"The Awakening" opens with the sounds of a parrot squawking in a cage from outside the house. He was accomplishing nothing more but disrupting the atmosphere around him. At a first impression the parrot's bold demeanor creates an image of eccentricity. His spirited exclamations give him the impression of being defiant and intelligent, something most people would not expect from this type of bird. Edna is portrayed in the same light. She deviates the norm just like the parrot does. Edna does not conform to the typical image of women in her society by not fulfilling the roles of a mother and wife. The squawking caged parrot i

Louisa, the woman from "The New England Nun", deals with the fact that she has been engaged since she was a young lady throughout this story. She has spent her whole life by herself waiting for the day Joe, her future husband, would be ready to be married. Something she was only doing for society's sake. Every time this man comes to visit he causes her small canary into hysteria. "A little yellow canary that had been asleep in his green cage at the south window woke up and fluttered wildly, beating his little yellow wings against the wires. He always did so when Joe Dagget came into the room" (Freeman 561). This is very symbolic of how Joe disrupts Louisa's life. The whole time he is at her house the bird is insanely wild and as soon as he leaves peace is restored. Due to Louisa being alone for so long she is now set in her ways and used to the way she lives her life.

In many stories symbolism is used through animals to express a characters situation and feelings. Not only did both these stories use birds and dogs as symbols, but they also used them in the same context. Both women did not want to be chained down like the dogs; they wanted to be free like the birds. Even though these stories were not meant to be similar they were connected through their symbolic message.

Edna's desire to be free eventually led her looking for a new place to live, a place just for her. The pigeon house was perfect for her desire of freedom. "There was with her a feeling of having descended in the social scale, with a corresponding sense of having risen in the spiritual. Every step which she took toward relieving herself from obligations added to her strength and expansion as an individu

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Approximate Word count = 1143
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)