Atonement by Ian McEwan was a satisfying choice novel. I really like Part One (the first half of the book) with the set-up of the crime Briony commits. The second half was harder to get through, especially Part Two when Robbie was a soldier.
One major theme of this book, as the title suggests, is atonement. Briony commits a crime that destroys her family, mostly her sister, and feels like she must make up for it through her writing. Yet when she tells the story to a magazine she keeps her crime out; when she gets it back from the publisher who wants more depth she asks herself, “might she obscure the fact by concocting a slight, barely clever fiction and satisfy her vanity by sending it off to a magazine” (302)? When she approaches Cecilia to try to make things right, Cecilia says, “I won’t ever forgive you” (318). It is at the age of 77 when Briony realizes the reality of compensating for her crime, and the relation to her writing. “How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God” (350)?
Throughout the book the thing Briony devotes her life to, before she needs to make amends with her sister, is writing. “At the age of eleven she wrote her first story,” and at thirteen she writes her first play where she conveys her apprehensions saying, “the reader was bound to speculate that she was describing herself” (6). What Briony loves about her writing, however, is that “everyone would adore her” (11). At 77, when she is waiting for her novel to be published and sees her first play acted out, she concludes that her writing “was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all” (351).
I feel like Ian McEwan, as an author, is trying to reveal his own feelings about writing. Through Briony’s eyes, McEwan is showing the process he goes through to complete his own works. If this is true, McEwan is comparable to Tim O’Brien in the fact that he “heats up the truth.” Briony uses people from her real life and changes the details to make it fit in her story. “Who would want to believe them, except in the service of the bleakest realism? I’m too old, too frightened, too much in love with the shred of life I have remaining…But what really happened? The answer is simple: the lovers survive and flourish” (350). I can relate to altering information in my writing from writing my personal narrative.
McEwan’s writing style also remined me of O’Brien’s because of the way he set up the chapters. Each of the chapters gives different characters’ perspectives on what is going on, mentioning events that get explained later on. For example, Briony walks in on Cecilia and Robbie having sex, and “her immediate understanding was that she had interrupted an attack, a hand-to-hand fight” (116). Yet later on, Cecilia describes the details of her sexual encounter with Robbie. This is similar to O’Brien’s writing style when he mentions an event, like Kiowa’s death, and then explains it with more data in a later chapter. This technique builds suspense for the reader; it helped me stay involved in the book.
Another major theme of Atonement is maturity. Lola, Briony’s 15-year-old cousin, “had come to the nursery that morning in the guise of the adult she considered herself at heart to be” (32). Yet Lola is still a girl; after being beaten by her brothers, Lola sought out Briony to console her. While Lola is weakened by this experience, Briony is strengthened. “That a girl so brittle and domineering should be brought this low by a couple of nine-year-old boys seemed wondrous to Briony, and it gave her a sense of her own power” (110). Briony, as only a thirteen-year-old, doesn’t really grasp the power she has. She destroys her family by telling them what she thinks she sees (Robbie raping Lola), but she doesn’t foresee the repercussions of her actions. When Briony apologizes to her sister, she explains that what made her change her mind about Lola’s rapist was “Growing up” (323).
Atonement helped me see a cultural view of upper-class British life. It also helped me look through a feminine lens at a marriage that most would consider failing, but keeps the couple strong. Mainly Atonement reminded me that while a relationship can be destroyed with a single sentence, it may never be restored, even after a lifetime of feeling sorry.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Lost Youth
Thesis: In Persepolis and The Things They Carried, war wrecks young lives and needs to be coped with, but a childhood can be recovered.
Claims:
1. In Persepolis, Marji, a victim of war in her country, is forced to grow up too quickly.
- The images of torture, such as the iron, that Marji hears about are too shocking for a ten-year-old. “I never imagined that you could use that appliance for torture” (51).
- Marji goes to the basement to escape the destruction of war around her. “It was awful. But this was not the moment to give in. With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye” (117).
