So far into the book Rosa is the main narrator of the story. We see from an outside view but we get her opinions and her take on what is going on. One thing she keeps bringing up is how cold-hearted Stella is. An example of this on page 15 Rosa says, "Stella was cold. She had no heart. Stella, already nearly fifty years old, the angel of death." So the readers only impression of this character is that she is cold and probably has no feelings towards other people. When they were in the camps and even after Rosa describes Stella as cannibalistic.
I think the truth comes out when we see a letter that Stella has wrote to Rosa with sending her the shawl she had asked for. You can tell that there was probably an argument over giving Rosa that shall for her mental health. It says, "All right I've done it. Been to the post office and mailed it. Your idol is on its way, seperate cover. Go on your knees to if you want. You make yourself crazy, everyone thinks you're a crazy woman." You can tell from this beginning part of the letter that Stella did not want to send the shall to Rosa. She was afraid because it relates to her being crazy. One of the reasons why it may be a sign of her being crazy is because it relates to Magda. We already know by this point in the book that Magda, her child, died in the concentration camps and now in the recent time in the book she is writing letters to the dead child. These is an evident attachment still present in Rosa's heart that leaves her bitter and in a sense insane. Stella not wanting to send her the shawl could have been to keep her aunt away from one thing that makes her look mad.
You can also tell from this letter that Stella has moved on from her experiences in the concentration camps and is enjoying her new life. She says, "I shouldn't lecture, but my God! It's thirty years, forty,who knows, give it a rest." You can tell that she wants her aunt to move on and in a way cares about her aunts mental welfare. Considering that they are all they have for family left that she wants to take care of her, but I feel that Rosa isn't letting her become close because of her resentment and blame towards Rosa.
This letter reflects what the real relationship between the two is. I think this changes the perspective of the story from Rosa being a victim of the Concentration camps living in a poor "hotel" and only having a cold niece to support her. To someone who isn't willing to recieve help and has gone a little crazy and her views on Stella aren't neccassairly true.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
A little bit into Rosa's Chapter
The next chapter opens up and in the first little section I discovered that Stella was her niece. Rosa still believes that she is canablistic and is out to get her and she still describes her as cold. On page 15 it says, "Sometimes Rosa had cannibal dreams about Stella: she was boiling her tongue, her ears, her right hand, such a fat hand with plump fingers, each nail tended and rosy, and so many rings, not modern rings but old-fashioned junk shop rings." I think when she refers to the old rings she is saying that when she thinks or dreams of Stella doing this that maybe its tied to what she was like in the past and what she thought and fear when she was in the camps.
I also noticed that she writes letters to not only Stella but her dead toddler Magda. Besides she is writing letters to someone who died in the last chapter she writes them in Polish while her letters to Stella are in english. Could this mean that she sees that Stella in modern and writes to her in english because she may not associate with her in the same closeness as before the camps, but at the same time writes these letters to Magda in Polish because she didn't speak english when she had her and maybe feels a closeness to her even though she is dead.
I also noticed the mention of a furnace and not wanting to go near it in the first part of the chapter. On page 14, "The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner." I think this is saying that no matter where she went her life in the concentration camps stays with her no matter where she goes and it haunts her. Another thing that validates this claim is that she doesn't leave her house often to do her laundry and the letters she writes. Everything she does is something connected to the past, but at the same time she tries to avoid it by not stepping outside and facing the reality she is living in. She is no longer in the camps, Magda had died, and Stella has become a different person because of the holocaust, but she still makes references in her life about the camps, writes letters to her dead child, and calls Stella beautiful to cover up the fact that she is a cold person now.
I also noticed that she writes letters to not only Stella but her dead toddler Magda. Besides she is writing letters to someone who died in the last chapter she writes them in Polish while her letters to Stella are in english. Could this mean that she sees that Stella in modern and writes to her in english because she may not associate with her in the same closeness as before the camps, but at the same time writes these letters to Magda in Polish because she didn't speak english when she had her and maybe feels a closeness to her even though she is dead.
I also noticed the mention of a furnace and not wanting to go near it in the first part of the chapter. On page 14, "The streets were a furnace, the sun an executioner." I think this is saying that no matter where she went her life in the concentration camps stays with her no matter where she goes and it haunts her. Another thing that validates this claim is that she doesn't leave her house often to do her laundry and the letters she writes. Everything she does is something connected to the past, but at the same time she tries to avoid it by not stepping outside and facing the reality she is living in. She is no longer in the camps, Magda had died, and Stella has become a different person because of the holocaust, but she still makes references in her life about the camps, writes letters to her dead child, and calls Stella beautiful to cover up the fact that she is a cold person now.
