This is relating to Laurel's Post below but it has some different questions so I thought I'd open up a new post. I found this link about banned books: http://www.abffe.org/bbw-classkc-chopin.htm
One woman is quoted saying "Quite frankly, the book is about sex." Do you guys agree?
It seems like the book is about so much more than these random affairs that Edna's been having. I'd say a good 80% of the book is about the opposite. She is learning to be empowered and strong. She isn't becoming some loose woman.
There is also this quote, "The voice of the sea is seductive...the sea whispers the strong and "delicious" word death."
It also seems like this quote is not about physicality at all. I don't believe that we have read to this part in the book yet, but this seems much deeper and intense than any physical "seductiveness." Just because Chopin uses the word seductive does NOT mean that she means it any sensual way. What do you think about this whole controversy?
One woman is quoted saying "Quite frankly, the book is about sex." Do you guys agree?
It seems like the book is about so much more than these random affairs that Edna's been having. I'd say a good 80% of the book is about the opposite. She is learning to be empowered and strong. She isn't becoming some loose woman.
There is also this quote, "The voice of the sea is seductive...the sea whispers the strong and "delicious" word death."
It also seems like this quote is not about physicality at all. I don't believe that we have read to this part in the book yet, but this seems much deeper and intense than any physical "seductiveness." Just because Chopin uses the word seductive does NOT mean that she means it any sensual way. What do you think about this whole controversy?
After finishing the book, I think that quite frankly, this book is NOT about sex. I'm not sure if Edna really does it in the book, because Chopping Board never explicitly says anything about that. She's just like "well it was late when he left." She kinds of leaves it up to the reader to interpret. I guess these people just interpreted the book as whole as a book about a woman having affairs. To me, the Awakening is more like how Edna was "awakened" by a voluntary love for Robert (rather than her somewhat forced marriage to her husband), and then how she saw her world as an unhappy place to be after Robert left her. I definitely don't think this is an inappropriate for high schoolers to be reading, since we're 8th graders and we handled it. Well, what do you guys think about reading this book?
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. This book is about Edna's journey, not necessarily her affairs. I can, again, see why people might interpret it this way, but I think the key to this book is really opening your mind and deciding what it means to you. I think we can all relate to Edna in some way. Maybe wanting to be freer or feeling chained down, but if we only notice the affairs in this book we miss out on SO much. If you go into deep analysis, there's all this other emotional turmoil. You just gotta look at the stuff beneath everything else. I think that if high schoolers haven't already faced situations in which they are confronted with affairs or similar things then this book may be a little weird, but I have yet to meet a high schooler who hasn't experienced something like this...
ReplyDeleteYes, and if The Awakening was a high school story, then the mother-women could be the popular girls, and then Edna is all alone and sad because she's not like them....
ReplyDeleteOH yeah and at the back of the book, they have the different reactions from different editors, and one of them, from like 1956, named Kenneth Eble, is apparently famous for saying that the book is "frankly . . . about sex." So I guess for a long time, people haven't seen this book the way we've seen it. It's kind of sad/too bad for them, because if they didn't make such a big deal about affairs being in there, they might be able to see all the big, important, thought-provoking ideas in the book.
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