Importance of Symbols Essay examples -- English Literature Essays

Importance of Symbols In all novels the use of symbols are what make the story feel so real to the reader. A symbol as simple as a bird can mean so much more then what you see. Whereas a symbol as complicated as the sea, can mean so much less then what you thought. It is a person perception that brings them to the true meaning of a specific symbol. Symbols are message within a word that must be analyzed to discover. In The Awakening, Kate Chopin conveys her ideas by using carefully crafted symbols that reflect her characters' thoughts and futures. Early in the novel, while Edna attempts to escape from society's strong grasp, birds emphasize her entanglement by forecasting her actions and monitor her development by reflecting her feelings. The novel opens with the image of a bird, trapped and unable to communicate: "a green and yellow parrot, which hung in the cage outside the door...could speak a little Spanish, and also a language that nobody understood" (1). Like the bird, Edna feels trapped and believes that society has imprisoned her. Her marriage to Mr. Pontellier suffocates her and keeps her from being free. At the same time, she remains shut apart from society like the bird in the cage, and different ideas and feelings prevent her from communicating. The only person in society that begins to understand her, Robert, eventually decides that he must remain a member of society instead of staying with her. He says that "you [Edna] were not free; you were Leonce Pontellier's wife" and that "[Robert] was demented, dreaming of wild, impossible things...[such as] men who had set their wives free" (108). Robert does not want to do something wild and unacceptable to society. In a situation parallel to that of Edna's, the only bird that understands the parrot is the mockingbird (Reisz) that "[is] whistling its fluty notes upon the breeze with maddening persistence" (1). Because the parrot continues to shriek, people move it away from their society: "[Mr. Farvial] insisted upon having the bird removed and consigned to regions of darkness" (23). Society wants to hide the bird in darkness, as it wants to do to Edna, in order to keep the bird from causing problems. Later, when Mademoiselle Reisz tells Edna that "the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings," she uses birds to forecast Edna's future an... ...ean, naked, returning to the innocence of her childhood. " She felt like some new-born creature" (189). As Edna swims on to her freedom, "She did not look back?but went on and on, thinking of the bluegrass meadow?believing that it had no beginning and no end" (190). It is there in the ocean that she first realizes her physical, mental, and emotional potential. It is only natural that the water, which has seduced her with its sound reclaims her. Edna Pontellier has always abided by social expectations and lived for everyone but herself. In order for her to gain her independence and escape from her trapped state in society she must put all that she has ever known behind her. This last scene symbolizes Edna giving up her life for her freedom. She goes back to where she first got some independence(the sea) and breaks through the cage that held her prison and dies, living solely for herself. Though see lost her life she finally got out of the world see dreaded living in so much. Without symbols a story would be a group of words placed in a sequential, yet pointless order. There would be no such thing of reading for pleasure, for the fact our minds would feel useless without symbols.