Cartea The Awakening (Trezirea la viata) e un must-read al literaturii feministe din Statele Unite ale Americii.

Este de fapt printre primele scrieri literare feministe, total respinsa de critica si cititori la data publicarii (1899) din cauza introducerii unui personaj feminin puternic care decide sa scape de sub controlul regulilor sociale. Perioada in care se desfasoara actiunea este sfarsitul secolului al XIX-lea, iar locul este Grand Isle/New Orleans majoritatea personajelor fiind de origine cajuna (urmasii canadienilor francezi stabiliti in SUA). Despre autor, mai intai. Kate Chopin, autoare de proza scurta si romane, provenind din mediul multietnic al Lousianei. Mama a sase copii, indragostita de sotul ei. Autoare a mai multor povesti pentru copii si, mai ales, proza scurta. Scrie despre familia patriarhala si femeia care doreste sa-si faca glasul auzit, in conditiile in care urmau alti 20 de ani pana la obtinerea dreptului de a vota, iar femeia americana era doar un alt obiect posedat de barbat fie sot sau tata. In Trezirea la viata povestea se concentreaza in jurul Ednei Pontellier, sotie si mama care simte ca nu se regaseste in modul victorian de viata al familiei. Edna nu intelege de ce ea nu le duce dorul copiilor, de ce nu poate fi extrem de supusa sotului sau cum sunt prietenele ei, de ce trebuie sa participe la intalniri si dineuri la cunostinte pe care nu le place, de ce nu are o ocupatie proprie ceva care sa fie doar al ei. In timpul calatoriei din vara il cunoaste pe tanarul Robert, de care se ataseaza imediat simtindu-l cumva diferit, un rebel sau inadaptat. Idila lor nici nu incepe bine, pentru ca Robert simte ca nu poate interveni in existenta ei casnica si paraseste tara. Intoarsa din vacanta in New Orleans, Edna incearca sa se re-adapteze la viata lor plina de rutina si rolul sau de obiect decorativ al sotului sau, care are menirea de a-si educa fiii. Dar ceva se rupe in interior si incepe metamorfoza spre o personalitate puternica, ce nu accepta sa fie dirijata de asteptarile tuturor: The years that are gone seem like dreams if one might go on sleeping and dreaming but to wake up and find oh! well! Perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all ones life. De aici euforia descoperirii sinelui, dar si nevroza ce survine dupa ce Robert o paraseste pentru a doua oara. Care, da, va duce spre sinucidere. Problema Ednei nu este Leonce, sotul ei, ci problema ei este libertatea sa personala, constransa de institutia casatoriei. De aceea si sfarseste prin a alege calea fara compromisuri, realizand ca nu se poate intoarce la obiceiurile de dinainte, ca si cum nu ar fi trecut prin experienta iubirii adevarate si a independentei. Cartea scriitoarei Kate Chopin e destul de greoaie. Desi are doar o suta de pagini, scriitura este atat de concentrata si plina de semnificatii camuflate, incat am reusit sa o inteleg abia la a doua citire. Si a meritat, caci aduce ceva din Madame Flaubert si este printre putinele carti bune scrise despre femei in secolul XIX. De urmarit zbaterea ei interioara si simbolul marii care o urmareste pe Edna. Trezirea la viata poate fi descarcata gratuit de pe Internet.

He reproached his wife with her inattention, her habitual neglect of the children. If it was not a mother's place to look after children, whose on earth was it? He himself had his

hands full with his brokerage business. He could not be in two places at once; making a living for his family on the street, and staying at home to see that no harm befell them. He talked in a monotonous, insistent way. She could not have told why she was crying. Such experiences as the foregoing were not uncommon in her married life. They seemed never before to have weighed much against the abundance of her husband's kindness and a uniform devotion which had come to be tacit and self-understood. An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish. It was like a shadow, like a mist passing across her soul's summer day. It was strange and unfamiliar; it was a mood. She did not sit there inwardly upbraiding her husband, lamenting at Fate, which had directed her footsteps to the path which they had taken. She was just having a good cry all to herself. The mosquitoes made merry over her, biting her firm, round arms and nipping at her bare insteps. The little stinging, buzzing imps succeeded in dispelling a mood which might have held her there in the darkness half a night longer. She(mrs pontellier) liked money as well as most women, and, accepted it with no little satisfaction. In short, Mrs. Pontellier was not a mother-woman. The motherwomen seemed to prevail that summer at Grand Isle. She (Madame Ratignolle) was always talking about her "condition." Her "condition" was in no way apparent, and no one would have known a thing about it but for her persistence in making it the subject of conversation. But for that matter, the Creole husband is never jealous; with him the gangrene passion is one which has become dwarfed by disuse. At that early period it served but to bewilder her. It moved her to dreams, to thoughtfulness, to the shadowy anguish which had overcome her the midnight when she had abandoned herself to tears. In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her. This may seem like a ponderous weight of wisdom to descend upon the soul of a young woman of twenty-eight-perhaps more wisdom than the Holy Ghost is usually pleased to vouchsafe to any woman.

"and I was running away from prayers, from the Presbyterian service, read in a spirit of gloom by my father that chills me yet to think of." Her marriage to Leonce Pontellier was purely an accident, in this respect resembling many other marriages which masquerade as the decrees of Fate. It was in the midst of her secret great passion that she met him. He fell in love, as men are in the habit of doing, and pressed his suit with an earnestness and an ardor which left nothing to be desired. He pleased her; his absolute devotion flattered her. She fancied there was a sympathy of thought and taste between them, in which fancy she was mistaken. Add to this the violent opposition of her father and her sister Margaret to her marriage with a Catholic, and we need seek no further for the motives which led her to accept Monsieur Pontellier. for her husband. but it was not long before the tragedian had gone to join the cavalry officer and the engaged young man and a few others; and Edna found herself face to face with the realities. She grew fond of her husband, realizing with some unaccountable satisfaction that no trace of passion or excessive and fictitious warmth colored her affection, thereby threatening its dissolution.

She was fond of her children in an uneven, impulsive way. She would sometimes gather them passionately to her heart; she would sometimes forget them.() Their absence was a sort of relief, though she did not admit this, even to herself. It seemed to free her of a responsibility which she had blindly assumed and for which Fate had not fitted her.