oh right.

So far in the awakening I have noticed a great deal of talk about the sea. It seems that the sea is where Edna ends up when she is longing for freedom. Whenever she needs relief from the reality of the Grand Isles vacation spot and lavish gatherings she looks towards the sea. In chapter six the sea is described as “sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.” Edna feels this way about the ocean and it shows in many instances where she escapes reality.

            In chapter ten, Chopin talks about Edna’s desire to learn how to swim. I think that this is symbolizing that people who can “swim” are happy and people that are not able to swim, like her, are not free. Free meaning happy. Edna later learns to swim and feels so much freer and I think this connects to her obsession with the sea. The moment she stepped foot in the water “A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.” Clearly, the sea makes her feel powerful even in such a vast scary place. She even looks back at the shore and thinks of her strength and what she has overcome in being different than society. She then feels a close encounter with death as she keeps her gaze on the people at the shore and how far she is. I think it is important that she notices how far she is and feels that encounter with death after she looks back at the people. I think this is much more than her just looking back at her friends. I think is is representative of her looking back at all the changes she has made and how different she is for wanting to be different and full of free thought. I think it is Edna wondering what people might think of her.

            “The water of the Gulf stretched out before her, gleaming with the million lights of the sun. The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander an abysses of solitude. All along the white beach, up and down, there was no living thing in sight. A bird with a broken wing was beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling disabled down, down to the water." The bird imagery is ‘setting up s picture that displays a free thing being not so free and failing at the sight of Edna’s freedom. The bird falls down into the terribly large trap. What is the brids trap is also Edna’s freedom.

            Re-reading this book I have noticed soo many more quotes and important things that I didn’t notice the first time I read it. I think I actually kind of like the book the second time around. It is magically tolerable this time around. J