To Live or To Die

To Live or To Die: Edna’s Struggle on This “Mortal Coil” “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin has a complex ending that can be interpreted different ways. The last thing the reader is left with is Mrs. Pontellier swimming out to sea. Is she indeed committing suicide, or does she plan to live? Depending on the reader’s own personal preference the story’s outcome can be drastically altered to either one of morbid suicide …

…that her children are the main problem, when, in the end, it turns out to be her inability to deal with emotions that have just come up. Her children have been around for a while in her life; these new emotions have just surfaced. Perhaps Edna should have never taken that trip to Grand Isle. This is the catalyst for the event that sends her life into a downward spiral that will never correct itself.