1st story in, "The Shawl"
I had to read it a couple times because I was confused as to what character was doing what in the beginning. I figured out that Rosa is a mother to Magda and there is a fourteen year old girl with them maybe another daughter of Rosa. The setting is in the concentration camps in Germany during World War II. I also understand that Rosa is trying to hide her baby from everyone so they won't kill her.
Magda is thin and is malnourished because they are in the concentration camps and all she has to feed on is this shawl that Rosa credits for keeping the baby alive. On page 5 it says, "It was a magic shawl, it could nourish an infant for three days and three nights. Magda did not die, she stayed alive although very quiet." The mother Rosa is seeing her daughter not dying under almost unlivable circumstances as a miracle and is giving the credit to the shawl for feeding her while her own breasts couldn't. It also mentions in this line about Magda's muteness that she seems to have from birth that keeps her alive throughout her infancy. However, when the shawl blows away one day she cries out and it could have ultimately have lead to her death at the end of the first chapter. This shows that the baby was attached to the shawl because it was wrapped in it so long. The baby could have also seen it as a mother figure.
Now Rosa's character in the first chapter seems to be scared for her baby's life. When the baby runs off at the end she is questioning how to save the child, and if to save the child. On page 8 it says, "A tide of commands hammered in Rosa's nipples: Fetch, get, bring! But she did not know which to go after first, Magda or the shawl?" After she decides that she had to save her child she weighs out her options to get the shawl to get Magda back to it and safe or fetch the child who would scream anyway without the shawl and probably be killed. She chooses to go after the shawl, but it is to late the baby has already hit the electric fence and died.
In the rest of the book because it is titled Rosa I think it is going to talk about how she lived after her horrible experiences in the camps. I also would like to know what happened to Stella who she described as being cold because of their situation and canabal like while in the camps. Did she survive? What I do know is that loosing the baby was probably the hardest thing that Rosa had to deal with. Against the hunger and awful conditions it seems that the author emphasized on her loosing the baby because it had the most impact on her emotionally and mentally.
Magda is thin and is malnourished because they are in the concentration camps and all she has to feed on is this shawl that Rosa credits for keeping the baby alive. On page 5 it says, "It was a magic shawl, it could nourish an infant for three days and three nights. Magda did not die, she stayed alive although very quiet." The mother Rosa is seeing her daughter not dying under almost unlivable circumstances as a miracle and is giving the credit to the shawl for feeding her while her own breasts couldn't. It also mentions in this line about Magda's muteness that she seems to have from birth that keeps her alive throughout her infancy. However, when the shawl blows away one day she cries out and it could have ultimately have lead to her death at the end of the first chapter. This shows that the baby was attached to the shawl because it was wrapped in it so long. The baby could have also seen it as a mother figure.
Now Rosa's character in the first chapter seems to be scared for her baby's life. When the baby runs off at the end she is questioning how to save the child, and if to save the child. On page 8 it says, "A tide of commands hammered in Rosa's nipples: Fetch, get, bring! But she did not know which to go after first, Magda or the shawl?" After she decides that she had to save her child she weighs out her options to get the shawl to get Magda back to it and safe or fetch the child who would scream anyway without the shawl and probably be killed. She chooses to go after the shawl, but it is to late the baby has already hit the electric fence and died.
In the rest of the book because it is titled Rosa I think it is going to talk about how she lived after her horrible experiences in the camps. I also would like to know what happened to Stella who she described as being cold because of their situation and canabal like while in the camps. Did she survive? What I do know is that loosing the baby was probably the hardest thing that Rosa had to deal with. Against the hunger and awful conditions it seems that the author emphasized on her loosing the baby because it had the most impact on her emotionally and mentally.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Identity Conflict
Throughout the book so far I see a lot of symbolism especially with the little boy relating to the challenges he is facing with his identity as an American and as a person. Like in class we discussed the horses that may have symbolized his identity and when they were running off into the night on the train may have symbolized that the boy was feeling a loss of identity.
