Edna Pontellier is always searching. She always looks for freedom, individuality, and self-identity. At the beginning of Chopin's The Awakening Edna is portrayed as a regular New Orleans woman of high society, vacationing on the Grand Isle. But she searches for something she can't identify, something Edna can't name. What Mrs. Pontellier is looking for are key elements to her soul. She is "awakened" by many things, such as learning to swim and beginning to hear and respond to the voice of the sea, and these catalysts lead her on "a quest for freedom" (Eichelberger, n.p). Edna discovers along her journey that "choice defines freedom" (Jago 52) and this changes her, mentally and physically. These changes can be described as akin to the moods and capriciousness of the sea. The use of the sea in Chopin's The Awakening symbolizes the changes in Edna Pontellier and her search for...