The Awakening Essay - 2046 Words

The Awakening is a story full of symbolism and imagery that can have many different meanings to the many who have read it. I have read several different theories on Kate Chopin’s meaning and though some are vastly different, they all seem to make sense. It has been said that Kate Chopin might have been ambiguous just for this reason. At some point, almost everyone struggles with knowing or not knowing their purpose in life, and therefore it seems, that on some level, most who read the story about Edna Pontellier can relate to her in some way. I believe that those who have theorized about this story, have done so based upon their own struggles with the same issue. To me, life is all about self discovery and what one does upon their self†¦show more content†¦It’s as if she’s been in her cage so long, that once she is released, the results are almost too much to bear. Edna’s awakening begins with the ocean and I feel that the way Kate Chopin describe s the ocean in the beginning of the and throughout the story makes the ocean seem like a seducer or seductress, enticing Edna and awakening her imagination, creativity, spirituality and sexuality. For example, when Edna begins to feel to anguish of her oppression â€Å"the everlasting voice of the sea, that was not uplifted at that soft hour broke like a mournful lullaby upon the night.† she begins to cry a flood of tears, which to me makes her seem like a lost and lonely child. I say child because Edna’s emotional, spiritual, and even sexual growth has been stunted or gone untapped. However, later on as Edna begins to make real connections with other people such as Madame Ratingnolle and Robert, she begins to pay closer attention to the ocean, and again there is another incident in which the ocean’s seductive character emerges: â€Å"the voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in a bysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.† If one takes a close look at that passage itself, it almost sums up the entire story. As the ocean â€Å"never ceases† to seduceShow MoreRelatedThe Awakening on Kate Chopins The Awakening1745 Words   |  7 Pages The time period of the 1880s that Kate Chopin lived in influenced her to write The Awakening, a very controversial book because of many new depictions of women introduced in the book. The Awakening is a book about a woman, Edna Pontellier. In the beginning, she is a happy woman with her husband and 2 kids vacationing at Grand Isle. While there, Edna realizes she is in love with Robert Lebrun and that she was just forced into an unloving/dissatisfying marriage with Mr. Pontellier. Robert howeverRead MoreDemoralization In The Awakening1584 Words   |  7 Pagesthem and cause them to lose hope. Kate Chopin uses words like â€Å"depressed† (56), â€Å"hopeless† (56) and â€Å"despondency† (p115) to describe Edna, the heroine, in The Awakening. Coupling this description with Edna taking her life at the end of the novel and Chopin’s own inferred demoralization, due to the almost universal aversion to The Awakening, the natural conclusion is that it is a work of â€Å"great personal demoralization†, (Companion 5) as Michael Levenson states. Levenson suggests most modernist authorsRead MoreFeminism In The Awakening1562 Words   |  7 Pagesprivileges as each other. Basic human rights would give others the notion that this is how all humans should have been treated from the beginning. However, this is far from the truth. Books like The Awakening, give us an inside look at how women were treated around 100 years ago. When Kate Chopin wrote The Awakening, she created a blueprint for how we see modern feminism. Without being obvious, Chopin showed how one woman started to liberate herself from an oppressive society. During the 1800s when the bookRead MoreEssay on The Awakening1610 Words   |  7 Pages In their analytical papers on The Awakening by Kate Chopin, both Elaine Showalter and Elizabeth Le Blanc speak to the importance of homosocial relationship to Edna’s awakenings. They also share the viewpoint that Edna’s return to the sea in the final scene of the book represents Edna being one with her female lover and finding the fulfillment she has been seeking. We see evidence of this idea of the sea as a feminine from Showalter when she tells us that â€Å"As the female body is prone to wetness,Read MoreSymbolism In The Awakening1420 Words   |  6 PagesAnalyzing Chopin’s use of symbolism in â€Å"The Awakening† What would one expect to be the personality of a woman, who was raised in a family of no man dominance in the year of 1800? Kate Chopin was born in Missouri, in 1850 and was one of the five children. At very young age, Kate lost her both sisters and her brother. At age of five, Kate was sent to a Catholic school. Not long after leaving her home, Chopin loses her father. Kate is being sent home from school to live with her mother, grandmotherRead More Essay on The Awakening712 Words   |  3 PagesCritical Views of The Awakening      Ã‚  Ã‚   The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopins time, writing a story with such great attention to sensual details in both men and women caused skepticism among readers and critics. However, many critics have different views with deeper thought given to The Awakening. Symbolism, the interpretation of Ednas suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.    SymbolismRead More The Awakening Essay1091 Words   |  5 Pagesthe fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the reader of the book is much more effected than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more evidence of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand Isle. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main character’s newly acquired ability to swim, through the birdsRead More Essay on The Awakening733 Words   |  3 PagesCriticism of The Awakening      Ã‚   Reading through all of the different criticism of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening has brought about ideas and revelations that I had never considered during my initial reading of the novel.   When I first read the text, I viewed it as a great work of art to be revered.   However, as I read through all of the passages, I began to examine Chopin’s work more critically and to see the weaknesses and strengths of her novel.   Reading through others interpretations of herRead MoreThe movie Awakenings4852 Words   |  20 PagesMeagan McGee Psychology 1300 Awakenings The movie Awakenings starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro portrays the true story of a doctor named Dr. Malcolm Sayer, and the events of the summer of 1969 at a psychiatric hospital in New York. Dr. Malcolm Sayer, who is a research physician, is confronted with a number of patients who had each been afflicted with a devastating disease called Encephalitis Lethargica. The illness killed most of the people who contracted it, but some were left livingRead MoreThe Awakening Analysis886 Words   |  4 Pagesvalue of one’s life. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin implicitly conveys the sacrifice Edna Pontellier makes in the life which provides insight of her character and attributions to her â€Å"awakening.† She sacrificed her past of a lively and youthful life and compressed it to a domestic and reserved lifestyle of housewife picturesque. However, she meets multiple acquaintances who help her express her dreams and true identity. Mrs. Pontellier’s sacrifice establ ished her awakening to be defiant and drift away