East

Is it possible that I forgot to mention the story of Psyche and Eros? A tragedy indeed. This happens to be one of my favorite stories in the class thus far. Dear Sleeping Beauty, you know that you weren't supposed to look, now you see what happens when you do? Your beautiful lover flees with a cry, leaving you alone, in tears, and with a child to raise. Yet would it have been better if you had kept your eyes shut? Then you would never have known just how beautiful he was, how lucky you really were. Yet while your good fortune lasted you had no idea. Anyone who had ever read the story East by Edith Pattou can see the similarities to the tale of Psyche. This is particularly interesting because East itself is a retelling of an old Norwegian folk tale called “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” which I have never read, but am now oddly tempted to. I read East the first time a couple years ago, and yes, it was of my own volition. My mother of course disapproved of the story, after all, there was magic in it, and everyone knows that magic is “of the devil,” however I found it quite a fascinating story. I wished that I was as brave as Rose. I wanted to go out into the world, for better or worse, and see what I could find. It took longer than I ever thought it would, but now the world has opened up before me. Psyche, Rose, and also Belle had something in common—for a while, they did not know whether they'd fallen in love with a prince or a monster. Could it be possible, though, that they had done both? What if men are not merely one or the other, but a potent mix of wonderful and wild? Sometimes Prince Charming is very charming indeed, but sometimes the beast comes raging through, leaving tears and bruises and a frightened princess.


And what happens, may I dare ask, if the man who thinks he is Prince Charming turns out not to be at all? True love doesn't always happen the first time. Sometimes you have to kiss a few frogs before you find your prince, and sometimes the frogs don't understand that they aren't princes. What if he keeps following you around, warts and all, and pesters you to try once again—maybe you didn't do something right the first time, maybe the second time it will work. The prince, the good man you found, isn't so good after all. He's only trying to blind you, to trick you into missing out on me—what's really good, croaks the frog. Won't you give me a second chance? Then he says he only wants to be friends. You know it's a lie, yet you can't just tell him that, don't want to step on him—after all, it's not his fault he's not your prince. He didn't do anything wrong, he just didn't do it right.

So what can you say?