The Nightingale Symbolism

Teenage girls dance through streets looking at the majestic mountains and the pure scenery; however, the French Resistance forced teenage girls to conform to the societal demands of fear and anxiety. The Nightingale emphasizes the power and piety among women during the French Resistance, such as Isabelle and Vianne, while also including symbolism to bring the story to life through a frame tale. By taking part in researching the strength of citizens during the French Resistance in the 1940s, Kristin Hannah parallels the characters in The Nightingale after real life French revolutionaries and illuminates simplistic actions which hold much deeper meaning. By characterizing Isabelle as a warrior-type woman and Vianne as a motherly pious woman, …show more content…
The Nightingale symbolizes the strength and stealth of Isabelle acting as a safety outlet for the downed airmen throughout the Nazi dictatorship (“The Nightingale,” California Bookwatch). Also, her actions were not as expected due to the restrictions which impacts her nickname “the nightingale” (Garcia). The nightingale symbolizes the strength, courage, and perseverance Hannah implemented into the young girl Isabelle like the small bird who saved many. Citizens refer to Isabelle as the nightingale because of her sly actions, not being discovered or questioned as a possible suspect throughout the entire novel …show more content…
The deployment of Vianne’s husband forces her to be strong, while Isabelle chooses to be strong and attack head on her contradictory ideals (Button). Vianne faces a harsh decision which is either to allow the Nazi to live with her or to protect her child, which represents daily choices made by women regarding family (Fulwood). Hannah’s personal admiration of strength of the women of the WWII resistance inspired her to write the novel (Bargreen). To Kristin Hannah, “Vianne [represents] a lot of people, male and female, who at some point reach the bottom” (Fulwood). Isabelle and Vianne search for each other throughout their own individual issues during the war

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