Examples Of Interpreting The Awakening

Shane Hindi

Dr. Borshuk

ENGL 2391

December 7, 15

Interpreting The Awakening There are many factors that go into interpreting a piece of literature. There is no right or wrong way to gather a meaning of something. It all depends on the reader’s perspective of the work. The Awakening can be interpreted in more than one way. The interpretation of a piece of literature involves understanding the culture, history, language, meaning and identity. All of these key factors tie in to interpreting a piece of literature. The meaning of a piece of literature cannot be proved or disproved. Readers can have a limitless amount of reasons why something means that to them. The novel The Awakening can be interpreted in many different ways; this can be seen

“Sometimes we say context is what determines meaning: to know what this particular utterance means, you have to look at the circumstances or the historical context in which it figures.” (Culler 65). Someone who read the novel The Awakening that did not know when it was written or in what time period it was written would have interpreted the text completely different than someone who did know. The reading of a work is not interpreted through the authors point but instead, the readers. During the time it was written, The United States was undergoing critical changes. The urbanization and Industrialization that followed the Civil war brought Americans into a new social identity. More importantly, woman’s rights had begun to be explored. Before this time woman had been fighting for equal rights. This new idea of women was called ‘New Woman’. This new woman “was intelligent, educated, emancipated, independent and self-supporting” (Diniejko). In the novel The Awakening, Edna portrays this image of a New Woman almost perfectly. Edna represented what these women had been striving to be for years. We can see that this act of bravery was far from normal during that time. Edna is a character that completely went against what society expected of her. This allows the reader to gather a better understanding of why this text was written and what it meant for Edna to do what she did. Anyone who completely goes against what society expects of them is frowned upon. Edna was going through a constant battle to do what she wanted and to do what society wanted her to