- At age 14, Marji left her family to escape the war and live alone in Vienna. “what I had feared was true…we’d never live together again” (152).
2. In The Things They Carried, the soldiers are boys forced to become men too early.
- “The average age in our platoon, I’d guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere…Like when Azar blew up Ted Lavender’s puppy. ‘What’s everybody so upset about?’ Azar said. ‘I mean, Christ, I’m just a boy’” (37).
- “The whole platoon stood there watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world….Rat Kiley was crying (79).
- “He grabbed Kiowa by the boot and tried to pull him out. He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and suddenly he felt himself going, too” (149). “[Norman] three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown” (155).
3. By not always taking matters like torture and death seriously, victims of war can seriously cope with them.
- “No one took the torture sessions seriously anymore. As for me, I immediately started making fun of them” (Satrapi 97).
- “Dave Jensen went over and shook the [dead] old man’s hand. ‘How-dee-doo,’ he said. One by one the others did it too” (O’Brien 226).
- “By slighting death, by acting, we pretended it was not the terrible thing it was” (O’Brien 238).
4. Marji in Persepolis and Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried are trying to hold on to their innocence.
- The night before Marji leaves for Vienna, her grandmother comes to stay with her. “Can I sleep with you?” asked Marji (150). “That’s why I’m here!” her grandmother replied (150). “I smelled my grandma’s bosom. It smelled good. I’ll never forget that smell” (150).
- “I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”
So What: O’Brien and Satrapi are saying that while war damages young lives and needs to be coped with, the innocence of youth can be preserved. They are both trying to distill hope into their readers despite the cruelties of war.
Claims:
1. In Persepolis, Marji, a victim of war in her country, is forced to grow up too quickly.
- The images of torture, such as the iron, that Marji hears about are too shocking for a ten-year-old. “I never imagined that you could use that appliance for torture” (51).
- Marji goes to the basement to escape the destruction of war around her. “It was awful. But this was not the moment to give in. With this first cigarette, I kissed childhood goodbye” (117).
- At age 14, Marji left her family to escape the war and live alone in Vienna. “what I had feared was true…we’d never live together again” (152).
2. In The Things They Carried, the soldiers are boys forced to become men too early.
- “The average age in our platoon, I’d guess, was nineteen or twenty, and as a consequence things often took on a curiously playful atmosphere…Like when Azar blew up Ted Lavender’s puppy. ‘What’s everybody so upset about?’ Azar said. ‘I mean, Christ, I’m just a boy’” (37).
- “The whole platoon stood there watching, feeling all kinds of things, but there wasn’t a great deal of pity for the baby water buffalo. Curt Lemon was dead. Rat Kiley had lost his best friend in the world….Rat Kiley was crying (79).
- “He grabbed Kiowa by the boot and tried to pull him out. He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and suddenly he felt himself going, too” (149). “[Norman] three years later hanged himself in the locker room of a YMCA in his hometown” (155).
3. By not always taking matters like torture and death seriously, victims of war can seriously cope with them.
- “No one took the torture sessions seriously anymore. As for me, I immediately started making fun of them” (Satrapi 97).
- “Dave Jensen went over and shook the [dead] old man’s hand. ‘How-dee-doo,’ he said. One by one the others did it too” (O’Brien 226).
- “By slighting death, by acting, we pretended it was not the terrible thing it was” (O’Brien 238).
4. Marji in Persepolis and Tim O’Brien in The Things They Carried are trying to hold on to their innocence.
- The night before Marji leaves for Vienna, her grandmother comes to stay with her. “Can I sleep with you?” asked Marji (150). “That’s why I’m here!” her grandmother replied (150). “I smelled my grandma’s bosom. It smelled good. I’ll never forget that smell” (150).
