A review by whitneysederberg
The Awakening by Kate Chopin

4.0

i LOVE women. However considering the space in our curriculum is so unfortunately limited, the best work by woman has been chosen for our allotted women reading. It is about unhappy woman who remains unhappy. Anyways, that’s all, next is allotted Asia book “China men”

Woman book Awakening was actually pretty good and I couldn’t put it down towards the end, much better than the scarlet letter. However, considering mr Bach hadn’t even read it by the time we started, I do believe that this was in fact chosen as just a woman book. Especially since we have delved into Lady Lazarus earlier this year, I think that The Bell Jar would have been a much better pick. It deals with pretty much the same themes but in a language and setting that is much more relatable to high schoolers. Although it’s a bit mature, we’ve read Toni Morrison (and again, lady lazarus) and it’s nothing too far outside of what most high schoolers have thought/experienced themselves. I do believe the awakening is valuable simply for its good writing and depiction of time period, but not only is it largely redundant in our curriculum (scarlet letter, great gatsby) the bell jar has a lot of discussion to offer on a really relevant topic (mental health)
anyways tangent over thanks for reading