In the boys chapter however there are many more instances that show this conflicting identity the boy is feeling. On page 64 it says, "One evening, before he went to bed, he wrote his name in the dust across the top of the table. All through the night, while he slept, more dust blew through the walls. By morning his name was gone." This could be mirroring how when they left their home they were placed by numbers instead of names. It could symbolize how when he got to the internment camp and experienced life there he was slowly loosing his sense of self. At the same time by writing his name in the desk in the first place could mean that he wants to hold on to his identity and his self, but the internment camp and the way his family is being treated is slowly causing him to pull away from himself.
Another instance is when the rumors start popping up on the camp. It says on page 70, "Every week they heard rumors. The men and women would be put into separate camps. They would be sterilized. They would be stripped on their citizenship." This is mirroring the fear that is circulating around. The people know what is going on outside the camp. They know there is prejudice that could be dangerous and that it is possible for these conditions to exist. It was happening with the Jewish people in Germany at the same time why could it not happen to them? I think this paragraph is crucial to understanding the fear of the people and how they were treated.
The last example is on page 75, "She burned the family photographs and the three silk kimonos she had brought over with her nineteen years ago from Japan." The mother is burning in this scene everything that tied to their heritage in Japan. She stopped packing rice balls in their lunch boxes and replaced it with PB&J and she tells her kids that if anyone asks they are Chinese. In this scene they are obviously getting rid of their identity in fear that something bad might happen to them. The boy then proceeds a couple pages after to question why he needs to lie about who he is. A man asks him in the book, "Chink or Jap?" The boy answers Chink and the guy runs away. Then the boy who feels guilty about lying and feels that being a Chink was worse starts yelling he is really a Jap. The guy does not hear him. I think this scene shows that the boy isn't ashamed of being Japanese and he wants to let people know who he is but he is questioning why its such a bad thing and why people don't see him as an American.
In the boys chapter however there are many more instances that show this conflicting identity the boy is feeling. On page 64 it says, "One evening, before he went to bed, he wrote his name in the dust across the top of the table. All through the night, while he slept, more dust blew through the walls. By morning his name was gone." This could be mirroring how when they left their home they were placed by numbers instead of names. It could symbolize how when he got to the internment camp and experienced life there he was slowly loosing his sense of self. At the same time by writing his name in the desk in the first place could mean that he wants to hold on to his identity and his self, but the internment camp and the way his family is being treated is slowly causing him to pull away from himself.
Another instance is when the rumors start popping up on the camp. It says on page 70, "Every week they heard rumors. The men and women would be put into separate camps. They would be sterilized. They would be stripped on their citizenship." This is mirroring the fear that is circulating around. The people know what is going on outside the camp. They know there is prejudice that could be dangerous and that it is possible for these conditions to exist. It was happening with the Jewish people in Germany at the same time why could it not happen to them? I think this paragraph is crucial to understanding the fear of the people and how they were treated.
The last example is on page 75, "She burned the family photographs and the three silk kimonos she had brought over with her nineteen years ago from Japan." The mother is burning in this scene everything that tied to their heritage in Japan. She stopped packing rice balls in their lunch boxes and replaced it with PB&J and she tells her kids that if anyone asks they are Chinese. In this scene they are obviously getting rid of their identity in fear that something bad might happen to them. The boy then proceeds a couple pages after to question why he needs to lie about who he is. A man asks him in the book, "Chink or Jap?" The boy answers Chink and the guy runs away. Then the boy who feels guilty about lying and feels that being a Chink was worse starts yelling he is really a Jap. The guy does not hear him. I think this scene shows that the boy isn't ashamed of being Japanese and he wants to let people know who he is but he is questioning why its such a bad thing and why people don't see him as an American.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
When the Emperor was Divine (First Post)
When I dove into this book I was coming in with very minimal knowledge of the history. I new the story of how the Japanese Americans got placed in internment camps and many of them lost their old lives they had before. Including there reputation, friends, and property. When I read the first chapter it was the first time actually reading about a fictional character and how her life continued until she was sent to go live in an internment camp with her family. The first chapter is the thoughts and the events that had to take place before the initial leave.
So far I can see that there is a woman who has a daughter and a son. She has a husband however, he is in jail during the scene in the first chapter. Woman seems to be calm and collected. She wears neat clothes and has what was conceived at the time as a normal middle class life. Then as we read deeper we see that the women has to make choices and act on certain things that she does not want to do, but must for her families sake. She must pack, stay calm, and keep the kids naive to what is going on around them.
