the awakening

dear kate chopin,

your story of edna--of her animate emotions, of her awakening and her demise (being both one in the same)--is, in short, extraordinary. and your prose is profoundly accesable and absolute. thank you for telling this tale in the way that you have told it. here are a few of my favorite lines:

"the voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation. the voice of the sea speaks to the soul. the touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace."

"no multitude of words could have been more significant than those moments of silence, or more pregnant with the first-felt throbbings of desire."

"`well, for instance, when i left her to-day, she put her arms around me and felt my shoulder blades, to see if my wings were strong, she said. 'the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. it is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.'`"

"she had been with him, had heard his voice and touched his hand. but some way he had seemed nearer to her off there in mexico."

"she went on and on. she remembered the night she swam far out, and recalled the terror that seized her at the fear of being unable to regain the shore. she did not look back now, but went on and on, thinking of the blue-grass meadow that she had traversed when a little child, believing that it had no beginning and no end."

based on this book alone, i must say you were a remarkable author, ms. chopin. i cannot wait to read more of what you have written. it is worsmiths, novelists, storytellers like you and writings, novels, stories like the awakening that remind me why i love literature, and why i want to teach it to others. i hope someday to enlighten my students of the wonder of your work. thanks again. and again. and again.

your newfound fan,
alli reinhardt