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wakening Symbolism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a literary work full of symbolism. Birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements
Surname Age 1 Mongane Afrika 62 2 Stephen Serote 58 3 Tatumkhulu Watson 29 Poem Title Poet Wakening Night 1 Thrones of Darkness 2 Once 3 These two tables relate through
day to several times a month and can occur in harmless situations and in a lot of cases, wakening you from sleep. a. Raging heartbeat b. Difficulty breathing, feeling
surroundings, Frost speaks of a long scythe ?whispering to the ground,? and of hearing ?wakening birds around.? The speaker also listens for a whetstone ?on the breeze?
and loneliness Changes to sleep patterns (such as excessive sleeping, early morning wakening, not sleeping well) Withdrawing from activities and family Having difficulty
Submitted by oppapers on October 31, 2004
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Symbolism in Kate Chopin's The Awakening
Kate Chopin's The Awakening is a literary work full of symbolism. Birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the novel and to the characters. I will analyze the most relevant symbols presented in Chopin's literary work.
BIRDS
The images related to birds are the major symbolic images in the narrative from the very beginning of the novel:
"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!'" (pp3)
In The Awakening, caged birds serve as reminders of Edna's entrapment. She is caged in the roles as wife and mother; she is never expected to think for herself. Moreover, the caged birds symbolize the entrapment of the Victorian women in general. Like the parrot, the women's movements are limited by the rules of society.
In this first chapter, the parrot speaks in "a language which nobody understood" (pp3). The parrot is not able to communicate its feelings just like Edna whose feelings are difficult to understand, incomprehensible to the members of Creole society.
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.
"When she heard it there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him." (pp26-27)
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