My immediate reaction to this piece is that it read like a bitter-sweet acceptance of life. I kept being reminded of the phrase, Once you let the genie out of the bottle there’s no way to put it back in. The story hit me as someone who recognizes that complete freedom and liberation come with a price as much as always being caged and pampered “The door which accident had opened is open still, but the cage remains forever empty!” (Chopin 178).
To me, this story is about free-will, knowledge, and wisdom. In the beginning, the animal is caged, knows its boundaries, and has food and other needs well-met. However, once exiting the cage and discovering the world outside of this pampered if trapped existence, the animal begins to see there is a price for the freedom. With joy comes suffering, and to find one must always seek “So does he live, seeking, finding, joying and suffering” (Chopin 178).
I think the author uses allusion and metaphor to tell her story. The animal represents the human animal, while the story mirrors man’s fall from grace and the story of original sin from the Bible. The caged animal with all its needs met is like content Adam and Eve in paradise before the fall. After wisdom of good and evil is gained from Eve eating the apple, the couple is never able to go back to garden (i.e. cage) and they must experience suffering and labor like the animal does now to get his food and comforts “Hungering there is no food but such as he must seek and ofttimes fight for; and his limbs are weighted before he reaches the water that is good to his thirsting throat” (Chopin 178).
The author may have used this Christian allusion to tell her story because of its dominance during her lifetime. This dominance may have been confining to the author, even though it brought comfort to many (much as the animal in the story is not content with the pampered cage existence). This may be in p
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