Poetry Response - Unveiling

"In the cemetery 

a mile away

from where we used to live

my aunts and mother,

my father and uncles lie

in two long rows almost the way

they used to sit around 

the long planked table

at family dinners."

Pastan is comparing her family member's graves lined up in the cemetery to them sitting at the table for family dinners. She doesn't feel sad because it's like they're sitting around the table like when they were alive. 

"I don't feel sad

for them, just left out a bit

as if they kept

from me the kind

of grown-up secret

they used to share

back then, something

I'm not quite ready yet

to learn."

Grown-up secrets being kept from the author makes it seem like a kid wrote the poem even though that may not be the case. Pastan is looking back and remembering what it was like to feel like there were secrets being kept from her. The end "I'm not quite ready yet to learn" could either mean that she still views herself as a child and is still not ready to learn the adult secrets or that she's not ready to die. My impression, considering her parents and family are dead, is that this person is older but still considers herself a child. 

Poetry Response - For the Sleepwalkers

The first half of the poem is talking about people who are actually sleepwalking. They have no fear and are never harmed. They walk to the stairs and not the window. They walk through the doorway instead of the mirror. The path on the carpet is worn and there is an invisible arrow leading them. They have done this before and haven't ever been harmed and "always they return home safely, like blind men who know it is morning by feeling shadows." 

When they wake up, they're the same person they were before. Then Hirsch starts to talk about how our hearts should leave our bodies and be fearless like sleepwalkers. He says that we have to trust our hearts and not fear experiences. "We have to learn the desperate faith of sleepwalkers who rise out of their calm beds and walk through the skin of another life". We have to put away our fears, or "drink the stupefying cup of darkness", and when you wake up, you'll be refreshed. 

The Awakening (Ch. 35-39)

Edna hopes that Robert will come to visit her, but he never does. Edna sees Robert at a garden cafe and he walks home with her. Robert admits that he was thinking of Edna all the time in Mexico. But he knew that she was Mr.Pontellier's wife and that he was "demented, dreaming of wild, impossible things, recalling men who had set their wives free..." She responds that she isn't one of Mr.Pontellier's possessions. Edna leaves to go to Madame Ratignolle's. Robert says he'll walk with her, but she asks him to stay and wait for her. Doctor Mandelet walks Edna home and tells her, "you seem to be in trouble. I am not going to ask for your confidence, I will only say that if ever you feel moved to give it to me, perhaps I might help you. I know I would understand, and I tell you there are not many who would - not many, my dear." When Edna gets home, Robert isn't there.
He left a note saying, "I love you. Good-by -- because I love you." He knows that she can never be his wife and doesn't want to do any more damage.
Edna is back on Grand Isle and decides to go for a swim. She thinks about her husband and children and Robert's note. She swims out too far and becomes tired. Edna sees a bird with a broken wing that is falling and this symbolizes Edna.
I can see why she felt trapped and hopeless in her situation and felt killing herself was her best or only option. However, that doesn't take away the damage her decision caused.

The Awakening (Ch. 30-34)

Edna hosts some people for dinner before she moves into the pigeon house. She invites Mrs.Highcamp, Arobin, Victor, Mademoiselle Reisz, and Monsieur Ratignolle, who attends for Madame Ratignolle because she is pregnant. A lot of money is spent on food and decorations for her dinner party. She had also received diamonds from her husband in New York. Victor starts to sing a song, but Edna becomes upset because it reminds her of Robert. Arobin stays with Edna after the other guests have left and she becomes "supple to his gentle, seductive entreaties".
Mr.Pontellier is upset about his wife moving out because of the way it will make him look. He thinks that it will make it look like he's having finanical difficulties, so he decides to have a well-known architect remodel his home. He also arranged for one of the newspapers to have an article about how he and his wife were going to take a vacation. Edna likes living in the pigeon house and there was "a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual." She also visits her children and is very happy to see them.
Robert comes home and Edna is disappointed that he had not come to find her right away. Also, she realizes that he has not come home for her, but for business reasons instead. The interaction between Robert and Edna are not like before he left. Her hopes of what would happen when he returned home are much different than what actually occurs.
I haven't been as annoyed with Edna as it seems many other people are, but I'm starting to become irritated by her actions. Spending a lot of her husband's money for a party because she's moving out is inconsiderate and immature to me. Also, having affairs with now two other men lowers my respect for her more.

The Awakening (Ch. 25-29)

Edna goes to the races with Mrs.Highcamp and Arobin. Edna spends some time alone with Arobin and becomes involved with him. He kisses her hand and she "felt somewhat like a woman who in a moment of passion is betrayed into an act of infidelity". She's more concerned about what Robert would think than her husband because she's still in love with him.
Edna decides to move out of her house into the pigeon house because she wants to be free. Another example of bird imagery is when Mademoiselle Reisz puts her arms around Edna to see if her shoulder blades, or wings, are strong. She also admits to Madamoiselle Reisz that she's in love with Robert.
Edna begins to cry after Arobin leaves. She feels guilty about all the material possessions that her husband has provided and realizes she has been irresponsible. However, "There was Robert's reproach making itself felt by a quicker, fiercer, more overpowering love, which had awakened within her toward him." She's been awakened and "she felt as if a mist had been lifted from her eyes, enabling her to look upon and comprehend the significance of life, that monster made up of beauty and brutality." The only regret she feels is that her involvment with Arobin was not because of love.