- “I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”
So What: O’Brien and Satrapi are saying that while war damages young lives and needs to be coped with, the innocence of youth can be preserved. They are both trying to distill hope into their readers despite the cruelties of war.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Double Vision
Persepolis is my favorite book that we have read so far. It made me laugh, but most of all it made me think. I still don’t really understand why the book is titled Persepolis. There is a chapter with the same name, but it didn’t explain the meaning. Maybe it is a historical Iranian figure. Or maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention, and Satrapi did give an explanation.
One thing I liked about this book was Marji’s relationship with God. She says, “At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet” (6). And God holds her in his arms as he tells her, “you are my choice, my last and best choice” (8). Yet while she is able to talk to God, that doesn’t mean she is devoted to, or even proud of, him; that is what I like about their relationship—it’s honest. After her beloved uncle dies, Marji screams at God to “Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again! […] And so I was lost, without any bearings…what could be worse than that” (69-70)? Satrapi does an excellent job of revealing an honest struggle with religion without being overdramatic.
Another struggle with religion Satrapi depicts is Marji’s feelings about the Iranian government trying to use religion to gain power. The universities were shut down “to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam” (73), and Marji’s mom told her, “If anyone ever asks you what you do during the day, say you pray” (75). Marji obeyed her mother, but her family was not devout to Islam, and neither was the government, who only used it to take control of the people. Satrapi’s portrayal of the tension between staying true to one’s beliefs and doing what the law requires for survival is astounding. After reading what her family went through, her mom being raped and her uncle dying in prison, even if it is a fiction book, makes me value what I have in my own life.
Something I am blessed with that I share with Marji is a loving family. Even though Marji desperately wants to protest as a child, her parents protect her by not letting her. When Marji’s mom allows her to demonstrate a year layer, her family quickly leaves the site, and then the country for a trip. Marji argues with her parents, telling her mom, “You are the guardian of the revolution of this house” (113)! But her parents send her to Vienna because they want what’s best for her: “We love you so much that we want you to go,” and Marji realized it at last: “I couldn’t bear looking at them there […] Nothing’s worse than saying goodbye” (153). Marji’s honest emotions make her a character I can relate to.
What I couldn’t relate to throughout the book were the historical references. Although they were somewhat explained, it was hard for me to keep the leaders of Iran straight, especially what they were doing (or not doing) for the country. I think what would help me out is if I did some research about the 1979 Revolution and Iran’s leaders. Though I do think the pictures with the text helped me keep track of the different people better.
The drawings really added depth to Persepolis. I had never read a graphic novel before, and I enjoyed it. There are many things that can be said without using words, like when Marji’s parents say, “Let’s enjoy our new freedom! Now that the devil has left,” (43) and there is a serpent slinking in the background. The pictures help the reader see beyond the text, though, like Ms. Mork said, it is basically like reading two texts at once.
I look forward to discussing Persepolis in class, especially using the different lenses. I think it may be a challenge because of the “two texts,” but I want to get a better understanding of the message Satrapi was trying to send, past what she said in her introduction. One thing I want to ask the group is what people think happens after the end of the book, because the ending left me curious; maybe I should go buy Persepolis 2.
One thing I liked about this book was Marji’s relationship with God. She says, “At the age of six I was already sure I was the last prophet” (6). And God holds her in his arms as he tells her, “you are my choice, my last and best choice” (8). Yet while she is able to talk to God, that doesn’t mean she is devoted to, or even proud of, him; that is what I like about their relationship—it’s honest. After her beloved uncle dies, Marji screams at God to “Get out of my life!!! I never want to see you again! […] And so I was lost, without any bearings…what could be worse than that” (69-70)? Satrapi does an excellent job of revealing an honest struggle with religion without being overdramatic.
Another struggle with religion Satrapi depicts is Marji’s feelings about the Iranian government trying to use religion to gain power. The universities were shut down “to ensure that our children are not led astray from the true path of Islam” (73), and Marji’s mom told her, “If anyone ever asks you what you do during the day, say you pray” (75). Marji obeyed her mother, but her family was not devout to Islam, and neither was the government, who only used it to take control of the people. Satrapi’s portrayal of the tension between staying true to one’s beliefs and doing what the law requires for survival is astounding. After reading what her family went through, her mom being raped and her uncle dying in prison, even if it is a fiction book, makes me value what I have in my own life.
