Kate Chopin's "THE AWAKENING"

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening is considered to be one of the earliest feminist novels, acting as major influence for female writers of the nineteenth century. The novel chronicles Edna Pontellier’s quest for independence and self-discovery. The story begins in Grand Isle, the Louisiana resort community where Edna realizes her longing for independence and her dissimilarity and isolation from the Creoles residing at Grand Isle for the summer. While listening to Adele’s piano playing, Edna envisions the following: “…there came before her imagination the figure of a man standing beside a desolate rock on the seashore. He was naked. His attitude was one of hopeless resignation as he looked toward a distant bird winging its flight away from him.” This image is very powerful and symbolic, for there are similarities between Edna’s awakening and isolation and the forlorn man standing near the ocean: they are both experiencing a rebirth or awakening.
A major similarity be...