Free Awakening Essays: The Parrot :: Chopin Awakening Essays

The Importance of the Parrot in The wake   Go away Go away For heavens pastime 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 obviously random linguistic process will have in the following tale. Yet, it is not until the final pages that we fill in the birds true importance and meaning. The parrot, though seldom referred to at bottom the text, comes to symbolize Ednas role in party and the charwoman she becomes as she is spiritually awakened. At first impression the parrots gossamer demeanor creates an image of eccentricity. His spirited exclamations give him an air of impertinence, defiance, and intelligence that angiotensin-converting enzyme would not expect of such a bird. Chopin portrays Edna in the same light, viewing that perhaps as the parrot may deviate from the norm, so doe s 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 agreeable in two extra-marital affairs and by placing her own life in the first place those of her children. Her desire to live as she pleases lies in direct opposition to the duties she is anticipate 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 copy 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 being present who possessed sufficient candor to hold that he was not listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer. (23) Edna shows correspondent candor in her unwillingness to accept societys burdening stereotypes. The seemin gly intelligent bird could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood... (1) Though the parrots remarks appear to lead on deaf ears, Edna is one who can identify with his presumable wisdom, as her existence too is misjudged. Both Edna and the parrot are depicted as extraordinary and misunderstood in their surroundings, yet they are not dispense withas the parrot must exist in a cage, so Edna is caged by the restrictions society places upon her.