains).

Topics:

Birds Freedom Water Art Clothing & Confinement Homes & Dwellings

Local Color Socioeconomics Music Gender Roles The Sun Patriarchy

Motherhood Death/Suicide Sex Agency Othering Birth & Rebirth

Love/Passion Marriage Spinsterhood Madonnas Medicine

Integral Setting Façade of Independence Consumerism

- How to write a Literary Analysis Essay

Examples:

- Literary Criticism on The Awakening

- Read three examples in the “Criticism” section of the text

- Quote Integration in a Liteary Analysis Paper

- Practice paragraph with quote integration on a passage from your quote sheet