Talk about gender songs

Share paragraphs from last night...connections made.

Discussion Questions:

The Awakening Ch 1-4 questions

CHAPTER 1

1. Explain how and speculate as to why the parrot and the mockingbird are used to introduce this chapter.

2. Describe Léonce Pontellier.

3. What does the following quotation tell you about Léonce’s attitude toward his wife? He looked “at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage.”

4. Who is Robert Lebrun?

5. How do these sounds indicate something about the setting of the novel?

6. What indications are there that the Pontellier marriage is strained?

CHAPTER 2

1. Describe Edna Pontellier.

2. What kind of person is Robert Lebrun?

3. What shift in point of view is evident in Chapter Two?

4. What do you learn about Robert and Edna from their conversation at the end of this chapter?

CHAPTER III

1. How does Léonce’s behavior when he returns from the Klein Hotel reveal his attitude toward his wife?

2. What shows the reader more signs of the marital conflict between the Pontelliers?

3. Discuss how sounds are used as a backdrop to the scene of disagreement between Léonce and Edna. How is the sea used as a symbol?

4. How does the gift Edna receives from her husband symbolize her marriage and most marriages of this time?

CHAPTER IV

1. Describe the unusual nature of the relationship between Edna and her children.

2. What satiric comment does the narrator make concerning “mother-woman”? Cite specific words that reveal the satiric nature of these comments.

3. Who is Adéle Ratignolle, and how is she the embodiment of the “mother-woman”?

4. How does the fact that Edna is not a Creole affect her relationship with others on Grand Isle?

5. Support the following statement as a possible theme in the novel: there is danger in novels that can confuse susceptible women. 

HW: Read chapters 5-11 (to page 32) for Tuesday and write a connection paragraph