Close Reading: The Awakening Chapter I-XIII In the story, the birds symbolize women and flight represents freedom. The birds are in a cage which inhibits their flight; this can be compared to women in captivity lacking freedom. What’s important to point out is that the bird, specifically the one mentioned in the passage, speaks a language that only other birds can understand.
On a literal way the poem is describing how a bird tries to escape from a room because it is lock in it, which is a dramatic situation, as it is described in the poem. The first interpretation, is that “she” will be free when “she” dies, as every time “she” tries to reach freedom fails “And leads to ample space, the only Heav’n of Birds”. The second is more pessimistic as it concludes that “she” will never be free, as every time “she” tries to reach that freedom there is a hindrance or it is not what she expected. Another interpretation would be that “she” thinks that there is a world out there because “she” can see it, but every time “she” tries to get to that world “she” fails so “she” realises that it is a bogus
This theme is subtly shown throughout the story, but becomes more apparent after the main event, the slaughter. After Date Bed is presumed missing, Mud, despite the fact that she is not of She-S blood, shows concern for her friend and adopted family member throughout the story – “It is just as well that Mud’s thoughts can’t be heard because what she is thinking is, “I’m the one who loves her. None of you loves her as I do,” and the uselessness of her love arouses her to such a pitch of anguish that she thinks of returning to the plain and searching for Date Bed on her own” (Gowdy, 105). The other She-S’s feel the same way as well – She-Snorts states, “I would not go to The Safe Place…knowing that Date Bed might still be alive and lost” (Gowdy, 249). If the She-S’s didn’t care for their family as much, they would have abandoned all thought of Date Bed and wouldn’t bother searching for her.
The number one clue, the bird. One example of what the bird symbolizes would be Minnie’s, the wife of the murdered man’s, freedom. Birds have a choice to soar up into the sky and still have the freedom to return to earth again when they please. Minnie used to have freedom when she was able to make her own decisions about life before Mr. Wright was introduced. “...she used to sing real pretty herself” (Glaspell 185).
In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, birds symbolize Edna Pontellier’s journey toward ultimate freedom. In the beginning, birds represent Edna feeling trapped and oppressed. For instance, the opening of the novel includes a parrot in a cage squawking at Leonce to ‘go away.’
Harry Flournoy is argued to represent the ideals and actions of Maya Angelou through the things he says. Maya Angelou writes in her emotional story I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, “I wouldn’t look at either of them … Mrs. Flowers had known that I would be embarrassed and that was even worse … It would be fitting if I got sunstroke and died before they came outside. Just dropped dead on the slanting porch.” Maya Angelou, near the beginning of her is insecure and lets go of her dreams and ambitions because of the challenges and roadblocks being thrown at her.
Turtle is very good at tricking people an example is when she takes the blame for the bombings so Angela won't have to, losing her important braid in the process. Turtle is a good sister, and she tries to be a good daughter but her mother seems to prefer her sister over her no matter what she does. Her mother may treat her like the lesser child that has only made Turtle strong where Angela's weak and confident in ways the other women in her family are not. Turtle also makes every one of the heir’s believe that the game was not won by anyone so that they would stop playing and she could win the game. Convinces
Love is an involuntary factor that many people have come across in life. In the novel The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd, the main character Lily, has an internal conflict with her mother which affects how open she is to love. Lily grew up with her father and the culpability of her mother's death.(more info) She was raised with a harsh understanding of love due to the lack of love given to her all throughout her life, for she was more open to love because she hasn't doted as a child. However, Lily found love through the Daughter of Mary, the Boatwright sisters, and Rosaleen, who later taught her how to love herself.
In the awakening, caged birds serve as a reminder of Edna’s entrapment. The parrot insists that everyone “go away, for God sake”. Similarly Edna begins to desire solitude, pushing away her husband in order to find herself. Like the caged bird, Ednas movements are limited by societal expectations.
In the beginning she say’s that she liked to see just like everyone else: “Before I got my eye put out – I liked as well to see, As other creatures, that have eyes – And know no other way –”. She talks about different views she misses seeing but then she says that being able to see all of these things can ‘strike her dead’. In the last stanzas she says: “So safer – guess – with just my soul, Opon the window pane, Where other creatures put their eyes – Incautious – of the Sun –”. She is explaining that she is not cautious of the sun’s brightness affecting her sight because she lost her vision
In the short story Trifles, author Susan Glaspell uses metaphors and symbolism to illustrate the message that people can lose their humanity/identity/individuality when isolated and forced to suppress what they want for enormous periods of time. Because Mrs. Wright was always cooped up in her farm and housework she rarely got to see other people so one day bought a bird to keep her company and put it in a birdcage in her house. Eventually the bird was murdered by Mr. Wright and that 's when Mrs. Wright snapped. The bird was like an extension of Mrs. Wright because “She was kind of like a bird herself-- real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery. ”(page 9)
Because the screen displayed some short about blue birds, it distracted me from whatever I complained about before. I ultimately lost my attention when the actual movie started and let the colors on the screen pour out on me. Most of the time, I simply sat there, until the sledding scene started. My curiosity caused me to turn my head around and see something spectacular: a smaller, backwards screen! Whatever I was watching was not real.
it was around these times that skull also developed the alter mine set for when she was doing her readings. In way, it just really happened. This probably is due to the fact the James would laugh during the harassment in occasions. it seemed like no matter what the shy girl did, or try to do, nothing worked and nothing stopped the unpleasant touch (and she still refused to tell her parents and the police) she slowly began to "undeveloped" , as her teachers, and eventually her parents, called it. she didn 't grow out of the stuff animals, but in fact she wanted more.
Nevertheless, Lily was able to prevail her mental incarceration and come to terms with her mother’s death. With accepting who her mother was and what had happened, Lily was able to move forward with her life at the Boatwright’s house. Throughout The Secret Life Of Bees, Lily struggles to find how to live life freely, like many people do. She is constantly restrained by her problems.
She lingered around to watch over them; saw all the tragedies in their lives and witnessed their choices of passing, if they even were granted the choice that is. Peach and Sun, two of her children, were able to pass because of their lighter skin and opportunities to leave the plantation. It seemed to be permanent passing how they left and never came back to get the rest of their siblings, however, in the end they did come back to see their sister, Always, after the war. Always was unable to pass, for her skin was too dark. However, she made it so her youngest son, Doak Jr., could pass by switching him with a “white-born” child that was the same age as him.