In the "Awakening" by Kate Chopin, Edna Ponteiller discovers that she has an internal conflict between who she must be and who she wants to be. Chopin demonstrates the shift from being one Edna to another when she begins to swim. When she accomplished to swim it worked as a metaphor in relationship to her internal conflict. In my life I have discovered that swimming, just like Edna works as an escape from reality, it is when we are "free.
Chopin portrays Edna as a women who is not content with her life situation. Her marriage isn't as successful as she would like to, she didn't like to be told what to do, nor watch for her children like other mothers such as Madame. Rotignolle did. She lives in a time where women have to have certain behaviour so that they are accepted by society, but Edna, although she has love for her family she isnt the exact role model for what society expects from her.
There are many times in the novel where the reader listens to Edna's thoughts, and is able to realize that her strange actions, such as staying outside of her house and sleeping at her porch is not because she´s crazy, its due to her internal conflict that when she can swim her duality disappears and she starts listening to her heart. At that moment there is a shift from being the Edna society wanted to see and the one that she wants to be. Swimming can work as a metaphor in the novel, in which it acts as if swimming was Edna's real personality but she didn't know how to manage it. She practiced swimming until she realized that it was something that she could do, just like her uprising personality. She knew that it was inside of her, she just had to put it into practice. When she was able to swim, it demonstrated her that she could stand up for her beliefs and that although she might of "felt death" she still found it "easy and natural", meaning that if she follows her heart it will have its consequences, but she believes in them so much that it will become natural to her, she can do it.
Swimming wasn't only an escape for Edna but it has also been an escape for me. I used to be in the swimming team about an year and a half ago, and it was an escape from the stress of school, and although it wasn't an easy task dealing with school and swimming it was where I mostly felt myself and free. When I swim its only me and the water, I don't hear a sound and it is a moment where I still reflect about my life and who I am as a person, just like Edna. Although her thoughts were different from mine I can understand how swimming helped her realize that she could be the person she desired because swimming demonstrated me many things. There were times where I felt tired, frustrated, I simply wasn't happy with my reality and while I swam I would talk to myself and see how I could change my reality for what my heart wanted just like Edna.
Ever since Edna learned how to swim she has been changing her reality for what she desires, just like when she stayed outside of her house even though her husband told her to "come in". She started to stand up for herself and started to stop her husband from oppressing her. She has been taking baby steps in order to change her reality, but I am sure that she will be able to change it completely just like I have changed it various times for the better.
We must listen to our hearts.
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