From The Awakening

From the Awakening, is a realism story and I now have a background of some of the characteristics of realism.  Realism is what is really happening in life.  It tries to present what it really is (Docarmo).  Realist do not write about some extraordinary situation that is occurring in life.  Realism writes more about simple people and the trials that are going on in their life (Docarmo). Realism tends to go along with an individual.  They usually take one individual and have them struggling with some moral thing.

The story is about a woman Mrs. Pontellier and she is going through a struggle in her life at the time (Chopin 491).  It does not say as to why she is going through this struggle, it just says that it is a mood.  Anyways it goes along with Docarmo because this story takes a lot of characteristics from Docarmo.  The story goes by saying that this woman is just crying for no apparent reason (Chopin 491).  There has to be a reason that we as the readers just do not know, but it goes with Docarmo because he said that it is about the struggle of an individual, the trials that go on in their life. When Emerson says to believe in your own thought, I think that it goes with this because it is the "you" and real part about it, which these two writers share.  I have a hard time finding out what the realism part of this is.  It is hard to sit down and ask yourself, what is real?  What is real about this story?  I do not know if I am right, but if I had to guess than I would say the real part of this story is the whole thing.  What is not real about it?  This woman wakes up to the world and their is the description of the environment and than she starts crying (Chopin).  It does not sound fake to me, but what I am trying to get at, is that none of the story is made up.  There are no fairy tales or anything that is made up about this story, which makes the story as real as it can get.

Docarmo, Stephen N. "Realism and Naturalism." Dr. Stephen N. Docarmo. Bucks County Community College. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://faculty.bucks.edu/docarmos/RealismNaturalism.html>.


Chopin, Kate. "from The Awakening." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 491. Print.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.