Michelle Ward-- Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Edna Pontellier is a woman of the late 1800’s who is oppressed by the society she lives in. At the beginning of the novel, Edna seems to be just going through the motions of life. She is not taking the experiences that she is in and actually experiencing them. Throughout the text, Edna is awakened to new experiences. She learns how to swim for the first time. Edna learning to swim is a metaphor for the independence she gains from the constraints of society. Edna falls in love with Robert, the “pool boy” of the vacation town. She states within the text that she has never felt so alive. I saw Edna as a character that exemplifies a deep quest for identity. This quest discovers new beauty within the world that she has just simply existed in. Edna finds beauty in a variety of objects. This beauty is discovered in the ocean, the birds and simply the open air. Edna eventually is succumbed by all the splendors in the world. Edna swims out into the ocean, and never returns.