The Awakening: Public Controversy The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, was a book that was truly ahead of its time. The author of the book was truly a genius in her right, but yet she was seen as a scoundrel. At the time, it was "a world that values only her performance as a mother, whose highest expectations for women are self sacrifice and self-effacement." ( ? ) The people of that era were not ready to admit or accept the simple but hidden feelings of intimacy or sexuality and the true nature of womanhood. Kate Chopin's book portrayed a woman of that time in a quite unorthodox way. In fact, [ When she wrote the book in 1899, she ] "achieved wh