Essay about Importance of the Ocean in Chopin's Awakening

Now that the young girl is in the sea, we being to hear the theme of

Oceans cover most of the Earth. They are essential for our environment since they produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Without our vast sea, humankind would not be able to survive. In Annie John, written by Jamaica Kincaid water is demonstrated as a motif in the literature showing the coming-of-age story of a young girl in the Caribbean. The protagonist, Annie, grows up learning how to properly balance the values of the colonial world and the native Caribbean culture, Obeah through her mother’s parenting. Kincaid uses the motif of water as a tool of empowerment to Annie’s growth by curing, nurturing, and transforming her.

Oceans cover most of the Earth. They are essential for our environment since they produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere. Without our vast sea, humankind would be unable to survive. In Annie John, written by Jamaica Kincaid water is demonstrated as a motif in the literature showing the coming-of-age story of a young girl in the Caribbean. The protagonist, Annie, grows up learning how to properly balance the values of the colonial world and the native Caribbean culture, Obeah through her mother’s parenting. Kincaid uses the motif of water as a tool of empowerment to Annie’s growth by curing, nurturing, and transforming her.

A third parallel seen through the relationship between Mademoiselle Reisz and Madame Pontellier is their aversion to the water. Although Edna sees the sea as "whispering, clamoring, murmuring (and ) inviting," (13) toward the beginning of the novel, she is hesitant to completely submerge herself in it. This can be logically explained in that she cannot swim. However, she continues to walk along the shore and place her feet in the tide, but other than that, before she learns to swim, that is the extent of her bathing experience. Mademoiselle Reisz is also described to have some sort of physical aversion to the sea as well. This can be seen when she blatantly refuses to follow Edna to the water claiming that she hasn’t "been in the surf all summer," and that to bathe in it at the end of the season would be pointless. (48)

Seas (line 18 and 19): is also appearing twice. Life is often symbolized as water. Therefore she accepts to be judged by life because she decided of someone else’s right to live. ‘Sea’ in

This is the point in the story where Edna starts listening to her voices inside her gives into her inner desires. She continues to struggle with the fact that she married out of convenience and she has two sons that she really does not want to mother as well as the fact that she loves being an artist. In chapter x, Edna goes to the sea only to realize that all her swimming lesson had finally paid off that summer and she was swimming. Chopin describes this even like a baby finally getting enough confidence to walk and the baby walks realizing its own strength and power. While swimming, she soon gets tired and has quick feeling overcome her of the possibility of drowning but quickly swims back to shore. She has conquered her greatest fear and now feels like a new woman that is no longer afraid of her true feelings. Edna’s affair with Robert continues and he eventually leaves Grand Isle and her and her family returns home.

She is moved by music. During that summer Edna sketches to find an artistic side to herself. She needs an outlet to express who she is. Edna feels that art is important and adds meaning to her life. After the summer is over and they are back to the city and Edna is a changed woman. She makes many steps towards independence. She stops holding "Tuesday socials", she sends her children to live in the country with their grandparents, she refuses to travel abroad with her husband, she moves out of the Lebrun house on Esplanade Street, and to earn money, she starts selling her sketches and betting the horses. She also starts a relationship with another man Alcee Arobin. He meant nothing to her emotionally but she used him for sexual pleasure. Edna evolved above her peers she did not believe that sexuality and motherhood had to be linked. The last step of her "awakening" is the realization that she can not fulfill her life in a society that will not allow her to be a person and a mother. Edna commits suicide in the ocean at Grand Isle.

I think this song perfectly explains Edna’s emotions of feeling trapped in her society as well as Edna’s draw toward the seductive voice of the sea. In this song, Moana talks about how she wishes she could fit into her society by fulfilling her expected roles within her family and community, but she can’t. Similarly, Edna really wants to be the perfect mother and wife at the beginning of the novel, but deep down she knows that she is not meant to play those roles. Edna lives in a society that, like Moana’s, is very “by design” in that it has certain roles that are meant to be fulfilled by certain people. Women are expected to be perfect mothers to their children while appeasing to the demands of their husbands. All women are expected to fill

Edna's feelings of despondency fade as the sea's spell reaches out for her again. The narrator points out that "[the] voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in

In the story about Edna Pontellier a major theme is her omitted self discovery. In the story we can see how Chopin uses style, tone and content to make the reader understand how it was for a person challenging many of the beliefs of the society at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Edna reassesses her spirit more and more as the novel proceeds, with her finally reaching the maxim when committing suicide. At the beginning of the novel she is completely

    The Awakening, written by Kate Chopin, is full of ideas and understanding about human nature. In Chopin's 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 Edna's suicide, and awakenings play important roles in the analysis of all critics.

Ranging from caged parrots to the meadow in Kentucky, symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide a deeper meaning than the text does alone. Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and setting recur representing Edna’s current progress in her awakening. The reader can interpret these and see a timeline of Edna’s changes and turmoil as she undergoes her changes and awakening.

For Edna, swimming represents freedom. When she learns to swim, "A feeling of exultation [overtakes] her, as if some power of significant import [has] been given her to control the working of her body and her soul" (73). Because Robert is the one who teaches her how to swim, he is seen as her liberator. She fears the water, just as she fears freedom. When she does taste freedom, she desires more of it. This is paralleled when she learns to swim. "She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before" (73). Robert aids in her independence, but

When first reading “The Little Mermaid”, the reader is sure to notice the imagery painted by Anderson. He finds a way to make a place we see as dark and abysmal, the sea floor, seem bright, vibrant, and full of joy. One sentence Hans Christian Andersen writes, “The most wonderful trees and plants are growing down there, with stalks and leaves that bend so easily that they stir at the very slightest movement of the water, just as though they were alive” (216), perfectly exemplifies this imagery. It is also important to take note of how the imagery changes by location. In the part of the sea where the witch lives, the imagery evokes the feeling of gloom and loneliness that one would naturally expect from the sea floor. Above the surface of the ocean, in the human world, the author uses imagery that quite frankly blows the beauty of our world out of proportion. Andersen writes, “The whole sky had looked like gold, she said, and the clouds—well, she just couldn’t describe how beautiful they were as they sailed, all crimson and violet, over her head.” (218) This makes something we find trivial seem like something everyone must see before they die. While some may view this as odd, it is important to consider that the story centers around a mermaid who has never seen these things before.