The first four chapters of The Awakening were very interesting. I’m glad we looked up information about the Creole society; the information we found applied to the novel. Mr. Pontellier is one of the main characters. He is a man in his 40’s, married to Edna Pontellier, and has two sons named Robert and Raoul. He comes off as a selfish man in a world of his own, and he doesn’t seem to care about his family or how he treats them.
In the research I found, the father is the dominant figure in a Creole household. He does not have to be faithful spouse, but is an indulgent parent. I found this to be apparent in The Awakening. For example in chapter three, Mr. Pontellier had been gone at a men’s club called Klein’s all day and when returned home, everyone was sleeping except for one of his sons. He found his son, Raoul, kicking and talking about crabs. Mr. Pontellier took this as Raoul being sick. “Mr. Pontellier returned to his wife with the information that Raoul had a high fever and needing looking after. He then lit a cigar and went and sat near the open door to smoke it” (p. 8).
When Mrs. Pontellier denied Raoul being sick, as she had been with him throughout the day and did not see any symptoms, Mr. Pontellier said she was neglect of her children. This made her sob the entire night, as he went off to bed.
Rude.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The Awakening, Ch. 1-4
Posted by Lauren at 8:51 AM
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3 comments:
Hey Lauren,
I agree that Mr. Pontellier comes off as a rude man. He expects his wife (Edna) to do handle all the kids herself and to be attentive to them 24-7. When she does not go check on the kids after he says one of them has a fever, he yells at her. He could just have easily done something himself, but he just goes off and smokes a cigar. In addition, instead of helping out with the kids, he is either off at work in New Orleans or out with his buddies at the billiards.
After just reading the first few chapters of this book, I think we can tell this will be a feminist book. It seems the women are tied down while the men have all the freedom. They can go off and have affairs and it is accepted. However, if a woman goes and has an affair it raises hell.
I think this should be a good/interesting book to read
I really wish that I had done your pre-reading assignment. It seems that you learned a lot about the culture and the way the women and men are supposed/do behave. Your observations of Mr. Pontellier are correct for the most part. I do agree that he has a bit of an attitude and he is very short with his wife. However, as far as the children go you have to admit that Edna does care for her children very well. She does love them, but she enjoys not being around them. His reaction about the children could have been less extreme, but he did have a right to be concerned about his wife’s lack of care for her children.
Farther in the story I think we are going to see that Edna is going to falter in ways even more, but I still agree that Mr. Pontellier is rude as you say. I just think that no matter how it is seen in the Creole world Edna will be the bigger “wrong-doer”. Anyways, great post Lauren and I hope the book continues to be interesting for you.
Lauren-
I guess you’re just a popular person with all of these comments! I can’t help put write about your blog because only 25% of the rest of the class has actually done any as of now! So I do appreciate you posting your blogs in a reasonable time frame. But anyways, about your blog, I agree with Nick above me. I noticed too, that your research ‘project’ was much more informative and helpful than my group’s. You were actually able to learn something that could be applied to the novel before you read it, instead where my scholarly reviews are more appropriate for afterwards.
While I certainly do not condone the behavior of Mr. Pontellier, it is still important to look at the behavior of Mrs. Pontellier as well. Her apparent lack of care for her kids and their well-being worries me. I think parents should be totally focused on their kid’s and their lives because they have the power to shape who they become. This flippant attitude towards Robert and Raoul is not good and should be closely examined along with the husband’s attitudes toward his wife. I’m not yelling, just raising a different point.
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