The Awakening (Ch. 20-24)

Edna goes to Madame Lebrun's to find Mademoiselle Reisz's new address so that she can listen to her play piano. Victor tells Edna about Robert's two letters and was disappointed that there was no message for her. Madame Lebrun and Victor remarked about how she looked ravishing and like a different woman.
Edna goes to Mademoiselle Reisz's and she informs her that Robert send her a letter asking questions about Edna, and she asks to read it but is not allowed. Edna tells her that she wants to be an artist and Mademoiselle Reisz tells her that she must have a courageous soul. Edna tells her she has persistence and asks if that counts for anything in art. She gives the Robert's letter to Edna and plays the piano. Edna begins to sob and asks Mademoiselle Reisz if she can come again. She tells her she can come anytime and picks up the damp, crumpled letter off the floor.
Mr.Pontellier goes to see Doctor Mandelet because he is concerned about Edna. The doctor asks if she's been associating with and psuedo-intellectual women and he says that she hasn't been associating with anyone. The Doctor agrees to stop by to see her and says that women are a "peculiar and delicate organism." He also questions if there is another man in the case, but doesn't comment about that.
Edna's father is in town to purchase a wedding gift for his daughter. Edna and her father are not close. Edna takes her father to a soirée musicale but Mr.Pontellier doesn't go. Edna enjoys being around her father, but realizes that her interest may not last long. The doctor has dinner with them but notices nothing.
Edna and her father get into an argument over Edna's refusal to attend her sister's wedding. Mr.Pontellier decides to go for her and Edna's father says, "You are too lenient... Authority, coercion are what is needed. Put your foot down good and hard; the only way to manage a wife." Edna became more affectionate toward her husband as his departure came closer, but she felt a "radiant peace" when her husband and children were gone.

The Awakening (Ch. 15-19)

Edna is informed that Robert is going to Mexico. She was surprised that after all their time together, he hadn't mentioned this to her. Robert visits her and she expresses her disapproval. Edna asks him to write to her and is disappointed in his reply of "I will, thank you, Good-by" because she expected him to be more empathetic. She's experiencing infatuation like she did when she was younger.
Edna thinks about Robert a lot and "Robert's going had some way taken the brightness, the color, the meaning out of everything. The conditions of her life were in no way changed, but her whole existence was dulled, like a faded garment which seems to be no longer worth wearing." Robert sent a letter to his mother and Edna feels jealous that he had written to his mother and not her. Mr.Pontellier saw Robert in New Orleans before he left, and Edna questions him about it. She says her feelings for Robert are nothing like her feelings for her husband and that she's used to keeping her emotions and thoughts to herself. Edna tries to describe her ownership of her emotions to Madame Ratignolle by saying she'd give up the unessential for her children, but she would never give herself. Madame Ratignolle doesn't understand.
Mr.Pontellier is angry with Edna for not fullfilling her social duties, which negatively impacts him. He leaves dinner and goes out. Edna finishes her meal alone and then goes to her room and paces, where she tries to crush her wedding ring and throws a vase, shattering it.
Mr.Pontellier asks Edna to meet him in town, but she declines and looks at her sketches instead. She tries to work, but isn't in the mood, so she walks to Madame Ratignolle's. Although Edna thinks that her praise valueless, it ended up having value. Edna feels depressed when she leaves because she realizes "the little glimpse of domestic harmony" was "not a condition of life which fitted her." Edna stopped doing most of what her husband requested of her and he began to wonder if there was something wrong with her. She asked him to leave her alone and he did. Some days she was happy to be alive and others she was not.

The Awakening (Ch. 10-14)

Edna had been trying to learn how to swim all summer, but had not yet been successful. This time, she tries again and "A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before." She pushes herself out of her comfort zone, which leads to a moment of panic when she realizes how far out she, even though she really wasn't out that far. Robert walks home with Edna and she tries to describe the emotions she's experiencing.
Mr.Pontellier comes out asks why Edna is not inside and he tries to convince her to go inside, but she doesn't. She would usually follow his requests willingly, but this time is different. Edna is starting to experience an awakening. The narrator says, "She wondered if her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she remembered she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did."
Edna meets Mariequita, who has a sense of freedom and vitality based on her physical appearance. She's friends with Robert, but not a member of Creole society. Edna gets jealous. Robert can have Mariequita because she's not a part of Creole society, but he can't have Edna. Robert says he can’t be interested in her, like he's playing Edna and Mariequita against each other. He turns his attention away from Mariequita and back to Edna.
When they return home, Robert says goodnight and Edna mentions that they have been together all day. She feels changed after her day at Grand Isle and she wonders why Robert had left her, not taking into consideration that he might be tired of her after spending the whole day with her. Robert is triggering her awakening and she has never been part of a mutual attraction and this is powerful to her. But it's not just Robert who is triggering her awakening. She's starting to recognize her own interests, such as art and music, that have never been developed.