Caged Birds In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

In the novel The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, caged birds are used throughout the story to symbolize Edna’s journey from entrapment to freedom, to then losing hope. A caged bird, a free bird and a broken winged bird all relate to her journey as an enlightened person, wanting freedom but feeling a lack of hope. During Edna’s gradual awakening, the caged birds are used to symbolize her feeling of imprisonment by a male dominated society, in which she tries to overcome to have her own freedom. In the beginning of the novel, caged birds are used to represent her lack of freedom and her entrapment by society. The novel takes place during the Victorian Era, in which many women were not allowed to think or act on their own and their job was merely to care for the health and happiness of their families. In the first sentence, a Parrot squawks, “Allez vous-en! Sapristi!” as it sits in a cage, being ignored by Mr. Pontellier. It's literal entrapment represents Edna’s figurative imprisonment, both being something they cannot control. The Parrot is speaking nonsense to others, yet the caged
She moves out of her house, leaving her husband and children behind, into a small little house, coincidentally called the “Pigeon House” This small house is her new nest, similar to a birds nest, in which she can keep her own belongings. A women living on her own was very rare for Victorian woman, which represents her flight from the cage that society has set around her. Mademoiselle Reisz was similar to a mother bird, teaching her young chicks how to fly and live on there own. She says “The bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings”. Even though Reisz wants Edna to succeed on living on her own and having freedom, she foreshadows the possibility of Edna failing and losing faith in