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The awakening kate chopin symbols
Critical Analysis of The Awakening Essay
The awakening kate chopin symbols
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Throughout the novel The Awakening, author Kate Chopin uses the symbol of a bird in order to depict Edna’s desire for freedom and independence. In the selected passage, the symbolization of the caged bird, as well as the foreshadowing of the bird’s downfall, represents Edna’s struggle for freedom against society’s expectations and prejudices. This passage also uses flashbacks through Edna’s memory and imagination in order to encourage her journey toward individuality. Chopin uses figurative language, narrative structure, and foreshadowing in order to highlight the symbolism of the bird and to emphasize Edna’s desire for freedom from the oppression of society. Throughout the novel, Chopin repeats the image of birds in order to demonstrate how Edna desires independence within society. Edna’s journey toward freedom is depicted through the change from …show more content…
For example, the novel starts with the line, “A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi!’” (Chopin 548). Instead of flying freely, this parrot’s beauty (its green and yellow feathers) and its intelligence (its ability to speak French) is placed in a cage for society’s pleasure. The parrot repeats “Go away! Go away!” in order to turn these citizens away from the private space of its cage. This is similar to how Edna seeks to move away from the public space of society and into a smaller house of solitude and independence. Similarly, in the selected passage, Edna mentions how those with strong wings are able to “soar above the level plan of tradition and prejudice”
Chopin mentions birds in a subtle way at many points in the plot and if looked at closely enough they are always linked back to Edna and her journey of her awakening. In the first pages of the novella, Chopin reveals Madame Lebrun's "green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage" (Chopin 1). The caged bird at the beginning of the novella points out Edna's subconscious feeling of being entrapped as a woman in the ideal of a mother-woman in Creole society. The parrot "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood" (1). The parrot's lack of a way to communicate because of the unknown language depicts Edna's inability to speak her true feelings and thoughts. It is for this reason that nobody understands her and what she is going through. A little further into the story, Madame Reisz plays a ballad on the piano. The name of which "was something else, but [Edna] called it Solitude.' When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing on a desolate rock on the seashore His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him" (25). The bird in the distance symbolizes Edna's desire of freedom and the man in the vision shows the longing for the freedom that is so far out of reach. At the end of the story, Chopin shows "a bird with a broken wing beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water" while Edna is swimming in the ocean at the Grand Isle shortly before she drowns (115). The bird stands for the inability to stray from the norms of society and become independent without inevitably falling from being incapable of doing everything by herself. The different birds all have different meanings for Edna but they all show the progression of her awakening.
Kate Chopin uses characterization to help you understand the character of Edna on how she empowers and improves the quality of life. Edna becomes an independent women as a whole and enjoys her new found freedom. For example, Chopin uses the following quote to show you how she begins enjoying her new found freedom.”The race horse was a friend and intimate association of her
In “A Caged Bird”, it is made clear that this bird has never experienced the freedom of flying with the other species or perching atop the highest building. All it has ever known is the cage in which is has been kept and fed plentifully, yet not punctually, and nurtured with the love of an owner and proper care.
The presence of birds in the first passage of The Awakening seems to foreshadow some of the characteristics of the protagonist. It is rather interesting that the parrot is outdoors, while the mockingbird is inside. Perhaps this would represent the presence of opposites in this novel. The parrot seems to be provoking the mockingbird in order to get some sort of response. This seems to point to the presence of loneliness which the protagonist feels. However he is being rather anti social by stating “Allez vous-en! Alez Vous! Saprisit! That’s all right!” I may be wrong, but I believe that means “Go Away! Go Away! Damn it” in French. This altercation between the parrot and the mockingbird could point to the presence of a jealous conflict within the characters. On the surface it seems that the parrot is rather agitated that the mockingbird, a bird that is generally found outdoors, is inside while the parrot, a domesticated pet is kept outside. Ironically though both birds are actually trapped with the parrot being held in the cage and the mockingbird being trapped indoors. The cage symbolizes being trapped whether literally or figuratively. Also the presence of characters that are not understood by their surroundings might shed some light on the inner conflict of the novel. It is also useful to point out that the parrot, a bird which mimics it’s surroundings is being mimicked by a bird which also mimics, such as a mockingbird. The may point to the possible presence of a theme of mimicry in this novel.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
The Awakening sheds light on the desire among many women to be independent. Throughout the novel Edna conducts herself in a way that was disavowed by many and comes to the realization that her gender prevented her from pursuing what she believed would be an enjoyable life. As the story progresses Edna continues to trade her family obligations for her own personal pleasures. This behavior would not have been accepted and many even criticize the novel for even speaking about such activities. Kate Chopin essentially wrote about everything a women couldn’t do. Moreover, it also highlights the point that a man is able to do everything Edna did, but without the same
In I Know why the Caged Bird Sings the author uses many different literary devices and various figurative language examples. The use of metaphors, imagery, similes, and Symbolism has a great effect. They’re effective due to the fact in how they inform the reader of various important details needed to understand the story completely. The use of specific, different, and various types of language illustrate to the reader the effect of racism on many characters in the novel.