The actions that stood out the most and had the most impact on her character was the getting rid of the animals. She gave the cat to stay with someone else, killed the dog, and let the bird loose outside. She must do this because she knows she can not bring them with her and they would only suffer without the family there. Also, the kids have affection for the animals and its better to say they ran away then to say that they are dead, or starving at home because they aren't there to feed the animals. I also think that the getting rid of the animals was symbolic. I think by giving the cat to a neighbor it was as if she was trying to keep a part of her there in that neighborhood. She doesn't want to give up the life she has and she wants to leave a "mark." By killing the dog it is symbolizing how she is killing off her old life. She knows that she can never return to her old life so she must "kill it" so that she is in less pain when she has to leave it and so her kids aren't phased by this ordeal. Lastly, the bird I think is the most symbolic. After leaving a piece of herself there in the old life and killing it off with the dog she now has to let it go. She releases the bird into the night and is trying to let it go. At first the bird won't fly away and sticks around. This is as if saying it wasn't easy and she had a hard time doing it, but the bird eventually flew away like the family must do the next day.
The mother is distressed by the end of this chapter and after the kids are in bed she lets out all her emotions from what the day had put upon her. This scene is showing that she is human and this ordeal is not something she is easily taking. However, at the same time it is showing that she is strong and willing to put on a kind of composure to keep her kids happy and unaware.
So far I can see that there is a woman who has a daughter and a son. She has a husband however, he is in jail during the scene in the first chapter. Woman seems to be calm and collected. She wears neat clothes and has what was conceived at the time as a normal middle class life. Then as we read deeper we see that the women has to make choices and act on certain things that she does not want to do, but must for her families sake. She must pack, stay calm, and keep the kids naive to what is going on around them.
The actions that stood out the most and had the most impact on her character was the getting rid of the animals. She gave the cat to stay with someone else, killed the dog, and let the bird loose outside. She must do this because she knows she can not bring them with her and they would only suffer without the family there. Also, the kids have affection for the animals and its better to say they ran away then to say that they are dead, or starving at home because they aren't there to feed the animals. I also think that the getting rid of the animals was symbolic. I think by giving the cat to a neighbor it was as if she was trying to keep a part of her there in that neighborhood. She doesn't want to give up the life she has and she wants to leave a "mark." By killing the dog it is symbolizing how she is killing off her old life. She knows that she can never return to her old life so she must "kill it" so that she is in less pain when she has to leave it and so her kids aren't phased by this ordeal. Lastly, the bird I think is the most symbolic. After leaving a piece of herself there in the old life and killing it off with the dog she now has to let it go. She releases the bird into the night and is trying to let it go. At first the bird won't fly away and sticks around. This is as if saying it wasn't easy and she had a hard time doing it, but the bird eventually flew away like the family must do the next day.
The mother is distressed by the end of this chapter and after the kids are in bed she lets out all her emotions from what the day had put upon her. This scene is showing that she is human and this ordeal is not something she is easily taking. However, at the same time it is showing that she is strong and willing to put on a kind of composure to keep her kids happy and unaware.
Push (Last Post)
Push as a book had a lot going on symbolically, emotionally, and thoughtfully. It symbolically sent a message to people about pushing for your hardest and doing everything you can to be a perfect you. Emotionally it sent the reader into so many emotions at one time. The book was thought invoking and took the reading into a thought process that maybe we haven't been into.
The book is called, "Push" and it about a girl who grows up in Harlem and is raped by her father who impregnates her twice and a crazy mother who lets this happen to keep her husband nearby. I don't think it was an accident that the author named the book, "Push" and used it as a term for when giving birth, but also a verb to keep going and to keep fighting your way through life. I noticed that Precious throughout her life has to face challenges like her abusive parents, not being able to read, people passing her on to the next person to handle, and her images of herself physically and mentally. She has to push her way through and find how to get herself to a life she wants to live for herself, but more importantly to her for her children. I think this can also be a message the reader can pick up on. Its a message to keep trying no matter how hard or how long that journey may be.
Emotionally the book triggers a lot of anger for the reader. You start wondering why no one is helping her in the beginning? Why her father rapes her? Why her mother doesn't do anything about it and lets it happen? You feel sad for Precious and what she has to live through. You feel even more pain, sympathy, and sorrow when she gets aids from her father. From reading this book a whirlpool of emotions surface and its hard to come to terms with the story. I think it makes it even harder because it isn't written in a third parties point of view but through her eyes. To see Precious's thoughts on the whole situation is sad and the details are sometime disgusting and unhumane compared to how are lives are.
