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Use of Metaphors in The Awakening

This paper will discuss author Kate Chopin's use of description in her novel, The Awakening. The paper will place particular emphasis upon the metaphorical relationship which Chopin has created between the novel's protagonist, Edna Pontellier, and nature.

We first meet Mrs. Pontellier as she approaches her summer cottage from the beach at Grand Isle. She is revealed to the reader through the eyes of Mr. Pontellier, her husband, as he watches her white sunshade "advancing at a snail's pace from the beach" (6). Edna Pontellier is thus identified with nature from the very moment she is introduced into the book. Kate Chopin goes on to describe the natural beauty of the setting: Edna and Robert Lebrun walk "between the gaunt trunks of the water oaks and across the stretch of yellow camomile. The gulf looked far away, melting hazily into the blue of the horizon" (Chopin 7).

The association of Edna Pontellier with nature stands in sharp contrast to the relationship which her husband, Mr. Pontellier, shares with the natural world. Indeed, the book opens with Mr. Pontellier being so annoyed by the chatter of a parrot that he is forced to leave the main house for his cottage, where he can read his newspaper in peace (5). This is a man who is disturbed by the country life: he is dependent on his day-old newspaper to inform him of the world outside Grand Isle, and for recreation he favors a game of billiards at Klein's hotel where he can socialize with other New Orleans businessmen. He is not at ease in the rustic Grand Isle environment.

In his first words to Edna, Mr. Pontellier chides her for choosing an inappropriate time to bathe, and he goes on to berate her for the sunburn she has acquired. He looks at her as "at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage" (7). It is thus clear from the outset of the book that the urban-oriented materialist perspective of Mr. Pontellier will eventually clash with Edna's...

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Use of Metaphors in The Awakening. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:38, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1682731.html