Help me study for my Literature class. I’m stuck and don’t understand.

https://brightspace.ccc.edu/d2l/le/content/80101/Home

Hi Literature 150 Students!

During this time, we will read,?Kate Chopin’s 1899 novel,?The Awakening and we will take the midterm exam covering the book.There is a lot to read, so manage your time accordingly.?

Below is a link to an e-text of the work, divided by chapters.? It may be easier to read this way.? Once you get started?on this novel, it’s hard to stop.? Start to remember who the characters are and do not let the French language distract you.? The words and vocabulary may still be difficult, but many students find it easier than Wollstonecraft, Fuller, Austen and the poetry.?

http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/ChoAwa…l

Ridiculed and ignored upon its publication up until the late 1960s, the?novel addresses a woman’s recognition?of her?body.? The protagonist,?Edna?Pontellier, married to a successful businessman, mother of bright, happy children, leads what most people would call an “idyllic” life.? However, she feels unfulfilled. Edna’s realizations, her actions and the novel’s ending all present important topics for our class. Chopin, probably took cues from Gustave Flaubert, Henrik Ibsen, Sarah?Orne?Jewett and Walt Whitman, as she writes (perhaps pessimistically) about the three central taboos violating male-constructed representations of woman:? awareness of sexuality, desire for freedom, and need for autonomy.

This week, we concentrate on our midterm, which looks at the short, seminal novel, The Awakening. However, it certainly didn’t start out as a respected and studied piece of literature. “Condemned as morbid, vulgar, and disagreeable when it appeared in 1899, it is today acclaimed as an essential American book.” https://www.katechopin.org/the-awakening/ As Gilbert and Gubar explain in the introduction of the novel in your textbook, “When The Awakening, Kate Chopin’s frank exploration of a late-nineteenth-century woman’s growth toward sexual and emotional independence, appeared in 1899, critics assailed it. The novel ‘leaves one sick of human nature,’ declared one writer; ‘it is not a healthy book,’ complained another; ‘the purport of the story can hardly be described in language fit for publication,’ stormed a third.” In fact, after its publication, it sat silent in few libraries and bookshelves. It wasn’t until the 60s that it was rediscovered, and we continue to discover it today.