Beginning of Essay
The novel opens on the Grand Isle, a summer retreat for the wealthy French Creoles of New Orleans. Leonce Pontellier, a wealthy New Orleans business man of forty years of age, reads his newspaper. Meanwhile, Mrs. Lebrun's parrot repeats phrases in English and Fren ....

Middle of Essay
.... plans to go to Mexico at the end of the summer on business. She talks about her childhood in Kentucky bluegrass country and her sister's upcoming wedding. Leonce wakes Edna when he enters the bedroom that night. He relates his experiences of the evening, but she responds only with sleepy half-answers. Her lack of interest in his evening bothers him. He checks on his sons and informs Edna that Raul seems to have a fever. She replies that the child was fine earlier, and he criticizes her lack of motherly concern. After a cursory visit to the boys' bedroom, Edna refuses to answer any of her husband's inquiries. Leonce soon falls asleep, but Edna is wide ....