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The Awakening Symbolism

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Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a novel full of symbolism; even down to the title. By giving this novel the title, it is great symbolism of what the story will be about. The title gives a vague mental picture for you that cannot be fully understood until the reader has finished reading. It is also full of other symbolisms, such as clothes, houses, birds, swims, and the ocean. All of these elements are powerful and add great meaning to the characters and the novel itself. After finishing, The Awakening, the reader will understand that the title is about the main character, Edna Pontellier, and her sexual awakening and her figurative rebirth. One of the first images of symbolism in The Awakening is birds, and they are evident and narrative from …show more content…

These houses are her home in New Orleans with her family, the vacation house in Grand Isle, the ‘pigeon house’, and the house on Cheniere Caminada where she falls asleep (Wyatt). These houses are symbols to represents different phases Edna goes through in her awakening. The house in Grand Isle is full of symbolisms for domesticity. Pianos, children, women, and porches are possessions of the domesticity. This is the first place we are visited with Edna, and she is constricted within this cage of Creole roles of wife and mother. The house on Cheniere Caminada where Edna falls asleep represents the change Edna is experiencing in her awakening. It is also a home where the women can go to escape (Wyatt). This is the house where Edna obtains the knowledge about her own body and soul. The New Orleans house is the representation of cultural rules and life duties. Edna is required to be the perfect hostess, specifically by her husband. However, she does not like this role and the rules and attempts to flee from this cultural cage to her ‘pigeon house.’ Ultimately, Edna does not feel “at home” anywhere. Death seems to be the only thing that can offer a real home to her. The feelings of relief, freedom, and

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She experiences a symbolic rebirth, an awakening. The happiness soon comes to an end as Robert realizes they've become too close and leaves the island. Edna suddenly becoming depressed befriends Madame Ratinolle and Mademoiselle

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This means she has to move into a much smaller house, where she is alone. While this may seem like a huge sacrifice for most people, she doesn’t view it in this way. The oppression of her values that was inflicted upon in both that house and by her relationship her relationship with her husband meant that to Edna, leaving that house and situation was liberating and as if she had busted out of a

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She even committed suicide due to the fact of how badly she needed to free herself from the Creole lifestyle. Edna, a remarkable lady in a sense, rebelled against the norms of society to openly be herself. People like Edna, or people brave enough to take a chance to change societal norms, come rare to find, especially during the late 1800’s. Edna never agreed to anything she did not want, after the marriage to Leonce, and was quite straight-forward with her desires. Edna, ideally, is a great role model to look up to in today’s world for filling that brave, young woman role to not let society shape her, despite the few occurrences she had intimate moments with multiple men or her carelessness towards her children.

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Kate Chopin's The Great Awakening explains how Edna Pontellier, an everyday woman of the nineteenth century, opens up and explores herself. A majority of the important characters in her story are the men in Edna's life. Men like Leonce, Robert, and Alcee all are key pieces to her awakening. They all influence Edna in their own ways. Leonce Pontellier is a controlling husband and an all around materialistic man.

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Thesis- In The Awakening, Kate Chopin utilizes symbolic imagery to illustrate Edna’s inability to truly break from society, perpetuating her circular growth. 1)Hammock Scene Portraying Edna’s weakening resolve during her first attempts to break from society, the poster illustrates a breaking rope. Constantly limiting by society, she has experienced oppressed her entire life, causing a deep desire to escape to form an identity.

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Her frequent vacations to the island, like her frequent dips into the ocean, begin to spark a personal change within the woman. A Creole man, Robert, shows Edna a new dimension of feelings she never knew she lived without, and she begins to look through life through a new lens. Having been awakened for the first time, she sees injustice and mistreatment where she saw none before. Chopin uses Edna’s new observations and reactions to the culture around her to illustrate the myriad ways women were marginalized. In an ironic twist, the white woman from Kentucky proves to be more liberated than her more traditional husband, who grew up

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In the story “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin there are many examples of symbolism present. The main symbol is the parrot owned by Madame Lebrun, “A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door.” This is symbolic of Edna’s life, much like the birds caged up literally, she is caged up by society’s views of the married woman. Just as the bird have the ability to use their wings to fly, Edna has the ability to be free in relationships and not be tied down by a man. Also, just like the bird is literally caged, Edna is caged in the relationship with her husband even though she wants to be with Robert.

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The title, The Awakening, signifies the self-realization of Edna Pontellier and her own personal awakening. Edna’s character undergoes a dramatic lifestyle and spiritual change. She begins the novel as the typical old fashioned housewife that is expected to look and act a certain way. Edna was a respectable housewife who yearns for a social, spiritual, and sexual awakening

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It was here that Edna Pontellier experienced the only freedom she had left, which was death. Edna’s suicide was the only way she could get everything she wanted but society denied to her. She died in Grand Isle, where she always felt free. The city setting of New Orleans contributed greatly to the struggles that Edna went through and the trapped feeling she always had. Without the contrasting settings of Grand Isle and New Orleans, Edna’s feelings would not have been made as evident, and she would not have felt the way that she did during the book.

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The Awakening written by Kate Chopin, is a novella about a woman named Edna, who desires to be an independent woman and break free from the typical 1800’s mold of society. Allusions are used to show how the characters behave and are affected by their surroundings and emotions. Throughout the story, Chopin uses them to connect the characters to the plot and make each scenario recognizable to the reader. “The foamy wavelets curled up to her white feet, and coiled like serpents about her ankles. She walked out.

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First, Edna is initially symbolized by the caged green-and-yellow parrot because like the bird she is confined. At the start of the book, the parrot shrieks and swears at Mr.Pontellier. Chopin writes, “A GREEN AND yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en!

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Edna Pontellier was only seen as a “valuable piece of property which [had] suffered some damaged” to her husband Mr. Pontellier (BOOK). One can also see that “The Awakening” also focused on the sexual desires of women, identity, and self-discovery Edna, a character in “The Awakening” experienced her awakening by discovering her identity in her own self. “The Awakening” attempts to tell the story a woman who wants to find herself while lusting. Later, at the end of the story, one discovers that since Edna Pontellier could not fully find her peace, and freedom she ultimately decides to commit suicide. Through this “The Awakening” shows that although women were oppressed, they also had empowerment.

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This novel, The Awakening, is about a woman named Edna Pontellier learns to think of herself as an independent human being. Also, Edna Pontellier refuses to obey against the social norms by leaving her husband Leónce Pontellier and having an affair with Robert Lebrun. Kate Chopin describes societal expectations and the battle of fitting the mold of motherhood in the Awakening by how Edna Pontellier and Adele Ratignolle contribute to their family in different ways. Edna Pontellier’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is not a perfect mother-women. Adele Ratignolle’s attitude toward motherhood is that she is a perfect mother-women.

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Birds are gifted with the extraordinary ability to fly. Their wings propel them above the ground and over people below. They are able to view the world from an angle that no one else gets to see. This is what makes birds and wings such powerful symbols in literature. These symbols characterize characters, move the plot and develop one more of the book’s ideas.

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Reflecting back on the idea of love, Edna also repetitive instances where she is called out that she is not living the life fulfilling to her families needs. “It seems to me the utmost folly for a woman at the head of a household, and the mother of children, to spend in an atelier days which would be better employed contriving for the comfort of her family.” “I feel like painting,” answered Edna. “Perhaps I shan’t always feel like it.” “Then in God’s name paint!

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