The Awakening AP English Literature

The Story Edna Pontellier, a young wife and mother, struggles against her sense of duty and personal identity. Her journey is not a quest for superiority, but rather equality. The reader quickly comes to see how she feels trapped in her roles of wife and mother—a situation Chopin seems to want us to recognize as rather ordinary in this time period. ***notice how she seems “fated” to these roles. Fate is more the function of society and it’s expectation on the individual. The novel follows her awakening and ultimate decision to escape from a world in which she can never be free.

Symbols--Birds Birds are important symbols throughout the novel. The parrot and mockingbird owned by Madame Lebrun are caged and confined, with no way to communicate with the world around them. The birds, while caged, are beautiful and decorative, which is how women were often looked at through the social lens. Chopin draws an obvious parallel between the birds and Edna. She, too, is caged by social expectation and propriety. Notice early on how her husband chastises her for not being a better mother. Even the narrator claims Edna was not a “mother-woman” as was expected (18).

The Sea The sea symbolizes freedom, escape, and independence. Notice how Edna’s awakening increases as she learns to swim. This is a freedom like none she has ever known. Edna recognizes her insignificance as she swims, and this causes her to contemplate her place in the universe. Learning to swim is perhaps the most important component of Edna’s awakening. For Edna, the sea becomes a place of rebirth, baptism, new beginnings. This enables her to break away from societal constrictions and achieve a sense of independence and identity.

Themes Women’s rights, femininity, motherhood Convention v. Individuality Edna struggles to live up to social convention and ultimately recognizes she cannot be herself while abdicating to those expectations. Women’s rights, femininity, motherhood In the social world of New Orleans, women’s behavior was tightly controlled and defined. In the late 19th century, the women’s right s movement was in full force , but conservative states like Louisiana granted women very few rights. Realism and Romanticism Like A Doll House, Chopin focuses on a realistic experience, but she also employs elements of Romanticism with the focus on emotion and inner experience. Action and reflection Edna senses a gulf between action and thought, between “the outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions.” (We see in chapter 7 when Edna begins to think about thinking—one gets the sense this a new feeling for her.) Freedom and emptiness For Edna, freedom is disengagement from all rules and expectation. She feels completely empty in the sea—no restrictions are felt there. Emptiness becomes an ironic freedom.