When discussing Kate Chopin's novel, The Awakening, the critic Susan Rosowski classifies the novel under the title of "awakening novel" and differentiates it from the Bildungsroman, the apprentice novel, in which the usually male protagonist "learns the nature of the world, discovers its meaning and pattern, and acquires a philosophy of life and 'the art of living'" (Bloom 43). In the awakening novel, the female protagonist similarly learns about the world, but for the heroine the world is defined in terms of love and marriage, and "the art of living" comes with the realization that such art is difficult or impossible ; the price for art is often a tragic ending. Rosowski calls this female awakening “an awakening to limitations” (Bloom 43). Rosowski's reading of the novel emphasizes the role that gender plays in shaping a male narrative versus a female narrative. If read as suicide, Edna Pontellier's final swim is a consequence of her awakening to the limits of her femininity in a male-dominated society. But on a metaphysical level, especially from the Buddhist point of view, the final scene of the Awakening can be seen as Edna's final gesture in attempting to grasp the essence of her being. In my research, I have found no material linking Buddhism with The Awakening. There are, however, some things written about the book based on Christian theology. The criticism is that Kate Chopin's novel glorifies extramarital sexual relations, relegates humans to the level of amoral animals, and generally denies the supreme importance of the role of Christian doctrines in everyone's life. As I shook my head at the idea that religion can be taken so seriously that literature is only seen in the narrow light that casts a god… in the middle of paper… and the first reincarnation. It is as if Edna is retracing her reincarnations to return to the empty space from which her first attachments came and from which she created herself. And so we come to the end of Edna's spiritual journey. Works Cited Bercholz, Samuel and Shearb Chödzin Kohn, eds. Entering the Stream: An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1993. Bloom, Harold, ed. Kate Chopin. Modern critical visions. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Chopin, Kate. The awakening and selected stories. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. “Nature.” The new shortest Oxford English dictionary. 1993 ed.Saddhatissa, Hammalawa. Buddhist Ethics: The Path to Nirvana. London: Wisdom Publications, 1987. Schuhmacher, Stephan, et al., eds. The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1989.