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Symbolism in kate chopin's the awakening
What is the awakening about
Symbolism in kate chopin's the awakening
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Rebirth in The Awakening
The time Edna spends in water is a suspension of space and time; this is her first attempt at realizing Robert's impermanence. In a strange way, Edna is taking her self as an object of meditation, where at the extremity of self absorption, she should be able to see through her own selflessness. "As she swam she seemed to be reaching for the unlimited in which to lose herself[emphasis added]" (Chopin 74). Edna has left her earthly existence on the shore and looked forward to a new existence, with the "unlimited", or nirvana as a tantalizing prize on the other shore. Her mistake lies in looking back.
When Edna looked back toward the shore, she notices the people she left there. She also notices that she has not covered a great distance. Then a "quick vision of death smote her soul" (Chopin 74), a sense of death that reaffirms her selfhood and reminds her of her clinging to Robert. Her meditation is broken by the wavering of her mind to other objects and senses. Her struggle to regain the shore becomes a kind of near-death experience, at the end of which comes an utter physical exhaustion, a stretching of her self's physical boundary. Edna's intellectual self, the mind, another creation of ignorance, awakens as well. She begins to "feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul" (Chopin 78).
As Edna's fortified ego emerges ashore, her attachment to Robert is strengthened. The intimate moment they share at the end of the chapter bespeaks an "acme of bliss," where "no multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire" (Chopin 63, 77).
After Edna's rebirth from the sea, her sense of self blossoms. She pulls away from the crowd and begins to do as she pleases. Léonce Pontellier's stern command for her to come inside after the swim goes unheeded. Edna realizes that her will has "blazed up, stubborn and resistant." In Buddhist philosophy, the concept of the will is one of the five aggregate that forms the self. Edna's recognition of her will is a good indication that her ego is fully formed, and that in a sense she has moved farther away from achieving nirvana.
... of Florida, under the Electoral College, electoral votes for the candidate running for office receive a plurality of their popular vote. Therefore, whoever gets the majority of the national electoral votes wins the election. Bush won by a narrow margin of these votes resulting in a mandatory machine recount, which afterwards concluded that Bush’s victory margin, was even narrower. This allowed Al Gore to request a recount in the counties of his choice, so naturally he chose the counties whose votes were historically democratic. The uncertainty continued through the circuit courts all the way to The Florida Supreme Court who ruled in Bush v. Gore that there was not enough time to recount the popular vote ballots without violating the United States constitution. The recounting of the ballots would have violated the Fourteenth Amendments “Equal Protection Clause”.
Fox-Genovese also emphasizes this point, when she says that both the feminist and the psychological aspect of “The Awakening,” “must be read together, for the grounds for choosing one rather than the other do not exist” (262). Other women may have, and do, find a way to exist in such a society and be happy with the little freedom they are allowed. Therefore, Edna Pontellier is portrayed a prisoner of her own upper-class society. Her surroundings demand of herself that she conforms to certain feminine ideals, which she however, is not willing to do. This final episode with Edna naked for the first time stresses the idea of rebirth in Edna; she is now "some new-born creature" (113) at the end of her life. Expression becomes a symbol of freedom for Edna. Fox-Genovese’s conclusion about “The Awakening” is that the novel tells the story of the progress in the Edna Pontellier’s character, as well as her mental regression. As Edna discovers the injustice of her male dominated society, rejecting its values, and managing to break away from society’s traditional gender roles, her stories furthermore depict her “psychological regression,” as Fox-Genovese has stated about Edna’s journey in “The Awakening” (262). Edna can only be herself when she is alone, without the
Danger and beauty serve as Edna's first outlook on the ocean. Early in her development, Edna observes the ocean only from a distance. Although intrigued by the sea's beauty and enchantment, Edna shows her discomfort in experiencing the water. She felt a "certain ungovernable dread...when in the water, unless there was a hand near by that might reach out and reassure her." (27) Edna does not really understand her `dread' and totally depends on other people to encourage her to get into the water. At this stage of Edna's awakening, she feels insecure not only about the water, but concerning her life in general.
...he presence of water as the motif in this story facilitates these transformations for Edna. On the Grand Isle, the constant presence of the ocean begins a metamorphosis within Edna that alters her perspective of herself in relation to others. She begins to fulfill her desires and abandon her responsibilities as a wife and mother to her family, in order to pursue a life of independence. Allowing her to fulfill her desires to be a painter and be with Robert. Critical moments of self-reflection for Edna occur in the presence of the ocean. It is at the ocean where she first realizes her desire to be independent. Also the empowering force of the ocean allows Edna to be a dictator of her fate. She ultimately decides to take her life and be free from other’s wants and expectations from her. The water was the catalyst that allowed Edna to be liberated and obtain her desires.
The election took place on Nov 7, 2000. Under our electoral college system each state votes for our new president separately, a winner is then declared in each state and is awarded “electoral votes” that is equal to the states number of representatives in the House and Senate. Gore led Bush 266-246 and 270 votes are required for victory. Florida with 25 electoral votes did not have an official winner because the result was inside of the margin of error for machine counting.
Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” is wrought with symbolism, foreshadowing and careful diction choices. Many of the passages throughout the novel embody Edna’s awakening sense of self-reliance, independence and sexuality. These are sy...
