Achieving Humanity through Animality: A Study of the Birds in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

Abstract

ABSTRACT Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening explores the interconnection between animality and humanity by means of various bird metaphors. In the novel, Edna Pontellier’s ‘evolutionary’ self-perception of birds, namely, ‘the caged parrot’, ‘the pigeon’ and ‘the flying bird’, not only signifies the unshackling of her animality through the arousal of innate animal instinct, but also embodies the establishing of her subjectivity as a human being. Illuminated by animality studies, this article argues that Edna’s awakened animality is essentially her realisation of humanity, which not only breaks through the human-animal dichotomy underlying anthropocentric ideology, but also disrupts the man-woman dichotomy underlying patriarchal ideology. Thus, Edna’s multi-dimensional awakening is conducive to promoting gender equality in the current post-human context.