Part of the ending of “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin.

"The water was deep, but she lifted her white body and reached out with a long, sweeping stroke. The touch of the sea is sensous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

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."

This quote is one of my favorites. I think the theme of death is too often treated in a very dark way, with negative connotations. What I love about literature is that it has opened my eyes to other people's perspectives and therefore changed my ability to judge people for their decisions. Yes, ending life is a very, very serious thing, but in the context of this novel, I think death here is both a symbolic and literal demonstration of how women at that time in society (this is like, early 20th century Louisiana) were essentially victimized for wanting to have some autonomy over themselves. Through death, many female writers epxlored death as a conduit for eternal freedom. Freedom from the physical world, aka the patriarchal world that let them down so hard. Anyway, I found that Chopin here shows our heroine peacefully accepting death, because she knew that the physcial world was becoming a prison for her. And while I do not condone doing that or replicating this character's behavior, I think that it is valid to question and explore the variety of spiritual perspectives on death. Thanks for coming to my TED talk haha.

@Teddybear9979 #favoritequotechallenge