Another aspects of the story is that once Edna’s awakening begins to take place, she is on a roller coaster of emotions, from the manic exuberance of listening to music and the sounds of the water, her connection to robert--it’s as though all her senses are opened up. Between times, however, she is really depressed, as though all the color that Chopin imparts so beautifully in the descriptions of the other scenes, has become dull and uninteresting. Then, she is flung into an emotional upheaval when she reads Robert’s letter to Mlle Reisz, as the latter plays Wagner. Clearly, these kinds of emotions cannot be borne by a woman whose cultural structure does not admit the building of her own that it might sustain the weight and number. She is overwhelmed. She must escape, and she does, for her situation now is powerfully reminiscent of the “joy that kills” in “Hour.”
With her mind already gone, Edna's body begins to swim out into the sea, not caring about what lies ahead: "She did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end." (109)
The Awakening opens when Mr. Pontellier - a businessman- is disturbed by the noise some parrots are doing. They repeat "Allez vous-en!" which means go away. It sounds such as an invitation to Edna to leave her cage of marriage. This is what she is doing in steps throughout the novel. The "parrot" image is very interesting because parrots can be trained to talk, and they repeat only what someone taught them. Edna refuses more and more to follow the rules women are trained in. She starts to look for a self-determined life. In Chapter VI Chopin writes "Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being." She realizes this after going to the beach with Robert for a bath in the sea. The sea and swimming play an important role in this novel. The sea is an archetype of death and rebirth. In the beginning Edna experiences "the touch of the sea" as sensuous, and she seems to feel renewed. At the end she enters the water of the Gulf naked and feels "like some newborn creature." When she dies, it seems that death and rebirth have met and the circle has closed. ( Teachers comment: Something is very wrong with the grammar here).
Like the current beneath its surface, it pulls and tugs at her soul, inviting her to its depths. Edna was attracted to the water, just the same as she was her changes. When she first begins to transition, she was chary and distant, hesitant of its mysterious qualities- she felt the same way towards the ocean. She was not sure why, but she could not resist the temptations of this new fantasy, and she could not stop herself from finding her way back to the water. In her eyes, “the voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation,” (Chopin 33). Edna felt connected to the water; in it, she reached self-actualization and encountered a side of her no one else knew existed...even herself. It was only once its potent seductions drew her in did Edna begin to see and feel the alterations swelling inside her. The true turning point and catalyst in her awakening was her ability to swim on her own. While Edna did attempt to swim before, she was never truly free- she depended on
A number of Americans fail to realize that when they vote they are not voting for the president and vice-president directly, but for electors who then cast their ballots in the Electoral College. Until the recent battle between Gov. George W. Bush and Vice-president Al Gore for the presidency, this new generation of American voters has never witnessed a controversial election. Historically, there have been problematic elections allowing voters to question this system. The Electoral College is now a process open to criticism and debate, specifically because many do not understand its origin or purpose today. On November 7, 2000, Election Day, I was excited to become an official voter. Considering myself mature, responsible, and finally of age to vote, I had mailed my registration, received my voter’s card, ready to become a participant in one of the most crucial events of the year. I was a faithful supporter of my candidate, crossing my fingers in hopes of victory. That night I watched CNN, eating my dinner and sipping a Diet Coke when the station announced Al Gore had won Florida, which held twenty-five electoral votes. Two hundred and seventy are needed to win, and presidential candidates Bush and Gore had switched leads all night.
Roughly fifteen year ago the United States entered into an agreement with its neighboring countries Canada and Mexico. With the incarnation of this intercontinental free trade agreement; the United States acting as the conduit would not only increase trade productivity for itself but, allot its sister nations to the north and south the same advantages. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is beneficial to America because, it encourages the expansion of job opportunities, abolishes taxes and tariffs that can restrict the flow of imports and exports, and supplies the States with goods and services at lower costs causing profits to increase exponentially.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an agreement between America, Canada And Mexico that coincides a triune free trade economic bloc between the three countries. NAFTA was a necessary deal to be made between the North American Nations to compete in the “Economic World Order”. NAFTA was first designed and drafted by American president George Bush senior, Canadian Prime minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican president Carlos Salinas on December the 12th 1992 in San Antonio Texas. NAFTA’S original creators where not the men that finalized the triune trade bloc but instead NAFTA was redrafted to appease all recipients of the deal and its respectful citizens. NAFTA was finalized and singed on December the 8th 1993 by American president Bill Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Mexican President Carlos Salinas. NAFTA came in to full effect on January the 1st 1994. The history of NAFTA and its negative and Positive effect and the necessity of NAFTA will all be explained in this paper.
Edna's awakening begins with her vacation to the beach. There, she meets Robert Lebrun and develops an intense infatuation for him, an infatuation similar to those which she had in her youth and gave up when she married. The passionate feelings beginning to overwhelm her are both confusing and exciting. They lead to Edna beginning to ponder what her life is like and what she is like as a person. The spell of the sea influences these feelings which invite "the soul . . . to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation" (Chopin 57). Edna begins to fall under the sea's spell and begins to evaluate her feelings about the life that she has.
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