Sensory perceptions
Helen Walters asks you to imagine how you might convey altered senses in your fiction, with an example short story by Kate Chopin
TO READ THE STORY https://americanliterature.com/author/kate-chopin/short-story/the-recovery
Beauty
is said to be in the eye of the beholder.
But, as Jane discovers in this month’s story, this assertion is sometimes more nuanced than it seems. In ‘The Recovery’ by Kate Chopin we meet our main character, Jane, as she recovers her sight following fifteen years of blindness.
As always, you’ll get the most benefit from this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: https://americanliterature.com/author/katechopin/short-story/the-recoveryIt’s a relatively short story, but there’s a lot to it. So, let’s dive in.
Aging, and how things change over time, is an important theme of the story. In the very first sentence we are told that although Jane is thirty-five, she retains an element of youthfulness. It is almost as if, during the years of her blindness, she has been frozen in time.
One of the things I found interesting about this story is the way in which Jane has three different perceptions of herself and her physical appearance at different times. The three perceptions are firstly from before she lost her sight, then while she was sightless, and finally after she regains her sight. The first perception, back when she was a woman of twenty, comes from her own eyes telling her she is young and beautiful. The second is from during her period of sight loss, when other people told her she was still beautiful. Finally, after she regains her sight, she sees herself as having aged.