IR Journal #2, The Awakening Female, approximately half of the world's population can identify easily with this word. Despite the numbers, women value as a minority despite their importance to all of the human populace. Kate Chopin explicated on the realization a woman reached in her life, a realization of the inequality of her own situation, in The Awakening. Kate Chopin conveys the bearings of women in the 19th century through symbolism. Chopin uses symbolism through cigars that represent masculinity. Women aren't typically allowed to smoke in public or around other people. It is a part of the society that forces women into roles of delicacy that wouldn't interfere with the dirty cigars. Men are seen using cigars throughout the novel, especially when speaking to the women. In one moment, Leonce says directly to his wife, who has asked him to return to bed, that “just as soon as I have finished my cigar” he will return to bed (Chopin 54). The men use the cigars sparingly in situations that a cigar should not be taken out, if only to prove their own masculinity.…show more content… A woman is to be faithful to her husband and stay married with one being. Edna goes against this expectation many times, the sea becomes one of her lovers as well. When Edna is in the sea, she notes that “the touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body”, making the sea appear to be her lover (Chopin 25). The purpose behind this precedent is to insinuate Edna's association with her own desires outside of her married life. The actuality behind the situation does not stand as an affair, nevertheless the sea symbolizes Edna's own empowerment as a women with