Something I am blessed with that I share with Marji is a loving family. Even though Marji desperately wants to protest as a child, her parents protect her by not letting her. When Marji’s mom allows her to demonstrate a year layer, her family quickly leaves the site, and then the country for a trip. Marji argues with her parents, telling her mom, “You are the guardian of the revolution of this house” (113)! But her parents send her to Vienna because they want what’s best for her: “We love you so much that we want you to go,” and Marji realized it at last: “I couldn’t bear looking at them there […] Nothing’s worse than saying goodbye” (153). Marji’s honest emotions make her a character I can relate to.
What I couldn’t relate to throughout the book were the historical references. Although they were somewhat explained, it was hard for me to keep the leaders of Iran straight, especially what they were doing (or not doing) for the country. I think what would help me out is if I did some research about the 1979 Revolution and Iran’s leaders. Though I do think the pictures with the text helped me keep track of the different people better.
The drawings really added depth to Persepolis. I had never read a graphic novel before, and I enjoyed it. There are many things that can be said without using words, like when Marji’s parents say, “Let’s enjoy our new freedom! Now that the devil has left,” (43) and there is a serpent slinking in the background. The pictures help the reader see beyond the text, though, like Ms. Mork said, it is basically like reading two texts at once.
I look forward to discussing Persepolis in class, especially using the different lenses. I think it may be a challenge because of the “two texts,” but I want to get a better understanding of the message Satrapi was trying to send, past what she said in her introduction. One thing I want to ask the group is what people think happens after the end of the book, because the ending left me curious; maybe I should go buy Persepolis 2.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Male Models
“So [Sula] watched her mother’s face and the face of the men when they opened the pantry door and made up her own mind” (44). In Toni Morrison’s book Sula, Sula is a girl without any men in her life except the ones her mother has sex with in the pantry. She has no idea how a normal woman in society is supposed to treat men. Because she has no male role models, Sula grows up thinking men are just for sex.
Sula grows up without any men to look up to. Hannah, Sula’s mom, “married…Rekus who died when…Sula was about three” (41). Without a father around, Sula lives with “a constant stream of boarders” (30). The only man that sticks around at the Peace house is Tar Baby. And while he is “a beautiful, slight, quiet man,” (39) he is “intent solely on drinking himself to death” (40). Sula has no examples of what a good man is, or how she should behave around them.
The only relationships Sula sees are the sexual ones between Hannah and her lovers. “Hannah simply refused to live without the attention of a man, and after Rekus’ death had a steady sequence of lovers, mostly the husbands of her friends and neighbors” (42). Yet Hannah’s reputation is not damaged. On the contrary, “The men…never gossiped about her” (44) and the women felt like “she was complimenting [them]…by wanting their husbands” (115). Sula gets the idea that it’s okay to have sex with anyone, even married people, from watching her mother and the Bottom’s reaction to her.
Sula uses the ideas she learns in her childhood and translates them into adult actions. Just as her mother did, “[Sula] went to bed with men as frequently as she could. It was the only place where she could find what she was looking for” (122). Sula uses sex for her own pleasure without caring about the men she sleeps with. The one man she does feel something for, Ajax, turns out to someone she doesn’t know and even makes her question everything in her life. “I have known nothing ever at all since the one thing I wanted was to know his name so how could he help but leave me since he was making love to a woman who didn’t even know his name…It’s just as well he left” (136). Sula stops caring about Jude just like she doesn’t mind what the people of the Bottom think. Unlike her mother, “the men gave her the final label…said she was guilty of the unforgivable thing…Sula slept with white men” (112). And “the fury she created in the women of the town was incredible…Sula was trying [their husbands] out and discarding them” (115). Most of these views come after Sula has sex with an important man in Nel’s life.
