Briar Rose 2

"He has left the crone's ointment back in his saddlebag, but he won't need it, even were it what the old fraud claimed it to be: the branches part gently, the fragrant petals caress his cheeks. He is surprised how easy it is. How familiar. He feels, oddly, like he's coming home again. It is not the castle, no, nor the princess inside (perhaps he will reach her and disenchant her with a kiss, perhaps he will not; it matters less than he'd supposed), but this flowering briar patch, hung with old bones, wherein he strives. I am he who awakens Beauty, the bones seem to whisper as the blossoms enfold him."

(I know its a little late to post this, but I just could not get my computer to work last night.) I chose this quote because I feel like it brought the story together in the end. The line, "He is surprised how easy it is," is used on the first page of the text and I think that using it at the end like Coover did was a good way to kind of loop the story around into an ending. The story itself is difficult to end because it is nothing but repetition of the same event over and over again; so, how do you come up with a conclusion for something like that? By ending almost the same as the beginning, it was like Coover was resetting the loop- like it was all going to start again. You don't really know how the story ends, its all left open for interpretation. The prince may or may not have rescued the princess. This story could have different meanings for anyone that read it.