The Female Parrot

It is the universally understood that a locked up bird symbolizes imprisonment, the lack of liberty. In The Awakening, a locked up parrot seems to interrupt randomly the events in the novella. As if it were suppose to make a statement.

First time the little parrot comes up:

"A green yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez-Vou-en! Alle vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right! He could speak a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understood, unless it was a mocking beard that hung on the other side of the door, whistling his fluty notes out upon the breeze with maddening persistence" (1). 

Second time the little parrot comes up: "Allez vous-en! Sapristi" shrieked the parrot outside the door. He was the only being present who possessed sufficient candor to admit that he was listening to these gracious performances for the first time that summer" (53).

What does it all mean? Birds out there that wake me up every morning, please enlighten me. 

It seems as if Chopin relates the bird with Mrs. Pontellier, or to be more precise with women, at least those who sought to break the conventional, or even so women that are seeking to break the conventional. A bird just wants to sing, to fly. A cage locks all of its abilities, it avoids it to experiment its liberty. The parrot speaking another language reflects how society tends to misunderstand women, how they simply assume something from them, in the case of the parrot, the fact of it being a pet, neglecting  that there is more to them. Their voice unheard, misunderstood. A constant struggle to make a statement, always ignored. And when they do, people "insist upon having the bird removed and consigned to regions of darkness" (52). Silenced forever, destined to obey the objections of others, acting as expected. Jut like women do.