Read the excerpt from The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. He was returning to the city to his business, and they would not see him ag
ain at the Island till the coming Saturday. He had regained his composure, which seemed to have been somewhat impaired the night before. He was eager to be gone, as he looked forward to a lively week in Carondelet Street. Mr. Pontellier gave his wife half of the money which he had brought away from Klein's hotel the evening before. She liked money as well as most women, and accepted it with no little satisfaction. How does the excerpt reflect its social and historical context?
It illustrates wives' dependence on their husbands in the 1800s.
Explanation:
The text shows how Pontellier's wife needed him to give her money because she was not economically independent. The text also shows that she did not like to depend on her husband so much and so she accepted the money with little satisfaction.
This reflects a social issue of the nineteenth century, which is the century depicted in "The Awakening." At that time women did not have their own money and relied on husbands' money to survive.
The context (1899, New Orleans and Louisiana) is shown in some details. The use of some particular words like eager, composture, impaired is a sign of it. Also the fact that the money had to be transported phisically. It's also clear in the way Kate Chopin describes the like of women for the money. This is somewhat a macho point of view that has to do with the time and political context she lived in.
