"And second, because the book that Creighton assigned his students near the beginning of the episode was the 1899 novella The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Chopin was, as the episode noted, a Louisiana native; and, as the episode also noted, The Awakening was considered, among other things, a seminal feminist novel for its depiction of Edna Pontellier and her "awakening" to her own sexuality and to the suffocating situation of a wife and mother in the 19th century. The Awakening was notable, and controversial, for another important element—one of its most-discussed aspects, which the episode pointedly does not mention: Edna kills herself at the end, by walking into the Gulf of Mexico."