Water Symbolism

The use of symbolism in a literary work creates depth and allows readers to draw connections with the novel or poem at hand. The Awakening by Kate Chopin, “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston all use varying symbols to connote different tones and themes. Each of the characters experience different presentations of water, however, some connections can be drawn between the significance of each on the work as a whole. Often present during the turning points in each of these stories, water functions as a sign of life and death or destruction. The Awakening, Their Eyes, and The Waste Land each present the symbolic significance of water; however each presentation of water varies in definition and theme including water as a symbol of power and resurrection.

All three literary works present water as a symbol of power, but in several different ways. For example, during The Awakening, the sea functions as a symbol of self-empowerment for Edna that enables her to find own identity and freedom in her world. Chopin uses sexual words like “seductive”, “murmuring”, and “sensuous” to portray the sea as not only seductive to the soul, but to the body to emphasize its unrelenting power over Edna. Before entering the enchanting sea, Edna is characterized as an under-the-radar type woman that doesn’t really fit right into the southern scenery; however after her plunge, she is rejuvenated and motivated to “swim out far, where no woman had swum before," (27). This celebration is a direct result of the power of the water as she is now empowered after having never been in her own control before. While Chopin presents water as a symbol of self-empowerment, Hurston portrays water as a domineering power th...

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... power from the water and hurricane stresses the fundamental issue of the novel: Janie’s semi-religious mission identify her role in her world full of threatening, ambiguous, and sometimes random forces. The hurricane invites all of these forces on a grand scale as all of the characters are put in their place as insignificant and powerless. The vast expanse of the sea in The Awakening serves as the foundation of Edna’s whole transition throughout the novel. It encompasses not only the rebirth provided by the water, but also the sexual aspect that harbors her freedom in her promiscuity and independence. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” uses water as a symbol of fertility, infertility, and power to critique modern society in its “waste land” of alcohol, atheism, and self-complacency. The arid land and absence of water shows spiritual infertility of the contemporary society.