Grand Prairie

My grandson asked me to tell him a story about myself, so I recounted my early days when I met the great Jacques Arcadelt. It was many years ago in the mid 1530's. I had snuck into a party hosted by the Medici family. I heard beautiful music and wanted to see the performers first hand. Plus, they always have the best wine. The Medici family has been in power in Florence for so long, people know of no other rulers here. Even though they still followed a monarchical structure and often ruled…

Edna Pontellier, the main character in The Awakening, lives during the 1890s, a time when women were expected to stay at home, care for the children, and maintain appearances for the comfort of their husband. Any women, such as Mrs. Pontellier, that sought after their own desires and needs were considered selfish. Throughout the novel, Edna Pontellier is represented as a bird. In the beginning of the book, there is a green and yellow parrot hanging in a cage outside the door saying over and over…

The Awakening by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899, a time where women had little independence and did their daily duties were to be a perfect mother and wife, just like Edna Pontellier had to live her life with a businessman from New orleans, Leonce Pontellier. Edna discovers her own identity and acknowledges her emotional desire. During the 1800 women were expected to “ worship” their husbands , and do their job as a housewife. Many women is the 1800’s and in today’s society can relate…

enslaved to society and marriage and the other, enslaved by Christianity and marriage. Edna, a Victorian era woman who is already different in the beginning of the novel from other “mother-women”, “the mother-women seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. It was easy to know them, fluttering about with extended, protecting wings when any…

Living as a woman in a male dominated world is a burden for Edna in “The Awakening.” She is bound in the chains of society to serve as a housekeeper and wife. Despite the chains that bind her, Edna’s free spirit seeks equality. These chains placed around her serve as a primary focus for the novel; especially when she takes her own life in the process of freeing herself. Edna from “The Awakening” is a modern woman who seeks personal freedom which goes against the archaic time that she resides in…

Though The Awakening may not be a book that all audiences enjoy, it’s merit as a work of literature cannot be denied. It has underlying motifs and ideas that Chopin brings into fruition through a variety of well-developed techniques, making The Awakening not only a book worthy of merit but being taught. Her book challenged pre-existing societal norms not only in 1900’s America, but still does today across cultural barriers with its controversial theme on challenging gender roles and feminism. It…

Kate Chopin’s motif in The Awakening is demonstrated throughout the novel of 1984. George Orwell’s novel is about a guy named Winston, who pretends to be someone he isn’t on the outside, and questions the government system he lives in, on the inside. In the novel, there was a major tension developing between Winston and the Party. According to Winston, life since the Party’s rule has been lived in fear and hatred. Anything you said out loud and even what you thought in your mind, could be…

In the novel, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Edna Pontellier, also known as Mrs. Pontellier, is torn between two totally different worlds. Thus, leading to the development of her character, relationships, and conflicts she is involved in throughout the novel. Edna is bound by the gender roles of the 18th century. She constantly fights between reality and what she wants to do with her own life. In the novel, The Awakening, Kate Chopin creates conflict throughout the novel by illuminating Edna’s…

The Awakening Is More than "Sex Fiction" The audience was scandalized. The critics condemned the book as immoral. Some went so far as to call it "essentially vulgar" and "sex fiction" (Literature 20). This was the public outcry that Kate Chopin's The Awakening caused upon its publication in 1899. The reviews were overwhelmingly negative, denouncing the novel for its daring discussion of matters such as female sexuality and extramarital affairs. Since then, The Awakening has taken on a new…

Yesterday I visited Grand Central Station- or I should say terminal, the famous station as changed its names many times throughout the last hundred years. Grand Central’s birth was from a tragedy and underwent many changes from presidents, to abandoned tracks to restaurants, to rebuilding this station is an American Icon. The chief engineer was William J Wilgus and build two version of the terminal before the third and final station designed by Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore had been…