Summary:
In Kate Chopin's novel "The Awakening," the author symbolizes the oppression and role of women in early American Society with the role of the parrot and the lady in black, among other literary symbols.
Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening in the opening chapter provides the argument for women's entrapment in roles that society has forced upon them. Chopin was not just trying to write an entertaining story but trying to convey arguments against these social injustices. Women are like these birds trapped in these cages unable to free themselves from these imposed roles by society.
Chopin opens her novel with the a parrot in a cage repeating the same phrase over and over. The parrot is pretty to look at, but when the bird speaks it is very annoying. This is the way women were potrayed in the late 19th century restricted to very limited space in society, --- "hung in a cage outside the door" pretty to look at, but annoying because women spoke of the same things over.....
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