Can someone rephrase this essay prompt for me?

speak to = discuss, describe, imply, talk about, relate to, etc.

Pretty much this:

how does the awakening influence [speak to] the roles of women and the conventions of literature at the end of the 19th century.

So answer what impact the awakening had on the women.

Your essay is meant to look at conflict interior the tale, and look at how conflict affected the unconventional's message. The essay could perceive the unconventional's message before explaining how conflict affected it. So your thesis or topic sentence must be something like "The lives and peace of the natives grow to be disrupted/destroyed at the same time as missionaries arrived." Then supply examples of ways the peace grow to be disrupted by technique of the missionaries. sturdy luck!

im not 100% sure... but check out spark notes if you havent already to help you out a little

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/awakening/summary.ht...

think to yourself "what does this book say about women?"

"What other kind of literature was being published at the time of this book?"

"how were women viewed in this century?"

-neglected, used, oppressed, overworked, etc..

Speak to can mean many things: address, make a difference, change the meaning of,

impact and so on. If you speak to someone, you have impact, meaning, force of

ideas perhaps, reactions and so on. Same thing here.