Reading Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” Together: Part II

In my previous post, I wrote about the symbolism of the parrot and birds in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and the mule in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, specifically how they represent the positions of Edna Pontellier and Janie Crawford with a patriarchal society. Today, I want to continue that discussion some by moving away from the symbolism of the parrot and the mule and towards specific moments in Edna’s and Janie’s lives that highlight their oppression under both a patriarchal and capitalist mindset that sees each of them as nothing more than objects that their husbands can use to better their own financial standings in society.

Over the course of The Awakening, we see Edna in relation to the caged parrot who warns her, and the reader, to “Allez-vous en! Allez-vous en! Saspristi!” (“Go away! Go away! For heaven’s sake!”) Within the context of the novel, the parrot intones that Edna should leave, should go away and pursue her own dreams and aspirations before it is too late for her to do so. Edna’s husband, Léonce, begins to acknowledge her desire to “find herself” before the couple leaves Grand Isle and returns to New Orleans for the winter, and he also gives Edna some space after the doctor tells him to let her be herself. However…