The Awakening by Kate Chopin was a novel that caused uproar when it was released in 1899. Over a hundred years later, students that read the novel still form a small uproar of their own. They are shocked that the ending is not the “happily ever after” they had envisioned for Edna, the protagonist, but rather a purposeful suicide. Finally, they are discontent with the ending because they feel the author has illogically led Edna into …showed first 75 words of 1494 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1494 total…She was not bogged down by thoughts but instead cleared her mind and decidedly walked on to her future. She repeats the sentiment “The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft embrace” (152). She clearly has joined her one passion that she has alluded to all along. Edna followed the path of her destiny to her one love, the one thing that could stir permanent passions in her soul: the sea.