Thoughtfully the book invokes a lot of thinking. We start to question society and what are institutions are really doing to help people. We start to ask is every case can be helped through government institutions and even the public school system? Through this book you see that there has to be a lot of other people who need to step in to help and not just these institutions. The book made me personally look around at my outside world. I know that when I become a teacher I'm going to want to help every student I possible can even if I have a student like Precious. Although it maybe hard to detect and hard to help a student like that I want to try my hardest to at least educate that person and not push them to the next teacher or person to handle. Sometimes someone needs to step in and sometimes that person has to be you or me.
The book is called, "Push" and it about a girl who grows up in Harlem and is raped by her father who impregnates her twice and a crazy mother who lets this happen to keep her husband nearby. I don't think it was an accident that the author named the book, "Push" and used it as a term for when giving birth, but also a verb to keep going and to keep fighting your way through life. I noticed that Precious throughout her life has to face challenges like her abusive parents, not being able to read, people passing her on to the next person to handle, and her images of herself physically and mentally. She has to push her way through and find how to get herself to a life she wants to live for herself, but more importantly to her for her children. I think this can also be a message the reader can pick up on. Its a message to keep trying no matter how hard or how long that journey may be.
Emotionally the book triggers a lot of anger for the reader. You start wondering why no one is helping her in the beginning? Why her father rapes her? Why her mother doesn't do anything about it and lets it happen? You feel sad for Precious and what she has to live through. You feel even more pain, sympathy, and sorrow when she gets aids from her father. From reading this book a whirlpool of emotions surface and its hard to come to terms with the story. I think it makes it even harder because it isn't written in a third parties point of view but through her eyes. To see Precious's thoughts on the whole situation is sad and the details are sometime disgusting and unhumane compared to how are lives are.
Thoughtfully the book invokes a lot of thinking. We start to question society and what are institutions are really doing to help people. We start to ask is every case can be helped through government institutions and even the public school system? Through this book you see that there has to be a lot of other people who need to step in to help and not just these institutions. The book made me personally look around at my outside world. I know that when I become a teacher I'm going to want to help every student I possible can even if I have a student like Precious. Although it maybe hard to detect and hard to help a student like that I want to try my hardest to at least educate that person and not push them to the next teacher or person to handle. Sometimes someone needs to step in and sometimes that person has to be you or me.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Push
In this novel or story it is about a young girl who has been physically, mentally, and sexually abused since she was a young girl. She can't read and has trouble in school and the kids make fun of her because she is fat. In this blog entry I would like to address how she came out of this and what helped her become a different person by the end of the book.
I believe out of all the people she came in contact with the one person that helped her the most was Ms. Rain. Even through school no one seemed to want to help her out of the situation she was in they just passed her on to the next person to take care of her. The hospital did the same thing when they found out that the father of her baby was her father they didn't place much of an effort into helping her. Ms. Rain and the Each One Teach One helped her build herself into excepting who she was and discovering who she was and to confront those things that weren't making her who she wanted to be. Ms. Rain taught her how to read she had always wanted to know how and now she could read and write and communicate that way. Ms. Rain became her answers in her journal. She responded to Precious and listened to what she had to say. When Precious was in trouble like when she had the baby and she ran away from her mother she did everything in her power to get Precious a home to stay in while she was looking for a way to sustain for herself and her kid. Ms. Rain was a role model for Precious and someone she could count on which she never had before.
Besides Ms. Rain the other students in the school helped support her as well. She learned that not everyone was perfect no matter how good or bad looking they were. People weren't abused or lived bad lives because of the way they looked. They also had her back and listened to her. She had friends for the first time and people who really cared about her well being and didn't abuse her in anyway. I think what she learns most from these students is compassion and caring that she never had before. Some of them introduced her to support groups that would help her come to terms and resolve her past of sexual, mental, and physical abuse. Here she is able to see more people with like problems that they have faced in there lives. She can vent out her thoughts and listen to others and compare, think, and come to terms with what happened to her.
By the end of the book she becomes Precious who is an independent girl with her own thoughts and feelings. She is free and has a goal in life. She can read and write and wants to get better at it and become something. She wants to raise her kids and not be like her parents. She sees what is wrong and what is right and is able to stand up for herself. This is very different from the scared and scarred Precious in the beginning. She is afraid to stand up to her parents and is afraid of what would happen to her if she rebelled. She just thought she would live the life she was living forever.
