Question

Read the excerpt from chapter 17 of The Awakening.

[Mrs. Pontellier] was somewhat familiar with such scenes. They had often made her very unhappy. On a few previous occasions she had been completely deprived of any desire to finish her dinner. Sometimes she had gone into the kitchen to administer a tardy rebuke to the cook. Once she went to her room and studied the cookbook during an entire evening, finally writing out a menu for the week, which left her harassed with a feeling that, after all, she had accomplished no good that was worth the name.

Which prediction is most likely based on the themes that have emerged so far in The Awakening?

Mrs. Pontellier will make a more focused effort to fit into the domestic roles assigned to her by society.

Mrs. Pontellier will ask Mrs. Ratignolle to help her learn how to better plan proper menus for her family.

Mrs. Pontellier will make fewer and fewer attempts to fit into the domestic roles assigned to her by society.

Mrs. Pontellier will fire the cook and spend the upcoming week interviewing other candidates for the job.

Answer 1

The correct answer is: Mrs. Pontellier will make fewer and fewer attempts to fit into the domestic roles assigned to her by society.

Indeed, the structure of the passage is one of incremental psychological distress, which indicates future breaking point. The lexical field reinforces such analysis, with words such as “unhappy, deprived, rebuked, harassed” and “no good.”