Ranging from caged parrots to the Kentucky meadow, the symbols and settings in The Awakening are prominent and provide deeper meaning than that provided by the text alone.Throughout The Awakening by Kate Chopin, symbols and settings recur representing Edna's current progress in her awakening and can see a timeline of Edna's changes and turmoil awakening. The setting in which Edna finds herself directly influences her temperament and awakening: Grand Isle provides her with a sense of freedom; , Edna feels freer than she does in her conventional home in New Orleans…staying in the parlor all afternoon receiving visitors” (Chopin 84), Edna has the freedom to wander and spend time with Robert, rather than. being forced to stay home while on Grand Isle. As she crossed the bay towards the Cheniere Caminada, “Edna felt as if she had been carried away from an anchorage that had held her fast, whose chains had loosened – they had broken the night before” (Chopin 58). La Cheniere Caminada in Grand Isle offers Edna an outlet from the social constraints she is subjected to at home and in the cottage in Grand Isle. As Edna sets sail she can feel the "anchorage" vanishing: social oppression, gender roles and monotonous life disappear; the same sensation and sense of awakening that he experiences when he sleeps for “a hundred years” (Chopin 63). New Orleans brings Edna back to reality: oppression, society and depression cloud her mind as she lives a life she doesn't want to live. New Orleans is the bastion of social rules, of realis... middle of paper... of the novel. From the clothes, to the birds, to the "pigeon loft", each symbol and setting provides the reader with an insight into Edna's personality, thoughts and awakening. Works Cited Euripides, Medea. ““In the Realms of the Demicelestials”: ​​From Mortal to Mythical in The Awakening.” Galegroup.net. 2005. Network. 3 January 2010. .Chopin, Kate. The awakening. New York: Avon, 1982. Print. "The importance of the sea in Chopin's Awakening". 123HelpMe.com. 03 January 2010.