Precious is a strong and diligent character whose change is something we can all look up to and we can all think that like Precious we want the best for ourselves so we need to work hard like her.
I believe out of all the people she came in contact with the one person that helped her the most was Ms. Rain. Even through school no one seemed to want to help her out of the situation she was in they just passed her on to the next person to take care of her. The hospital did the same thing when they found out that the father of her baby was her father they didn't place much of an effort into helping her. Ms. Rain and the Each One Teach One helped her build herself into excepting who she was and discovering who she was and to confront those things that weren't making her who she wanted to be. Ms. Rain taught her how to read she had always wanted to know how and now she could read and write and communicate that way. Ms. Rain became her answers in her journal. She responded to Precious and listened to what she had to say. When Precious was in trouble like when she had the baby and she ran away from her mother she did everything in her power to get Precious a home to stay in while she was looking for a way to sustain for herself and her kid. Ms. Rain was a role model for Precious and someone she could count on which she never had before.
Besides Ms. Rain the other students in the school helped support her as well. She learned that not everyone was perfect no matter how good or bad looking they were. People weren't abused or lived bad lives because of the way they looked. They also had her back and listened to her. She had friends for the first time and people who really cared about her well being and didn't abuse her in anyway. I think what she learns most from these students is compassion and caring that she never had before. Some of them introduced her to support groups that would help her come to terms and resolve her past of sexual, mental, and physical abuse. Here she is able to see more people with like problems that they have faced in there lives. She can vent out her thoughts and listen to others and compare, think, and come to terms with what happened to her.
By the end of the book she becomes Precious who is an independent girl with her own thoughts and feelings. She is free and has a goal in life. She can read and write and wants to get better at it and become something. She wants to raise her kids and not be like her parents. She sees what is wrong and what is right and is able to stand up for herself. This is very different from the scared and scarred Precious in the beginning. She is afraid to stand up to her parents and is afraid of what would happen to her if she rebelled. She just thought she would live the life she was living forever.
Precious is a strong and diligent character whose change is something we can all look up to and we can all think that like Precious we want the best for ourselves so we need to work hard like her.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
"The Mother" from Fun Home
The book Fun Home is mostly centered around Bruce and Alison. How about the mother? What is her character like? What is her role in the whole story? She seems to be behind the scenes during the whole story. She is never really in the main scheme of things and seems to be a more minor character. She seems to be to herself and involved with her studies. You see her interacting with the family rarely and she seems to have a bit of tension between her and her husband because of his hidden homosexuality and the crimes he is commiting.
Does this mean that she doesn't have a role? I think she does. She maybe put off from the main story or focus but her presence is important. Firstly, because it is an autobiography and she needs to put all family members into her story who were involved with the authors life. However, most importantly she is the main figure who opens Alison's eyes in the middle of the book after her father's death. She tells Alison that her father was gay and was preying on little boys and was hiding this fact from society.
She also throughout the book lets loose about the tension building up between her and her husband. There are scenes like the one where Bruce comes home late and she is arguing with him, but you can tell where he has really been. I think she is important for these scenes because it shows what her father was up to and what her mother thought and was keeping to herself.
I think the mother gets ignored because she seems like such a background character that was into herself but there are some scenes where she is with Alison that shows how Alison developed an understanding for her mother who was married to her father. For example, the scene where she is rehearsing her mom's lines with her shows how she did spend time with her mom and maybe how she lived her life even living with this secret and how she coped with it. In a sense her mom seemed very hard working and very courageous after reading the story and seeing what she had to put up with.
I don't think the mother should be put off as a main character. She was obviously important in Alison's growing up and understanding of her father. Without her mother Alison wouldn't be able to understand the full understanding of her parents and her life.
Does this mean that she doesn't have a role? I think she does. She maybe put off from the main story or focus but her presence is important. Firstly, because it is an autobiography and she needs to put all family members into her story who were involved with the authors life. However, most importantly she is the main figure who opens Alison's eyes in the middle of the book after her father's death. She tells Alison that her father was gay and was preying on little boys and was hiding this fact from society.
She also throughout the book lets loose about the tension building up between her and her husband. There are scenes like the one where Bruce comes home late and she is arguing with him, but you can tell where he has really been. I think she is important for these scenes because it shows what her father was up to and what her mother thought and was keeping to herself.
