Birds In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

Journeys through life come in many different forms, yet they all include the same basic progressive steps. They evolve from a dream, to reality, to the inevitable consequences, much like Edna Pontellier. Kate Chopin, in her book The Awakening, utilizes various metaphors of birds to symbolize Edna on her journey, revealing the theme that freedom comes with a price. Chopin opens the book with the description of a caged bird, setting up the metaphor from the start. She describes the bird as a bird that “[hangs] in a cage” and it speaks “a language which nobody [understands]” (Chopin 3). Edna is the caged bird in this metaphor. She feels trapped in her marriage by her husband and kids, as most women are in this time period. Society expects her to never think of herself and always put her family first, like all women in this era; they are all birds trapped within the cage of societal expectations. Edna does not feel “at home in the society of the Creoles” because she has “to hide” her feelings and actions they do not think …show more content…
In one instance, Edna witnesses a “distant bird” that is “winging its flight away” from her (Chopin 27). This vision Edna has is a direct correlation to what she wants to do in her life. She wants to experience freedom and escape from the world that is confining her. She reflects in her “imagination” her “hopeless resignation” she feels down on earth, but the bird gives her hope (Chopin 27). Edna is stuck in an unhappy state because she is living in a place that does not understand her, therefore she has lost hope in regaining any happiness if she continues to live the way she does. She knows she must break free of her bindings and try to go somewhere that will make her happy and express herself freely, away from all her responsibilities. She is caught in a social cage of misunderstanding, therefore her quest for freedom is born within this