SUPRISE!!!!!!!!

In the novel, the ending threw me and I didn’t see it coming at all. I did however see symbolism in the ending as Edna was swimming farther and farther out to sea. She is first swimming away from her responsibilities as a wife and also as a mother, she is leaving behind the people who care about her and making herself no longer responsible for her children and the duties of being a wife. These are the first people that she thinks of as she is swimming away farther into the vast darkness of the ocean.  But then as she is swimming she is washing away her sins and making herself whole again. She is washing away the lust that she had for Robert and the disloyalty she had towards her husband, but more importantly she is washing away her inner thoughts and feelings. “She thought of Leonce and the children (Chopin 156).”  Then she soon after dies. “She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to a sycamore tree. The spurs of the old cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air (Chopin 157).”