The Awakening Essay -- essays research papers

Books, unlike videos, have been around since the beginning of time. For the most part, they are more meaningful than the movies that are made from these books. This is due to the fact that an author is able to convey his/her message clearer and include things in the book that cannot be exhibited in a movie. For this reason, the subscriber of the book is much more make than the viewer of the film. In the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, there is much more license of symbolism as well as deeper meaning than in the movie version of the book, Grand islet. Chopin conveys her symbolic messages through the main characters newly acquired ability to swim, through the birds, through sleep, and through images of the moon. &9Edna Pontellier, the main character of the novel, struggles any summer at Grand Isle to learn to swim. She has been assisted by many people but was always too afraid to swim on her testify. One Saturday night, later be an evening in the hall, Edna swim s out for the archetypal time by herself into the inviting ocean. Realizing how blue-blooded it is and due to her "excited fancy," (Chopin, 30) she accidentally swims out very far. At that moment, "a quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appal and enfeebled her senses." (Chopin, 30) For the start time she comes face to face with death. Those are the events described by the book. The movie, on the some other hand, only shows Edna swimming out, struggling a little, and travel to shore. In addition, the movie doesnt mention the strength and joy Edna feels after this experience. She states that she "never was so exhausted in her life. But it isnt hellishit is like a night in a dream." (Chopin, 31)&9At the end of this story, Edna kills herself by swimming out into the ocean. The movie shows well(p) that, omitting two very significant symbols which are present in the novella. The first of these two symbols is the injured bird tha ts "beating the air above, reeling, fluttering, circling alter down, down to the water." (Chopin, 124) This bird symbolizes Ednas struggle to become the master her own life as well as her failure to achieve this goal. The other symbol is "the old timidity that flamed up for an instant, then sank again." (Chopin 124) This is the same terror she feels when she swims out for the first t... .... Chopin relates Edna to the Sleeping Beauty who has awoken to a new military personnel with a new perception of her surroundings.&9Symbols of the moon are another aspect thats ignored in the movie. During Ednas first solo swim, the author describes how the moon gave her the ply and bravery to keep waiver it "conveyed to her excited fancy." (Chopin, 30) After the swim when Edna is talking to Robert, "strips of moonlight," (Chopin, 32) are visible all around them. They symbolize the untamed feelings Edna has for Robert, her first true love in life. The moonl ight makes her feel "the first throbbings of desire." (Chopin, 32)&9Books, more a lot than not, are better than the movies that are made from them. This is due to the immense power of our imaginations. Readers use their imaginations to fill the space that exists between him/herself and the book with such things as dreams, past experiences, and hopes. For this reason, there is much more depth and symbolic depictions in the novella, The Awakening, by Kate Chopin, compared with the movie version, Grand Isle. Due to this, the effect on the reader is much more potent than the effect on the viewer.