Grand Isle
Barrier island on the Gulf coast of Louisiana, USA.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Awakening | Kate Chopin | setting | Summer colony where Edna’s awakening begins, and where she swims out at the end. |
The Awakening — Kate Chopin (1899)
Source: The Awakening · Readwise highlight
He was spending his summer vacation, as he always did, with his mother at Grand Isle.
- Role: setting
- In the book: The first part of the novel takes place on Grand Isle: Madame Lebrun’s cottages and main house, the beach and bathhouses, the Gulf. Edna learns to swim, is moved by Mademoiselle Reisz’s playing and falls for Robert there. In the last chapter she returns alone out of season, finds Victor and Mariequita repairing the Lebrun house, walks down past the old bathhouse to the empty beach, and swims out into the Gulf until her strength is gone; the novel ends with her memories as she swims.
- Why it matters: Edna’s awakening begins here and the novel ends here; the sea and the freedoms of the Creole summer colony drive the plot.
- Real vs. fictional: Real island, named in the text; the Lebrun pension and cottages are fictional.