A Parrot, a Cage, a Woman:

   Since I started my lecture on The Awakening, I´d asked myself the same question: why is there a parrot in the very beginning of the novel? The answer to this enigma has eluded me like a needle in a haystack, so I decided to focus the first second semester reading blog trying to figure it out. 

  

   Then, to find out why did the author used a bird in the first place, I need to realize what birds may represent in literature. So lets see; birds are free, unless they are in cage. They are pretty, they fly, they are admired by people? This seems to be much harder than I thought. Anyway, lets make some theories: 

1. The birds represent the image of women as a trophy for men. Women are exhibited by men as museum pieces, and they are shown as a symbol of power. The prettier the wife, the better man. Even if it seems plausible, there´s no substantial evidence in the text of this supposition, so lets explore another possibilities.
2. Women can fly? No just kidding´ but I only have two real theories so I had to fill some space...
3. The real stuff is that in this book it seems that Mrs. Pontellier has strong anneals of freedom. The bird, parrot, and the cage that contains it are a metaphor of women and society. It seems pretty plausible to interpretate that Mrs. Pontellier is the parrot and that the cage that keeps the parrot is society. In the time the novel takes place, women did not have the freedom they enjoy today, probably because society was ruled in a sexist forbidding manner. Men´s society has total control over women. But lest focus on what IS on the text.

The only evidence of the last possibility I listed in on the first chapter of the novel:

The description that starts at the very first line when the "the green yellow parrot, which hung in a cage (...) the mocking bird that hung on the other side of the door...". These two birds represent Mrs. Pontellier´s current situation of reclusion and her desire of freedom. In other words Mrs. P. wants to be free as a bird. 


Another hint of Mrs. Pontellier´s represed desires is presented in the form of the "language which nobody understood" as it represents the represed female voice in old time society which stoped them from achieving any progress in their lives appart from marriage. 


This matter is really similar to the world of Pride and Prejudice where women were unable to succeed in life. As a matter of fact, the character of Mrs. Pontellier could be compared to the one of elizabeth.