Kate Chopin s The Awakening And Jon Krakauer s Into The...

Nabeela Mian Mrs. Cohen American Literature, E Block September 8, 2014 Of Nature, The Liberating Destroyer (Question 2) In both Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, nature is paradoxically symbolized as both a liberator and a destroyer- intellectual maturation and hubris- through the â€Å"awakenings† of Edna Pontellier and Chris McCandless. The ocean, represented in Chopin’s novel, underscores liberation through nonconformity and independence, but also destruction through its solitude and waves of uncontrollable power. For instance, when Edna embarks on a boat excursion to the Chà ªnià ¨re Caminada for mass, Chopin reveals that Edna felt as if â€Å"she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her fast, whose chains had been loosening...leaving her free to drift whithersoever she chose to set her sails† (Chopin 34). Thus, Edna’s first outing away from the Grand Isle serves to awaken her in the sense of sailing away from the limitations of societal norms in which she feels trapped. This is further underscored through Chopin’s symbolic use of an anchor, as it represents the heavy weight of which Edna feels burdened by societal customs. In addition, Edna reveals to Robert that she has â€Å"been seeing the waves and the white beach of Grand Isle† (Chopin 100) while he was away in Mexico. Waves are often associated with uncontrolled activity; as such, the ones of which Edna speaks of may symbolize that her rebellion against