Symbolism in Kate Chopins The Awakening :: essays research papers

symbolization in Kate Chopins The Awakening Kate Chopins The Awakening is a literary work adequate of symbolism. Birds, clothes, houses and other narrative elements are powerful symbols which add meaning to the unused and to the characters. I will analyze the most relevant symbols presented in Chopins literary work. BIRDS The images related to birds are the major symbolic images in the narrative from the really beginning of the novel "A green and yellow repeat, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over Allez vous-en Allez vous-en Sapristi Thats every(prenominal) right" (pp3) In The Awakening, caged birds serve as reminders of Ednas 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 womens movements are limited by the rules of society. In this first chapter, the parrot speaks in "a l anguage which nobody understood" (pp3). The parrot is not able to communicate its feelings just like Edna whose feelings are difficult to understand, unfathomed 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 experience by Edna while Mademoiselle Reisz is playing the piano. "When she heard it there came in the lead her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a scanty rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless capitulation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away(predicate) from him." (pp26-27) In this vision Edna is showing her desire for freedom, desire for escaping from her roles as wife and mother, from her husband Lonce who keeps her in a social cage. by and by these episodes, the images related to birds are absent form the narrative until the chapter 29. Following the spend on Grand Isle, where she had awakening experiences, she starts to express her desire for independence in New Orleans through her move to her own house, the pigeon house "because its so small and looks like a pigeon house" (pp 84). The nickname of the pigeon house is very significant because a pigeon house is a place where pigeons, birds that have accommodate to and benefited from the human society, are kept cooped up.