The Awakening Essay -- essays research papers

Throughout The Awakening, Kate Chopin conveys her ideas by using carefully crafted symbols that reflect her characters thoughts and futures. unrivalled of the most important of these symbols, the bird, appears constantly, interwoven in the story to provide an cleverness to the condition of Ednas and her struggle. At each of the three stages of her struggle, birds foreshadow her actions and emphasize the actions immensity while the birds physical state provides an accurate measure of that of Ednas. Early in the novel, while Edna attempts to escape from purchase orders strong grasp, birds emphasize her entanglement by call her actions and monitor her development by reflecting her feelings. The novel opens with the image of a bird, confine and unable to communicate "a green and yellow parrot, which hung in the hencoop outside the door...could speak a little Spanish, and also a nomenclature that nobody understood" (1). Like the bird, Edna feels trapped and believes that society has imprisoned her. Her matrimony to Mr. Pontellier suffocates her and keeps her from being desolate. At the same time, she resides shut apart from society like the bird in the cage, and different ideas and feelings prevent her from communicating. The only somebody in society that begins to understand her, Robert, eventually decides that he must remain a member of society instead of staying with her. He says that "you Edna were not free you were Leonce Pontelliers wife" and that "Robert ...