Free Awakening Essays: The Parrot :: Chopin Awakening Essays

The Importance of the Parrot in The Awakening   Go away Go away For heavens sake Thats all right (1) Chopin opens her poetic novella, The Awakening, not with the dialogue of a character, but with the ramblings of a brash parrot. Immediately, Chopin compels her readers to ponder what significance, if any, these seemingly random words will defend in the following tale. Yet, it is not until the final pages that we recognize the birds true importance and meaning. The parrot, though seldom referred to within the text, comes to symbolize Ednas economic consumption in society and the woman she becomes as she is spiritually awakened. At first impression the parrots bold demeanor creates an image of eccentricity. His spirited exclamations pull in him an air of impertinence, defiance, and intelligence that one would not expect of such a bird. Chopin portrays Edna in the same light, showing that perhaps as the parrot may divert from the norm, so does Edna, who digresses from the society in which she lives. She does not conform to the image of a typical woman in society, playing the roles of a devoted mother and wife. Edna ignores these standards by engaging in two extra-marital affairs and by placing her own life before those of her children. Her desire to live as she pleases lies in direct opposition to the duties she is evaluate to perform, and she refuses to put on this performance to satisfy society. As a result, Edna seems as brazen and audacious as the parrot that obviously does not mimic the sounds he hears and instead seems to create his own. Again squawking, Go away Go away at the bothersome piano playing of two girls, Chopin writes, He was the only macrocosm present who possessed sufficient candor to admit that he was not listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer. (23) Edna shows similar candor in her involuntariness to accept societys burdening stereotypes. The seemingly intelligent bird could speak a little Spanis h, and also a language which nobody understood... (1) Though the parrots remarks appear to fall on deaf ears, Edna is one who can identify with his presumable wisdom, as her existence too is misjudged. Both Edna and the parrot ar depicted as extraordinary and misunderstood in their surroundings, yet they are not freeas the parrot must exist in a cage, so Edna is caged by the restrictions society places upon her.