When Sula comes back to the Bottom after leaving for college she visits her best friend Nel who is now married. Not long after her initial return, Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband Jude. While this action damages Nel and Sula’s relationship, Sula “had no thought at all of Nel pain…They had always shared the affection of other people” (119). Because of the roles she sees both genders play during her childhood, she doesn’t understand the roles society expects from her. How could she, “having had no intimate knowledge of marriage, having lived in a house with women who thought all men available” (119)? Sula’s views on men in her adult life are that they are good for sex because that is all she knows.
Sula, like any child, follows the example of the adults in her life. Because of this, Sula does not know that men, even ones married to her friends, are there for anything but sex. While her friendship with Nel is harmed, Sula stays true to herself and her childhood beliefs. Toni Morrison wants to show the reader that having a man or not in a girl’s childhood affects her entire life.
Sula grows up without any men to look up to. Hannah, Sula’s mom, “married…Rekus who died when…Sula was about three” (41). Without a father around, Sula lives with “a constant stream of boarders” (30). The only man that sticks around at the Peace house is Tar Baby. And while he is “a beautiful, slight, quiet man,” (39) he is “intent solely on drinking himself to death” (40). Sula has no examples of what a good man is, or how she should behave around them.
The only relationships Sula sees are the sexual ones between Hannah and her lovers. “Hannah simply refused to live without the attention of a man, and after Rekus’ death had a steady sequence of lovers, mostly the husbands of her friends and neighbors” (42). Yet Hannah’s reputation is not damaged. On the contrary, “The men…never gossiped about her” (44) and the women felt like “she was complimenting [them]…by wanting their husbands” (115). Sula gets the idea that it’s okay to have sex with anyone, even married people, from watching her mother and the Bottom’s reaction to her.
Sula uses the ideas she learns in her childhood and translates them into adult actions. Just as her mother did, “[Sula] went to bed with men as frequently as she could. It was the only place where she could find what she was looking for” (122). Sula uses sex for her own pleasure without caring about the men she sleeps with. The one man she does feel something for, Ajax, turns out to someone she doesn’t know and even makes her question everything in her life. “I have known nothing ever at all since the one thing I wanted was to know his name so how could he help but leave me since he was making love to a woman who didn’t even know his name…It’s just as well he left” (136). Sula stops caring about Jude just like she doesn’t mind what the people of the Bottom think. Unlike her mother, “the men gave her the final label…said she was guilty of the unforgivable thing…Sula slept with white men” (112). And “the fury she created in the women of the town was incredible…Sula was trying [their husbands] out and discarding them” (115). Most of these views come after Sula has sex with an important man in Nel’s life.
When Sula comes back to the Bottom after leaving for college she visits her best friend Nel who is now married. Not long after her initial return, Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband Jude. While this action damages Nel and Sula’s relationship, Sula “had no thought at all of Nel pain…They had always shared the affection of other people” (119). Because of the roles she sees both genders play during her childhood, she doesn’t understand the roles society expects from her. How could she, “having had no intimate knowledge of marriage, having lived in a house with women who thought all men available” (119)? Sula’s views on men in her adult life are that they are good for sex because that is all she knows.
Sula, like any child, follows the example of the adults in her life. Because of this, Sula does not know that men, even ones married to her friends, are there for anything but sex. While her friendship with Nel is harmed, Sula stays true to herself and her childhood beliefs. Toni Morrison wants to show the reader that having a man or not in a girl’s childhood affects her entire life.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Chicken Little
Chicken Little was walking down the streets of Medallion, near Eva Peace’s house. It was a huge house with people constantly going in and out. As the little boy stuck his dirty finger up his even dirtier nose, he looked up and then scurried away so the scary woman with one leg wouldn’t see him. Right then one of the deweys through one of Tar Baby’s empty bottles at the little boy and hit him right on the head.
“Gosh darnit!” Chicken Little thought. “We’re so close to Heaven, it’s rainin’ on us.”
