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The Awakening Symbolism - Online Term Paper

The Awakening Symbolism

Books, unlike movies, have been around since the beginning of time. For the most part, they are more meaningful than the movies that are made from these books. This is due to the fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the reader of the book is much more effected than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more evidence of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand Isle. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main character’s newly acquired ability to swim, through the birds, through ...

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smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses." (Chopin, 30) For the first time she comes face to face with death. Those are the events described by the book. The movie, on the other hand, only shows Edna swimming out, struggling a little, and returning to shore. In addition, the movie doesn’t mention the strength and joy Edna feels after this experience. She states that she "never was so exhausted in [her] life. But it isn’t unpleasant…it is like a night in a dream." (Chopin, 31)
At the end of this story, Edna kills herself by swimming out into the ocean. The movie shows just that, omitting two very significant symbols which are present in the novella. The first of these two symbols is the injured bird that’s "beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water." (Chopin, 124) This bird symbolizes Edna’s struggle to become the master her own life as well as her failure to achieve this goal. ...

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The Awakening Symbolism. (2008, January 19). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Symbolism/77727

"The Awakening Symbolism." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 19 Jan. 2008. Web. 11 Jan. 2026. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Symbolism/77727>

"The Awakening Symbolism." Essayworld.com. January 19, 2008. Accessed January 11, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Awakening-Symbolism/77727.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 1/19/2008 04:55:23 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1092
Pages: 4

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