Ms. Williams P6
IB English 4
25 October 2014
7. Trace a symbol or motif throughout the novel. Make a claim and support it through specific textual
evidence.
The language used to describe many events and objects in Kate Chopins The Awakening mirrors
the prose she uses in describing the sea. Throughout this novel, the sea is constantly referred to both
indirectly and directly, and both times they allude to the nature of the freedom and awakening that Edna
pursues.
In Chapter 1, the character of Edna is introduced to the reader in the sentence right after the sea is
first mentioned, foreshadowing a relationship to develop between the two. Later, in Chapter 5 of the
novel, Edna has just finished conversing with her children and smells the seductive odor of the sea, a
contrast to the high and penetrating voices of her children. While the voices of the sea are seductive to
Edna, her childrens voices, on the other hand, are not. This symbolizes the appeal of freedom from the
burdens of domestic motherhood society has chained her to, as she shows a distaste towards her children,
yet the sea is portrayed as a temptation. The sea is also represented as tantalizing freedom to Edna in
Chapter 10, when the sea is described as akin to slow, white serpents, a biblical allusion to the story of
Adam and Eve and the fruit of temptation. In Chapter 7, the sea is also likened to the Kentucky fields of
her childhood by Edna, as Edna remembers her childhood as a time of idle wandering and freedom from
societys oppressions. However, this freedom Edna so desires is difficult to find, as in Chapter 7, where
the walk to the sea is described as no inconsiderable one upon which a sporadic and tangled growth
that bordered it on either side made frequent and unexpected inroads. This accurately mirrors Ednas
journey towards freedom, as she frequently experiences emotional turmoil in her quest to achieve the
elusive freedom. In addition, the naked man who Edna envisions when she hears a piece nicknamed
Solitude is on a rock by the seashore, watching a bird fly away. Here freedom is again symbolized by
the sea, as the man has shed societal conventions by shedding his clothing, but he does not possess the
courageous soul which dares and defies, and thus is placed beside the sea instead of within it.
The sea also functions as a medium through which Edna awakens to a new self, free from
societys restraints. In chapter 6, Chopin compares the voice of the sea to the beginning of things, of a
world especially, evoking the language of rebirths and tumultuous awakenings. When Edna learns how
to swim in the sea, she experiences feelings of exultance and pride, as she has self-asserted her own
person and thus cemented her awakening. Biblical allusions are also prevalent throughout the last chapter
where the sea is presented as a symbol of rebirth. The bird with the broken wing falling into the sea is an
ironic reference to the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, arriving at the baptism of Jesus. Thus it can be
interpreted that Ednas swims in the sea signifies her journey into her newly awakened life. It is also in
the sea that she ends her life, possibly to awaken to a new one.
Like the man stranded on the shore in Ednas imagination, Edna so is trapped within the slim
confines that society, fate, and biology has caged her in throughout most of the novel. Yet in the last
chapter, Ednas pursuit for freedom, symbolized by a final swim in the sea, leads to her final awakening
when she drowns. Her death answers the question- How many souls that perish in its tumult!