Birds In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

She leaves the care of her children to her grandmother, abandoning them and her husband when she leaves to live in the pigeon-house. To her, leaving her old home with Léonce is very important to her freedom. Almost everything in their house belonged to him, so even if he were to leave, she would still feel surrounded by his possessions. She never fully becomes free of him until she physically leaves the house. That way, Edna has no ties whatsoever to that man. Furthermore, Edna indulges in more humanistic things such as art and music. She listens to Mademoiselle Reisz’s playing of the piano and feels the music resonate throughout her body and soul, and uses it as a form of escapism from the world. Based on these instances, Edna acts almost like a very young child, completely disregarding consequences and thinking only about what they want to do experience most at that moment. However, to the reader this does not necessarily appear “bad”, but rather it is seen from the perspective of a person who has been controlled by others their entire life and wishes to break free from their grasp. In a way, she is enacting a childlike and subconscious form of revenge by disobeying all known social constructs of how a woman should talk, walk, act, and interact with others.

Freedom is found in the book through symbolism. The caged birds in the novel are a constant reminder of Edna’s own encagement to society. Edna gets brief periods of time where she feels like she is free. Like when she learns to swim, “A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” (Chopin 29). As Edna is heading toward the beach so she can drown herself she sees some of her

Female roles in society have often been minute. In Jewett’s “A White Heron” and Freeman’s “The Revolt of Mother”, Sylvia and Mother demonstrate feminine empowerment. These two prominent female protagonists overcome the male influence in their life and society. Both defy social expectations of women and the obstacles that come with it. The authors express this through their similar use of symbolism and alienation. Jewett and Freeman use different examples of poverty, the motivation of society, and speech in their stories.

     “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.” This was in her letter to her husband, in case the dangerous flight proved to be her last. She was the woman who crossed the Atlantic Ocean, shared her visions, inspired many, formed the Ninety-Nines, and tried to fly around the world. She is, and always will be, remembered for her

The stepping stones in Edna’s awakening can be seen through symbols: birds, clothes, and even the ocean. The symbols of caged birds in The Awakening represent Edna’s entrapment as a wife and mother, along with all of the other Victorian women. When Leonce is sitting by the parrots reading his newspaper, the parrot spoke, “a language which nobody understood” (Chopin 5). Edna, just like the parrot, can not be understood. Edna can not communicate her feelings with others, her feelings being the “language” that nobody

Edna states, “The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude...to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation”(Chopin 17). Chopin utilizes practical uses of water to show Edna’s nonconformity and foreshadows the end of the novel. Kathryn Seidel states, “Edna begins her journey by discovering the limitations of domesticity as exemplified by the confining roles of wife and “mother-woman”; Chopin approached her novel from a background of local color and domestic fiction but with a sense of its limitations”(236). By incorporating swimming and sunbathing, Chopin reveals her underlying theme. Beginning in chapter one with the way Mr.Pontellier looks at his wife as a damaged possession after stating, “You are burnt beyond recognition”(Chopin 5). This shows how women were treated in this time period; therefore, Edna felt the power to break the social norm of objectivity of women. Towards the middle of the book, Edna experiences her first swim. The narrator states, “She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude which the vast expanse of water...as she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself”(Chopin 32). Edna’s first swim symbolizes her awakening moment. As she swims, she feels like she is “reaching out for the unlimited”

Later on in the novel, Edna speaks about how Mademoiselle Reisz checks her shoulder blades for strength because “the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings” (Chopin 79). While many characters shut Reisz off because of how strange she is, Edna visits her because of their unspoken, mutual understanding of the significance of the potential power and precedence that her true, inner identity could hold if she let it fly free. At the end of the novel, Chopin describes a “bird with a broken wing” who circles “disabled down, down to the water” (108) to reflect how the strength of Edna’s inner identity breaks her because her spirit is too weak to maintain her desires alongside her realization that she could never be truly happy again in this time of unbreaking oppression and possession. Elz notes that if Edna continues to live that she will always be moving from relationship to relationship to satisfy her true desires, even though - in contrast - she wishes for her existence to not be defined by her relationships with men. “Like the mockingbird,” Elz continues, Edna “insists on her way” and therefore refuses to accept the roles society pushes on her and, in result, commits suicide as her inner identity wins and proves that she can not be controlled (20).

