She did not realize, however, that her mind can also betray her, by manipulating words and language of another stored so deep down that she did not know they were there. Language has given Helen more gifts than anything else, allowing her the previously unrecognized freedom of self-expression. Helen's story, "The Frost King," represents the human mind and the way it can often betray a person. This experience helps Helen understand the sheer power of the world around her. However, it also teaches her that nature is not always kind, as it succumbs to the effects of the thunderstorm and sways, nearly tossing her over. It is beautiful and alluring, which is what drew Helen to climb it in the first place.
The cherry tree that Helen is perched in when a thunderstorm hits symbolizes the duality of nature. Helen learns much through her travels and gains access to so many resources, and this frequent movement was important to her eventual success. Beginning with her first trip to Boston, however, her world expands, and this expansion is represented by the train that takes her across the country to new places time and time again. Before Helen began her education, she was confined to her home in Tuscumbia, without the communication and interpretation skills necessary to allow her to venture anywhere else.
The train is a symbol for mobility, travel, and the breaking of boundaries. When she sees it for the first time, she is knocked over and tossed around by a wave, and reality hits her hard-however, despite this experience, the ocean never loses its fantastical nature to her, and she remains in awe of it throughout her entire life.
Before Helen saw the ocean for herself during her first trip to Massachusetts, it was merely a distant idea, a romanticized part of nature that she only read about in books. In The Story of My Life, the ocean is simultaneously a symbol of both fantasy and reality.
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