An image of a green and yellow parrot in a cage occurs throughout The Awakening; the parrot represents how Edna Pontellier is trapped in her marriage to Leonce Pontellier. During that time period women were expected to stay at home and perform household duties, take care of their husbands, and take care of their children; women were not supposed to be educated and did not hold a career. Edna realizes she does not want to perform the expected duties of a woman because she is not happy just being a wife and mother. In the beginning of ...
Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.
Chopin uses the parrot to symbolize Edna before her awakening. The parrot is caged, speaking a Spanish and language no one understood, “[a] green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!’”. The parrot is trapped in its cage and says what it is trained to say. This symbolizes Edna before her awakening because she acts how women are expected to act, not realizing she has other options, “Edna moves from her parrot-like position as an accultured woman as her awareness and control of her situation unfolds” (Murihead). Before Edna’s awakening, she is expected to listen to Lèonce, her husband, and do what she is trained to do, be a mother and wife. The parrot is domesticated and used as a pet, expecting to follow the orders of a man and behave; it symbolizes Edna’s entrapment before her awakening. Edna believes she is trapped in her marriage, “[b]oth Edna’s body and mind remain inactive while she is living as a housewife in the private sphere of her home…like a caged bird, she does not see beyond her limits…” (Clark 337), but once she realizes she is not ...
In contrast to caged birds, Chopin uses wild birds and the idea of flight as symbols of freedom. This symbol is shown in a vision of a bird experienced by Edna while Mademoiselle Reisz is playing the piano.
In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, the protagonist Enda Pontellier experiences internal conflict as she journeys to her self-discovery. As she becomes aware of her suppressed being within society and distances herself away in solitude, Enda is able to discover her essential self. Symbols and imagery such as the sea and the birds, along with the physical setting of the novel, are constantly repeated in Chopin’s novel in order to demonstrate Enda’s progression to discovering her essential self and ultimately her spiritual awakening. In the Awakening, Enda’s internal conflict is displayed as she compares her dual nature in both settings. Chopin juxtaposes the settings of New Orleans and Grand Isle in order to emphasize the restrictions Edna faces by society.
The fact that Edna is an artist is significant, insofar as it allows her to have a sensibility as developed as the author's. Furthermore, Edna is able to find in Mlle. Reisz, who has established herself as a musician, a role model who inspires her in her efforts at independence. Mlle. Reisz, in confiding to Edna that "You are the only one worth playing for," gives evidence of the common bond which the two of them feel as women whose sensibilities are significantly different from those of the common herd. The French heritage which Edna absorbed through her Creole upbringing allowed her, like Kate Chopin herself, to have knowledge or a way of life that represented a challenge to dominant Victorian conventions.
The passage begins with color symbolism: the parrot is yellow and green. As someone in class pointed out last week, yellow often symbolized cowardice or fear while green symbolizes youth, newness, or growth. As the parrot is specifically described as being caged, this color symbolism could illustrate Edna’s fear either of being confined or of all that breaking away from confinement would entail. Next, the parrot “kept repeating over and over,” indicating persistence; though confined, it is determined. The phrase it repeats in French translates to “Go away, for God’s sake!” With this phrase the parrot attempts to separate from some force of opposition. Also, the fact that it speaks French as well as Spanish “and also a language which nobody understood” suggests that, like Edna’s understanding of her identity as a woman, her individuality, and her sexuality, by knowing several languages the parrot also understands more than does the average person (or bird?), though it is itself misunderstood. The mockingbird serves as an antagonist to the parrot, or a symbolic representation of the forces that oppose Edna. The description of its “fluty notes” sounds pretty and feminine, in contrast with the harshness of the parrot; similarly, Edna struggles with the pretty, feminine roles that are forced upon her within her society with “maddening persistence,” a constant threat to drown out the parrot’s, and Edna’s, voice.
In comparison to other works such as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wherein the title succinctly tells what the story shall contain, Kate Chopin’s The Awakening represents a work whose title can only be fully understood after the incorporation of the themes and content into the reader’s mind, which can only be incorporated by reading the novel itself. The title, The Awakening, paints a vague mental picture for the reader at first and does not fully portray what content the novel will possess. After thorough reading of the novel, one can understand that the title represents the main character, Edna Pontellier’s, sexual awakening and metaphorical resurrection that takes place in the plot as opposed to not having a clue on what the plot will be about.