The Awakening is a novel about the growth of a woman into her own person, in spite of the mold society has formed for her. The book follows Edna Pontellier through about a year of her life. During this time we see her struggle to find who she really is, because she knows she cannot be happy filling the role of the mother-woman that society has created for her. She did not believe that she …showed first 75 words of 973 total…

…showed last 75 words of 973 total…would have been infinitely better. Edna Pontellier did not commit suicide because her eyes had opened and she could not bear to live the life she saw. She committed suicide because she was, if you see to the bottom of the situation, a weak woman who became frustrated when she could not cope with her problems. She committed an act of the greatest cowardice, and it is not something that should be seen with compassion.