A thief

I. Evelyn has a superego will not allow her to experience sexual pleasure.

A. Routine
1. Her dress and mannerisms reveal her inhibited nature
2. she speaks with "unflagging diction and meticulous pronunciation;"
3. she even folds her dirty blouse before "placing it in the laundry basket

II. Evelyn's id soon begins to strain against her superego

A. Signs
1. When she sees the cats copulating under the bed, she says, "It is difficult
to ignore this" (18).
2. her id leads her to find an even less morally acceptable outlet
B. Thievery as a substitute for sex
1. Evelyn does manage to escape the guilt her superego would inevitably
attach to an actual sex act.
2. "She [does] not hurry. She behave[s] as if this were an everyday activity,
something that was moral, clean," and she does at least feel "a sharp sting
of satisfaction"
C. The thievery becomes sexual
1. When she steals the bracelet, "she [is] warm with seamless, liquid
pleasure" (19).
2. She feels "heightened, as if charges were racing inexhaustibly over
her nerve endings" (20).
3. She feels "bold and daring," and, perhaps most importantly, she
escapes both the guilt and reservation that her superego had attached
to actual sex because she no longer fears "detection" (21).

III. Evelyn engages in an act which is clearly sexual

A. Sexual activity
1. With a stole pen, in her unoccupied guest house, she writes with the pen, bearing
"down until the pen quivers] in her hand and its tip rip[s] through the page an
obvious metaphor for sexual penetration
2. Having achieved orgasm, she is able to relax; she lays "her cheek to the page and"
sleeps (27).
IV. Evelyn's sexual urges are motivated partly by her unconscious desire to have a baby
A. Reference to children
1. The narrator makes repeated references to children.
 2. The art teacher to whom Evelyn rented the guest house calls her students
her children and herself has a baby boy (25-26).
3. Evelyn's sister stays with her baby boy in the guest house (25)

B. The id finally finds a complete substitute for sex when Evelyn actually steals a baby
1. She tells the baby the house, the house that was shamefully empty, is "a
good house for babies" (30).
2. Unconsciously, she has long desired not just sex, but the product of sex, a
baby.
V. Evelyn fulfilled her sexual desires through thievery and kidnapping

I. The settings have feminine and masculine characteristics

A. United States
1. That the United States town is steeped in masculinity to the exclusion of femininity is
evidenced by the symbolism of the setting as well as by the characters.
2. town is North of Cleófilas's home town; it is upward (erect), implying masculinity.
3. The town has a city hall, an image of masculine rule, outside of which rests a large bronze
pecan. In effect, it is a brass nut, an obviously masculine symbol for which the town
possesses a "silly pride" (50).
B. Mexico
1. life in the United States is less liberating for the Mexican woman than life in Mexico.
2. modern Untied States as a likelier place for a woman to find liberation from oppressive
masculinity than Mexico.
3. The town is South, suggesting the nether regions and therefore femininity.
4. Instead of a city hall, the town has a town center, which implies not masculine
competition and rule but feminine cooperation.
5. Instead of a bronze pecan outside of the city hall, there is a "leafy zócalo in the center of
town" (50), suggesting fertility and therefore femininity.
II. Cleofilas grew up in a feminine family and neighbours
A. Parents
1. her father, who is more feminine than masculine, who seems to have taken over the
mothering role of Cleófilas's deceased mother, making what sounds like a mother's promise:
"I am your father [read mother], I will never abandon you" (43).
2. There are "aunts," and an aunt is someone with both a sibling and a niece or nephew; there
are "godmothers," and a godmother is both someone's friend and someone's protector; and
there is Chela, a "girlfriend," a woman whose identity is based upon a friendship with
Cleófilas, a friendship in which they can relate to one another and share dreams (44).
B. All of her neighbors are women, and all have a sense of identity.
 III. Her marriage is dominated by her husband
A Husband.
1. she must sit "mute beside their conversation"
2. her one solid contact with a world outside her own, "her book" is thrown by her husband
"[f']rom across the room" (52).
3. the U.S. town, the ice house has taken the place of the church, and so men have taken the
place of God.
4. . In the masculine town of the United States, she has no option but to submit to the male
domineering of her husband.
IV. Cleofilas chose to go back to Mexico where she has a variety of dependency options as well as
opportunities for independence

I. The characters are represented by symbols

A. Blue
1. Adele Ratignolle eyes are cold looking and full of calm, eternity, potentiality, and
emptiness
B. Red
1.. Adeles red lips symbolizes her feminity
C. Fountain
1. imply that motherhood has become monotonous for the newly awakened and liberated
Edna; but it may also suggest that her new beginning (which feminist critics consider to possess
more genius, power, grace, and good fortune than her old, conventional life) is in reality simply
monotonous, and that she deceives herself when she considers the domestic bliss of Adèle to be
a "hopeless ennui," because the greater monotony is found in Edna's self-absorption.
D. Yellow
1. Edna's shattering of the vase, then, could conceivably symbolize that she is throwing
away a perfectly good life with a decent husband because of her misguided feminist notions.
E. Cat
1. Edna's association with the cat may (like her breaking of the vase) symbolize her
misuse (her ignorant rejection) of her life as a wife and mother.
F. Leaves
1. The fact that Edna is picking "dead, dry leaves" may symbolize her bad fortune (i.e.
her eventual suicide), which results from her rejection of the group, that is, the community of Creoles
(561).
G. Moon
1. Thus, Edna's "awakening" may be seen as something artificial; not a bird soaring
high, as Madame Reisz desired her awakening to be, but an "unhealthy
imagining," a self-deception, which grows out of her sexual laxity.
 H. Rings
1. he rings may symbolize Edna's feeling of isolation within the Creole community to
which she is bound by marriage.
2. Thus, the ring may symbolize that Edna can not free herself from the bonds she has
formed, and her only escape, if she must insist on escape, is suicide.
I. Dog
1. barking of the dog might symbolize Edna's purification; by devouring herself through
suicide, she wisely escapes a conventional life, and thus becomes master of herself through death.
J. Bee
1. This implies that Edna's "awakening" is indeed a positive intellectual experience. On
the other hand, the hum of the bees may be a cruel irony; for "bees collectively ensure the survival of
their species," and Edna, having removed herself from the community, can now no longer survive.
K. Bird/Wing
1. Thus, it is possible that the bird with the broken wing in the suicide scene may
symbolize either Edna's mental distraction and consequent inability to sacrifice for her children or her
failure to liberate her soul and free herself from convention by continuing to live an awakened life. The
latter view may be supported by the symbolism of WINGS, which are "an expression of rising to the
sublime and of striving to transcend the human condition." But again, if "the human condition" is
viewed as innately sinful, and pride is the original sin, then the broken wing could represent Edna's
failure to transcend her pride by sacrificing herself for her husband and children.
L. Waves
1.