Kate Chopin wrote this book “The Awakening” using a lot of symbolism such as The Sea, The Houses, and The Birds that she refers to many times in the book, to translate the meaning of the book. The meaning of the book is that a women can change from someone very obedient, traditional to someone self-realized, sexually liberated and independent women. The sea was an excellent representation of the meaning because what the sea meant and the main reason the representation is in the book.
The sea has many different interpretations for what it actually means but one meaning stands out as the overall meaning: rebirth. The sea means rebirth because of how she changed from one point of the book to the end of the book. Edna was an obedient, traditional wife and mother in the beginning of the book. Basically listening to everything her husband tell her to do. Then, Robert came along and pushed her to rebel against her current life by talking her into conquering her fear of the water. Since that night, she started to changed more and more into an independent woman. The sea can be also be interpreted as being freedom because the water can sometime be a place of peace. Meaning that Edna place of peace because that was the only place that her current life did not matter and where she could actually think and unleash her feeling that she often kept bundle inside of herself.
The author had many different purposes of putting this symbol within the book to translate the meaning, to show the reader that she is independence, and to teach the reader to know your limits and the consequences if you go beyond those limits. The author translated the meaning by making the reader think of what exactly the sea represented and having good plot to tell the meaning of the sea. The author showed that she was independent by telling the reader that she had disobeyed her husband for the first time. That shows that the sea had changed her into an independent women.