The importance of the parrot in awakening"Go away! Go away! For heaven's sake! Everything is fine!" (1) Chopin opens his poetic short story, Awakening, not with the dialogue of a character, but with the ramblings of an impetuous parrot. Immediately, Chopin forces his readers to think about what, if anything, these seemingly random words mean in the following tale. Yet it is only in the final pages that we recognize the true importance and significance of the bird. The parrot, although rarely mentioned in the text, symbolizes Edna's role in society and the woman she becomes as her spiritual awakening progresses. At first glance, the parrot's bold attitude creates an image of eccentricity. Its lively exclamations give it an air of impertinence, defiance and intelligence that one would not expect from such a bird. Chopin portrays Edna in the same light, showing that perhaps as the parrot can deviate from the norm, so can Edna, who deviates from the society in which she lives. She does not fit society's image of a typical woman, playing the role of a devoted mother and wife. Edna ignores these norms by engaging in two extramarital affairs and placing her own life before that of her children. Her desire to live as she pleases is in direct opposition to the duties she is expected to perform, and she refuses to engage in this performance to satisfy society. As a result, Edna seems as brazen and bold as the parrot who obviously does not imitate the sounds he hears and instead seems to create his own. Shouting again: “Go away! Go away! » At the awkward piano of two young girls, Chopin writes: “He was the only one present who possessed enough frankness to admit that he was not listening to these graceful performances for the first time that summer. » (23) Edna demonstrates the same frankness in her reluctance to accept society's heavy stereotypes. The seemingly intelligent bird "could speak a little Spanish, and also a language that no one understood..." (1) Although the parrot's remarks seem to fall on deaf ears, Edna is the one who can s identify with its presumed wisdom, like its existence. is also poorly judged. Both Edna and the parrot are described as extraordinary and misunderstood in their environment, but they are not free: just as the parrot must exist in a cage, Edna is confined by the restrictions that society imposes on her..