Introducing The Awakening
“I would give up the unessential; I would give up my money, I would give up my life for my children; but I wouldn&#8217;t give myself.” 
The Awakening by Kate Chopin, published in 1899, is a short novel which was born into controversy, but which has endured in a spirit of celebration. Though the slim volume hardly makes a presence on one’s bookshelf, protagonist Edna Pontellier’s journey into self-discovery, which scandalized the reading public of Chopin’s day just as it scandalized Edna’s social network in the story, The Awakening has continued to take up mental, emotional, and imaginative space in the minds and hearts of its readers ever since. 
The Awakening makes its first, strong impression on us with its title. Immediately, we are primed for the major investigations of the short but pithy novel: where in our lives is it possible to “awaken” to new understandings, and what does it mean for Edna to enact an awakening amidst the grinding mundanity of life, both domestically and in society? There are times in all our lives in which we feel the life we have isn’t the life we want or deserve- far more rare than that feeling is the ability to take arms against the status quo, to steel oneself against judgment and stereotype. Edna’s unwavering conviction to choose herself is a checkpoint in the history of women’s mental liberation, of women’s “awakening” into autonomous selfhood.
From the opening line, Chopin provides readers a key symbol and a chorus for the narrative: the seemingly-eternal presence of the  green-and-yellow parrot who repeatedly cries: “Allez-vous en! Allez-vous en! Sapristi! That&#8217;s all right!” 
A speaking parrot, who can only use the language that his immediate society gives him, and is not given the faculty to express himself freely, introduces us to the patriarchal world that the novel inhabits, and we are given a brief glance into the restraints this type of world is capable of inflicting on those who are not in positions of power, such as parrots, such as housewives. And thus we are swept into the story of Edna Pontellier, mother of two, dutiful wife, loyal friend, yet completely bewildered at the life she wakes up one day and seems to see clearly for the first time. The following chapters are brimmed with eccentric characters, snipes, passive aggression, and attempts to break from the societal matrix so bold they seem induced by the infamous red pill.
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At the time of its publication, the broad, establishment critical reception of The Awakening was of shock and disgust. Although Chopin had anticipated a warm reception to her novel, readers at the time were put off by how she chose to represent Edna’s awakening from the societal and sexual repression of the postbellum American South. Alas, it’s true that many great prophets find themselves out of place in their own times. Today, however, the novel is rightly praised as a feminist landmark, (not to mention a great read), a work that was well ahead of its time, anticipating women’s need to hold autonomy and have the freedom to choose their paths, their partners, and, most importantly, to choose themselves over anything else. 
-Abby Edgecumbe