1. MugilanManokaran
160738
The Awakening, is considered one of the first texts addressing the concerns
of the feminist movement. The story revolves around a small group of friends
from New Orleans who vacation together on Grand Isle each summer, the main
character being Edna Pontellier. On the other hand, there’s a film entitled Grand Isle,
which is a direct translation of Chopin's novel. Both The Awakening and Grand
Isle make use of setting, symbols, and characters to reveal the ultimate theme of the
work: that nobody is free from society.
Grand Isle is a very complete adaptation of The Awakening and with only a
couple minor details altered, the film takes Chopin's novel and completely translates
it into a different medium, often quoting the novel exactly in character dialogue.
Disregarding its origins and influences, as a work of art on its own, Grand Isle is well
filmed with an enjoyable cast and portrays its main themes completely.
The novel and the film heavily rely on setting, both to stage the events of the
story and as a method of symbolism. The setting of the novel is historically accurate.
Many families living in New Orleans and similar cities would retreat to small coastal
islands for the summer to escape the heat of the city. On a higher level, the two main
elements of the setting, the city and the island, or civilization and the wilderness,
serve as symbols. The city, or civilization, symbolizes oppression by societal
demands, while the island, or wilderness, symbolizes freedom from society's watch.
When Edna is residing in the city, she is weighed down by society's expectations of
her. She must be home on certain calling days, she must be subservient to her
husband, she must put her children before all else, and she must be the person that

2. conformed society encourages her to be. On the other hand, when she is on the
island for the summer, Edna is freed from many of her duties. Her husband is often
away with business, her children spend the days playing at the beach, the other
inhabitants live so close as to make calling obsolete, and Edna is left with a sense of
freedom from all which holds her down in the city.
Another important aspect in The Awakening and Grand Isle is symbols. Most
obviously, water is continually contrasted against land as a source of freedom. As is
typical in much of literature, the water serves as a symbol of free will and lack of
restraints. Just as the ocean cannot be forced to move in any controlled way and is
not enclosed by any sort of container, Edna feels that, while in the water, she has
complete autonomy over her life. On land, however, this independence is lost, as
she must once again conform to the conventions of society. Edna's suicide by
drowning in the ocean represents her achievement of ultimate release from society,
for social restrictions cannot impede the dead. Birds serve as another motif
throughout the novel and the movie, also a symbol of freedom. As birds are not
confined to two dimensions of movement, like human beings and all land dwelling
animals, they are seen as unchained from the ground, free to move about at will in
the spacious and seemingly unlimited sky. Like a bird, Edna feels that she should
also be able to move and act at whim, yet like many of the birds in the novel and the
film, she is caged and tied down by the constraints of society. At the end of the
novel, although this detail is missing from the film adaptation, a sea bird with a
broken wing is seen flying above the ocean. The bird, though still free, still somewhat
able to fly, does not have the complete, ideal freedom of the other birds. This bird
represents Edna, as she cannot have ideal freedom, for society will always be a

3. constricting factor, so she must, like the injured bird, choose to be free in an
imperfect manner, or remain completely restricted and tied down.
Characters, especially Edna and her two foils, are important elements of both
the novel and the film. As a woman in a very traditional social position, Adele
Ratignolle is an extreme opposite of Edna. Adele's entire life revolves around her
husband and children, and she exists entirely within, and without questioning the
constraints set up by society. This is the type of woman that Edna feels so strongly
that she should not be. On the other extreme is Mademoiselle Reisz, who is not
married and is portrayed as absolutely independent; she has cast off the most
traditional roles of women by remaining unmarried and childless, and she often
scoffs at many other aspects of society and the people who sustain those aspects.
This is the type of woman that Edna looks up to and aspires to emulate. All three of
these characters are symbols for different eras of women. Chopin uses Adele to
represent the traditional woman, happy with her lack of freedom because she knows
nothing else. Edna embodies the feminist movement, representing change and
movement towards independence. Mademoiselle Reisz is the future woman, the
woman that the feminist movement hopes to release. She is the fundamental goal of
the feminist revolution.
Overall, while The Awakening and Grand Isle are almost completely the
same, they both portray one woman's awakening to the realization that society is
confining, and her conviction that she must follow her newfound awareness or risk
being held down forever.