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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Edna find when she gets home?

2. Why does Edna have to leave Robert suddenly?

3. About what does Edna argue with her father?

4. Where does Edna take her father when he visits?

5. How many children does Edna have?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Léonce Pontellier treat his sunburned wife?

2. What does Edna start attending?

3. What does the creature finally do?

4. What does Edna learn when she returns from Chênière Caminada?

5. What happens when Edna visits Madame Lebrun?

6. How does Edna plan to pay for her move?

7. Why does Edna go to Madame Antoine's home?

8. Where does Robert decide to go and how does Edna react?

9. How does the creature survive and how does it see?

10. What happens between Robert and Edna by the end of Chapter 35?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in The Awakening.

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of The Awakening. How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of The Awakening. How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

Essay Topic 2

The Awakening could be said to be a "bildungsroman" of Edna Pontellier, the narrator. Discuss the following:

1. Define the concepts "bildungsroman" and "coming of age."

2. Thoroughly trace and analyze The Awakening as a bildungsroman of Edna Pontellier. Give specific examples. What does Edna learn? How has she changed? Is the change for the better?

3. Thoroughly trace and analyze Athénaïse as a coming of age story. Give specific examples. What does Athénaïse learn? How has she changed? Is the change for the better?

Essay Topic 3

Any work of fiction has some similarities, yet the structure can engender differences. Discuss the following:

1. Compare/contrast how the structure of the novelette, The Awakening, informs the reading experience to how the structure of one of the short stories does the same.

2. Many readers love novels and are indifferent to short stories, and vice versa. Discuss why you think some readers would enjoy one format over another.

3. Choose a short, one-act play and compare it to one of the short stories as far as how structure affects the reading experience.

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