I think the mother gets ignored because she seems like such a background character that was into herself but there are some scenes where she is with Alison that shows how Alison developed an understanding for her mother who was married to her father. For example, the scene where she is rehearsing her mom's lines with her shows how she did spend time with her mom and maybe how she lived her life even living with this secret and how she coped with it. In a sense her mom seemed very hard working and very courageous after reading the story and seeing what she had to put up with.
I don't think the mother should be put off as a main character. She was obviously important in Alison's growing up and understanding of her father. Without her mother Alison wouldn't be able to understand the full understanding of her parents and her life.
Friday, April 1, 2011
"He Was There to Catch Me When I Lept"
The book "Fun House had a lot going on within its story line. I wasn't really sure where it was going and what major point the book was trying to make. I had a hard time writing blogs because I wasn't really sure where to go with this book. However, when I finished the book and I read the last line, "he was there to catch me when I lept." Tied everything together.
The book was about the author growing up with her gay father who preyed on younger boys, her mother who was busy with her dissertations, and he family who were so unique and filled with a lot of responsibilities and passions. Her Father like interior and exterior designs, reading, art, and clothes. He was a closet gay and was pretending to be someone he wasn't. He never came out that he was gay but it showed through with the guys he was cheating on his wife with. Her Mother also showed signs that he was gay by being angry when he did certain things like going on trips with the kids and a guy who worked with the family. Throughout the authors childhood she never expected her father to be gay, but by her father being gay do to this last line in the book she was able to come out with her own sexuality.
The author didn't come out till she was in college when she fully realized that she was lesbian. She was the closest to her father at the time because they were intellectual companions and they wrote back and forth to each other while she was away. When she mentioned that she was gay he hinted off that he was to but never fully came out. However, in his letters and words and gave her good advice and kind of encouraged it without really encouraging it. For example, he mentioned in one of his letters that when he was in college in the 50s that wasn't acceptable and that she was fortunate that she was able to go to college in that era where things were more open.
Even after his death he helped her. When she found out about her father's crimes and sexuality she kind of related to him more and took his mistakes to not create her own. Knowing that her father bottled it up and could have led to his death she doesn't want to make the same mistake. She was going to live her life to who she was and that was it she wasn't going to pretend that she was someone she wasn't. In some ways he helped her come to terms with who she was.
So the last words of the graphic novel, "He was there to catch me when I lept." Encompasses what the author wanted to get across in the end to the readers. That there was someone for her to look to. She had advice and someone who listened to her to get her through the tough times of coming out and even afterwards. Homosexuality isn't completely acceptable in societies eyes even today. It could also be a message for those who live in the same predicament or the author could have been taking it deeper to say that when there is a problem because everyone is human you can have someone to turn to.
The book was about the author growing up with her gay father who preyed on younger boys, her mother who was busy with her dissertations, and he family who were so unique and filled with a lot of responsibilities and passions. Her Father like interior and exterior designs, reading, art, and clothes. He was a closet gay and was pretending to be someone he wasn't. He never came out that he was gay but it showed through with the guys he was cheating on his wife with. Her Mother also showed signs that he was gay by being angry when he did certain things like going on trips with the kids and a guy who worked with the family. Throughout the authors childhood she never expected her father to be gay, but by her father being gay do to this last line in the book she was able to come out with her own sexuality.
The author didn't come out till she was in college when she fully realized that she was lesbian. She was the closest to her father at the time because they were intellectual companions and they wrote back and forth to each other while she was away. When she mentioned that she was gay he hinted off that he was to but never fully came out. However, in his letters and words and gave her good advice and kind of encouraged it without really encouraging it. For example, he mentioned in one of his letters that when he was in college in the 50s that wasn't acceptable and that she was fortunate that she was able to go to college in that era where things were more open.
Even after his death he helped her. When she found out about her father's crimes and sexuality she kind of related to him more and took his mistakes to not create her own. Knowing that her father bottled it up and could have led to his death she doesn't want to make the same mistake. She was going to live her life to who she was and that was it she wasn't going to pretend that she was someone she wasn't. In some ways he helped her come to terms with who she was.
So the last words of the graphic novel, "He was there to catch me when I lept." Encompasses what the author wanted to get across in the end to the readers. That there was someone for her to look to. She had advice and someone who listened to her to get her through the tough times of coming out and even afterwards. Homosexuality isn't completely acceptable in societies eyes even today. It could also be a message for those who live in the same predicament or the author could have been taking it deeper to say that when there is a problem because everyone is human you can have someone to turn to.
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