An important theme in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening is the desire for some women to abandon their dull lives as only mothers and wives. In other words, solitude. The main character, Edna Pontellier is a woman with such desires. She has two sons with her husband, Leonce Pontellier, whom she would rather not be with. The theme mentioned earlier is seen all throughout the novel, by means of several different symbols, including birds. There are three examples of birds used within the story, two of which in the very first chapter. The story opens with a loud parrot repeating the phrase: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapriste!” (Chopin 1) This roughly translates to “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake!” These words

Amelia Earhart was an icon. She was a feminist. Not only a pioneer but also brave. During Amelia’s life, all the goals she had achieved were attained through pure perseverance and resilience. While Earhart had become well-known for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, she was likewise known throughout the world for her individual developments and aid in the feminist movement. She acknowledged a grander purpose in life which was the desire to live a life that surpassed beyond home and being confined in society. Her achievements in becoming an active feminist and succeeding in her dreams and goals prove her resilient courageous nature of being a woman during the 20th century despite being in a male dominant society.

Symbolism also plays an enormous role, birds, oceans, and sound are three different interpretations of Edna. Throughout the entire story, caged birds appear quite often resembling the trapped society of Mrs. Pontellier, it also serves as a reminder that she's caged like a bird wanting to escape and also the entrapment of women in that specific time. In the beginning, the parrot talking to Mr. Pontellier saying to leave in French represents as Edna’s

There are many other areas of Edna's story while illustrate the rebellious ideas that she represents. For example, her view of religion is very controversial for that time period. Throughout the story, we can see that Edna had no tolerance for the religious practices that were held so dear to the rest of society (Klein 3). It is not surprising that Edna refuses to "worship" any higher power, since we have also seen that she refuses to hold even her family to any higher regard (Klein 4). Additionally, Edna's attitude towards art builds on the unconventional themes of the story (Klein 6). Edna is told by Mademoiselle Reisz that ""o be an artist... you must possess the courageous soul... the brave soul. The soul that dares and defies" (Chopin 115). This seems indicative of the very soul that Edna strives to possess in the story. Her quest to become an artist seems tied to her quest to break from the conventions of society because of this definition. Edna's reverence for art and the values that it seems to be connected with make her personality even more unconventional in the terms of the society that she lived in.

Since the beginning of time social constrictions have always retained a firm grasp on the ideas and actions of humanity. While it remains a formidable foe, still some choose to fight back against the norm. This never-ending war is responsible for major advancements in the social order, but not every story is so successful. In Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”, Edna Pontellier finds herself fighting this very battle that, although begins with a positive outlook, ultimately ends in her demise.

In the beginning of Chopin's novel the setting starts in Grand Isle, Louisiana and gradually changes to New Orleans, Louisiana. During the time Chopin wrote the novel women were suppose to be motherly and submissive to their husbands. Edna did not posses either of those characteristics and was not considered a "mother-woman"(Chopin 9) and she longed for a life that she would struggle to have. Edna went through many stages to reach the freedom she wanted. Chopin used symbols such as the "Caged Bird" in the beginning of the novel to represent Edna. "A Green and Yellow Parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door,… He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood," the caged bird symbolizes Edna's encouragement and how she longed

Through my focus on unpredictable rhyming patterns and erratic form in “Underestimated, powerful, full of belittled ability,” I was capable of using a bird’s battle against hardships to produce a metaphor for women’s power and uniqueness. “Underestimated, powerful, full of belittled ability” begins with the sorrowful description of a restricted bird whose abilities and speech is limited and controlled, accurately representing women’s limits and regulations regarding their decisions and voice. “Astonished, the larger birds’ glee and laughter transform into silence” (15) Nonetheless, during the poem’s last couplets, readers were presented with the Hill Myna bird’s sudden boldness and willpower, demonstrating women’s dedication to annihilate

Women have faced prolonged cruelty for many centuries with no sign of ending, only being able to slowly gain more rights with each rising generation. At the beginning of the 20th century, women’s rights in the Western World were on the rise, including in the career field of aviation. Amelia Earhart was the predecessor for women working within the field of aviation and through her lifetime, accomplishments, and the fight to be the first female aviators in history, she has now earned the title of one of the most famous gender nonconformists.