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Birds Symbolism In The Awakening

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Close Reading: The Awakening Chapter I-XIII In the story, the birds symbolize women and flight represents freedom. The birds are in a cage which inhibits their flight; this can be compared to women in captivity lacking freedom. What’s important to point out is that the bird, specifically the one mentioned in the passage, speaks a language that only other birds can understand. “He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understand, unless it was the mockingbird hung on the other side of his door.” This represents women’s calls for freedom, which go ignored and are only considered by other women. The sea is most definitely a symbol of freedom. “The voice of the sea is seductive.” Women in the 19th century longed for freedom, …show more content…

Mademoiselle Reisz, who is outcasted from society and described as a “homely woman, with a small weazened face and body and eyes that glowed,” had “absolutely no taste in dress, and wore a batch of rusty black lace with a bunch of artificial violet pinned to the side of her hair.” Her choice of wearing black, which isn’t lavish and exquisite, carry her place in society. Edna wore a peignoir to bed, a woman’s light dressing gown. This clothing is light and thin and depicts an image of femininity. It is also important to note that feels comfortable and luxurious after removing her clothes. “Edna… loosened her clothes, removing the greater part of them… She took off her shoes and stockings… How luxurious it felt…” This can be a symbol of the removal societal images and the effects of it. In the motif of sleep/awakening, sleep could represent an escape from reality and awakening could be the return to reality, but it is more likely sleep is a lack of being aware of something, while awakening is the realization of it. Your senses give you information and knowledge, but you lose these senses when you are asleep. When you are awake, you regain them. Therefore, if awakening is an indirect symbol for realizing something, then Chopin’s use of sensory detail is his way to represent gaining knowledge, information, and

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Across all cultures, birds have come to symbolise the status of freedom, and have been portrayed as such in media. The United States of America’s official symbol is the bald eagle, said to symbolize both strength and freedom that the country upholds as part of its core values. Crafty visual work is also at play in graphic novels and memoirs, where symbols can supplement the understanding of the overall theme in a particular page or scene. One graphic memoir, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell’s March series, is adept at using the symbol of the bird to communicate the idea of freedom. This retelling of John Lewis’ life and involvement in the civil rights movement portrays this in a way that is unique to its own style, and stands by the overall message

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The author uses a comparison and contrast between Madame Ratignolle and Edna Pontellier to show how these two ladies are different from one another. Chopin emphasizes how feminine Madame Ratignolle is to demonstrate how Edna seems to be an outcast from the Creole society. Chopin chooses to incorporate the appearance of the two ladies to support the fact that Edna feels like she does not fit in, especially when Leonce refers to Madame Ratignolle in some parts of the novel. How Conventionality is Being Challenged “She was blindly following whatever impulse moved her, as if she had placed herself in alien hands for direction, and freed her soul of responsibility.”

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Edna fully understands that society would brand her as a terrible woman, but she does not view herself as a bad person. There is an external and internal difference that Edna hopes to one day reconcile. Chopin, instead of creating tension within Edna, created tension within the society and Edna with her newfound independence does not mind how society classifies her. Decisively, it can be concluded that the tension between outward conformity and inward questioning builds the meaning of the novel by examining Edna’s role as a wife, mother, and as nontraditional woman in the traditional Victorian period.

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Edna from Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” can be perceived as morally ambiguous because of her affiliations with other men, and role-defying actions; however, both contribute to “The Awakening” as a whole. Due to Edna being romantically involved with Robert, she can be perceived as morally

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As a child, have you ever wondered how it would feel to be able to fly like a bird? Many people do not know what a typical bird does during their day to day life. But a Mockingbird is not any typical type of bird. “Kill all the bluejays you want, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (117). The previous quote is a world widely known quote; stated by Atticus; a character from the book To Kill a Mockingbird; authored by Harper Lee.

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Edna experiences the hardships of striving to break as a “ [feeling] like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul … the exuberance which had sustained and exalted her spirit left her helpless and yielding to the conditions which crowded her in … clutching feebly at the post before passing into the house.” (79). Through the imagery of a weight on her mind and feeble body, Chopin conveys her inability to find the strength to break the chains of the archetypal female identity. Extremely fleeting, her momentary empowerment clearly validates her circular growth rather than a building of personal development.

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Kate Chopin’s novel, The Awakening opens with a scene of two birds, emphasizing that the motif of birds later within the novel will play an important part with setting the constant metaphor they bring. Throughout the whole novel the motif of birds is a metaphor for the Victorian women during that period -- caged birds serve as reminders of Edna’s entrapment and the entrapment of Victorian women in general. Edna makes many attempts to escape her cage (husband, children, and society), but her efforts only take her into other cages, such as the pigeon house. Edna views this new home as a sign of her independence, but the pigeon house represents her inability to remove herself from her former life, due to the move being just “two steps away” (122).

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In the 1800’s, the societal niche of married women was clearly defined: they were meant to devote every aspect of their lives to their husbands and children. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, struggles to adhere to these standards, and eventually rebels against them. The harsh standards placed on Edna and other women in the novel are like the cages around the metaphorical birds Chopin uses to represent them. Edna's unhappiness in her societal role is realized in the ocean, which symbolizes this awakening and her attempt to escape the gender roles of the nineteenth century.

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In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols play a big role in bringing out the theme of Edna Pontellier’s awakening. One specific symbol defines Edna’s journey which is the bird symbol. Edna, including all the women in her time are trapped by the constraints placed upon them by a male-dominant society. But Edna is the only one who decides to live life as she pleases following her whims and not living under someone’s demands. Edna represents the birds because she thinks she is free, but birds get trapped, just like how Edna gets trapped in having to follow social norms.

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This socially constructed identity is the first of the many that Edna grapples with in the text. It is the identity of women within the time period of the text. In the words of Dix, Edna’s identity is meant to be that of a typical American wife who will control the home, children and entertain socially yet remain obedient to her working husband (146). ‘Looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property’ (Chopin 4). The

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In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” shows a controversial protagonist, Edna Pontellier. The character in the novel showed different expectations for women and their supposed roles. One literary critic, Megan Kaplon showed how this novel can be viewed as a struggle of the world or society around her. Edna in the story is trying to find freedom and individuality Kaplon mentions that “one of her most shocking actions was her denial of her role as a mother and wife.”

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Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is a piece of fiction written in the nineteenth century. The protagonist Edna is a controversial character, Edna rebels against many nineteenth - century traditions, but her close friend Adele was a perfect example in terms of a role of a woman, mother and wife at that time. Chopin uses contrast characters to highlight the difference between Adele and Edna. Although they are both married women in the nineteenth century, they also exhibit many different views about what a mother role should be.

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The male bird calls out to her and its quite sad. The American dream has many meanings depending on who you ask, the theme of the dream is happiness. The two birds were happy together until they were separated. The male bird has hope that the female will return and his hope weakens as days go by. The American dream was an idea

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The Symbolism of Birds In the history of literature, birds have always been a positive omen. In the novel “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, birds appear numerous times throughout the novel, for many different characters and storylines. Characters like Marie-Laure, Werner, and Fredrick are all tied together through the reappearance of birds; comparing them and their storylines, almost as a symbol of their connection (from so far apart). In the novel, the impactful imagery of birds symbolizes freedom and individualism to make your own choices.

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In The Awakening by Kate Chopin birds and wings are mentioned a wide variety of times. Different types of birds are indicated in the novel too. Owls, pigeons, sea birds, parrots, and other types of birds are mentioned. Chopin uses these birds to showcase a struggle and character’s emotions. She uses birds so much in her writing that the birds became a motif.

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