The Awakening #1

These opening chapters are quite interesting. they certainly set the stage and the setting for the novel, which is naturally the element of the novel that allows the main theme and reoccuring message. this society on the Grand Isle is certainly of high class. both the men and the women have their own customs, and if one does not follow those customs, they are looked down upon and cast out. The readers become aware by the first couple chapters of the type of women that Edna is. She is unlike the other "Creoles," for she does not think the same as them nor does she act the same as them. She, in a sense, is not as ignorant as the other women. she has seen more of the world and more of the opportunities of life that are out there, besides this sort of life in Creole. it sort of reminds me of Heart of Darkness when Marlow goes back to Brussels after his journey to the Congo, though at this point of the novel Marlow is ending his journey, while in The Awakening, Edna is just beginning. Marlow goes back to Brussels, and because he has been more places, and seen more of the world and more of what life is like, he feels different than other people. yes, he goes along his ways and does what he needs to do there in society still, but he is different. he cannot live in peace living the way the people of Brussels do. just like Edna. we do not know necessarily much of the experience Edna has had, but we surely know that she is not ignorant and she is strongwilled and somewhat independent, atleast by her personality and mind. she does not succumb and do whatever her husband or children want her to do. im anxious to learn more of what happens with Edna and the choices she will make later in the novel.