Vocalize the Sea: Colored Pencil & charcoal on cold press paper; 2245X1570—from the moment I read Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, I’ve been compelled by women and the water and all it symbolizes. I taught this book in an AP Literature course year after year and I’ve read the book easily fifty times or more. The yellow color below the surface is that of a woman’s soul. While yellow typically represents happiness and sunshine in most cultures, it also represents faith, nature, and God’s divine nature. Chopin’s protagonist, Edna Pontellier, is struggling against a society run by men and the religious restraints of her society—hence, the irony of the color yellow.