"I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music"-Billy Joel
Reflection: Mulan
"Even as the child she had lived her own small life all within herself. At a very early period she had apprehended instinctively the dual life-that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions" (Chopin 14).
In The Awakening, Kate Chopin describes Edna Pontellier as a woman who constantly struggles with finding her identity. In the Disney movie Mulan, the song "Reflection" states lyrics such as "I'm not meant to play this part", "why is my reflection someone I don't know", and lastly "when will my reflection show who I am inside"? From the reader's standpoint, it's obvious to see how much Edna truly battles with the barriers of society and how she feels about those customs. I feel as though the lyrics from "Reflection" emphasize greatly just how Edna truly does feel on the inside.
Welcome to My Life: Simple Plan
"Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul" (Chopin 31).
Upon laying in the hammock and disobeying her husband Léonce, Edna rises and begins to feel as if everything she wants is and will always be just dreams. While reading I couldn't help but to feel somewhat sorry for Edna. Everyone, including myself, all have aspirations, hopes, and dreams; It was disheartening to read that Edna felt as though hers would never come true. "Welcome to My Life" by Simple Plan contains lyrics that could describe how Edna feels crushed by the reality in which she lives.
King Of Anything: Sara Bareilles
"Edna had once told Madame Ratignolle that she would never sacrifice herself for her children, or for anyone" (Chopin 46).
Throughout The Awakening, Edna was told many times that she was not a "mother-woman" (Chopin 9) by not only her husband, but by others as well. "King of Anything" was the first song that came into mind as I pictured Edna shrugging off the opinions of others pertaining to her skills as a wife and mother.
Worn: Tenth Avenue North
"There were days when she was unhappy, she did not know why-when it did not seem worth while to be glad or sorry, to be alive or dead; when life appeared to her like a grotesque pandemonium and humanity like worms struggling blindly toward inevitable annihilation" (Chopin 56).
Towards the middle of the novel, it becomes increasingly apparent that Edna begins to contemplate many things about her life-specifically life and death. After having her first encounter with the ocean, instead of viewing the ocean as a dangerous place, she chooses to see it as an escape. The song "Worn" by Tenth Avenue North sings of a "heavy heart" and a soul that "feels crushed"; while discovering Edna's mixed emotions, I couldn't help to picture this song as the theme to her life.
Once in a Lifetime: Talking Heads
"She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again" (Chopin 109).
At the end of the story, realizing that "there was no one thing in the world that she desired" (Chopin 108), Edna returned to the one place that brought her solace-the ocean. The song "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads , although upbeat, voices "Into the blue again into the silent water. Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down". As someone who viewed the ocean as "seductive" and a place that invited the "soul to wander in the abysses of solitude", Edna did just as the song said and "let the water hold her down" (Chopin 108).
No comments:
Post a Comment