In The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the sea acts as a general symbol that pervades the novel, clarifying both the internal and external lives of the characters, in particular of the protagonist, Edna Pontellier. The sea is a physical representation of Edna Pontellier's inner turmoil as she awakens to the realization of herself as an independent being and how that being relates to the larger world around her; for “a certain light began to dawn faintly within her” (Chopin 14). It is in the embrace of the sea that Edna's awakening and her transformation are completed. For Edna, the sea embodies the polarities of her struggle. He is the supreme lover; in its dark depths he finds comfort, solitude, a sensual touch and the calming antidote to his mental anguish. The sea is where Edna can retreat from the world she knows into the world she is discovering as she awakens to the contours of her own soul. Even the sea is terrifying, overwhelming and limiting and Edna must learn to overcome her fears towards it. Finally, cradled by the silent rhythms of the sea, Edna is finally able to listen to her own internal monologue and take control of her life. Chopin, like Mark Twain with his classic American novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” finds in the sea – or the river, in Twain's case – a perfect substitute for his protagonist's desires and fears. Like Edna, Huck Finn struggles to find his place within the constraints of society and longs for the freedom and comfort of the open river. While Huck embodies the point of view of a teenage boy and Edna, an adult woman, both seek the freedom to be defined on their own terms. Kate Chopin opens and closes the novel with the sea: “The voice of the sea is seductive; without stopping, where... in the middle of the paper... the voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensual, it envelops the body in its soft and tight embrace. The sea imitates not only Edna's agitation, but also the sensual touch of Edna's illicit lover, Robert. But Chopin's sea also has a force of its own, mysterious and dangerous. “…the body of water behind her took on the appearance of a barrier that her strength alone would never be able to overcome.” (Chopin 28) The call of water, of nature, is also taken up by Mark Twain in his classic novel, “Huckleberry Finn”. For the child, the woman in severe society, the slave of the gangplank, both Chopin and Twain suggest that water provides a gateway to another way of life, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Water is the force of nature powerful enough to break the chains of Edna's imprisonment, from which, once awakened, Edna can never return.