“Heaven is fallin’! Heaven’s a fallin’!” Chicken shouted. He practically toppled over Mrs. Jackson.
“Child, what are you screaming ‘bout?” the old lady asked, chewing on a piece of ice.
“Heaven’s fallin’. It knocked me o’er the head. Bottom’s gonna turn into Heaven.”
“Well, I’ll be” Mrs. Jackson murmured. She shook her head and began to walk away. “We could probably do with a bit more Heaven down here anyway.”
Heartened that Mrs. Jackson seemed to somewhat get what he was saying, Chicken Little began running towards the riverbank. His bare feet tossed up more dirt with each step as he increased speed. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a rock and fell flat on his face. As he slowly picked himself off the ground, his eyes traveled all the way up to meet those of his older brother.
“Where ya headed brother?” Albert asked.
“Nowhere…” Chicken Little muttered. “I hafta tell everyone Heaven’s fallin’.”
“What did you say?”
“Heaven’s falling! It hit me in the noggin!”
“You an idiot! Heaven ain’t fallin’ down on nobody. Now git outta here ‘fore I tell Mama ‘bout your crazy talk. Or maybe I’ll just knock ya into Heaven right now,” Albert threatened, picking up a stone from the ground.
Heeding his brother’s warning, Chicken continued on his path toward the river. He ventured down to the lower bank to play in the water. After unbuttoning his knickers to go for a swim, he heard voices from above. He buttoned back up and started up the riverbank. There he spotted Nel and Sula gazing over the water. He stopped when they saw him and picked his nose. Nel yelled at him, but Sula quieted her.
Sula. Despite the strange fox over her eye, she was always kind and helpful to little Chicken. She even let him climb a tree.
“Hey, Sula. I think I can reach Heaven. It’s fallin’ down ya know.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well it hit me smack on the head.”
Sula flashed her big white teeth. “Alright Chicken, Heaven’s falling.” Looking into Sula’s eyes, Chicken knew he everything was going to be okay.
Back on the ground, Sula “picked [Chicken] up by his hands and swung him outward then around and around” (Morrison 60). Chicken laughed and laughed. He felt the release of Sula’s grip, but he kept on laughing. His fingertips grasped Heaven as he flew over the water. Once his body hit the sandy bottom he was face to face with Heaven’s gate. Chicken smiled with confidence as he walked on in and whispered in amazement. “I knew it was falling.”
* * * * *
The name Chicken Little was used in the book for a reason and I wanted to capitalize on that. I was just going to use a version of “The Sky is Falling” fable and use Chicken Little from the book instead of the chicken in the story, but it sounded funny for a boy to be walking around with a bunch of birds. So I decided to take the Chicken Little from Sula’s perspective on what happened to him, while still keeping some of the fabric of “The Sky is Falling” story. It took me a long time to figure out what to name Chicken’s brother but I chose Albert after I researched Sula’s name online and found out that in Icelandic it meant “the sun.” I found a website, http://www.halfdan.is/vestur/nofn.htm, with meanings of Icelandic names and found one that mean high-born. I figured Chicken’s brother would be older since he was so intent on telling him how high he was in the tree. The actual Icelandic name is Aðalbjörg, so I turned it into a more manageable name, hence Albert. I made Chicken see Sula’s birthmark as a fox because in the version of Chicken Little that I read, Chicken is eaten (killed) by a fox and Sula (accidentally) kills Chicken.
“Gosh darnit!” Chicken Little thought. “We’re so close to Heaven, it’s rainin’ on us.”
“Heaven is fallin’! Heaven’s a fallin’!” Chicken shouted. He practically toppled over Mrs. Jackson.
“Child, what are you screaming ‘bout?” the old lady asked, chewing on a piece of ice.
“Heaven’s fallin’. It knocked me o’er the head. Bottom’s gonna turn into Heaven.”
“Well, I’ll be” Mrs. Jackson murmured. She shook her head and began to walk away. “We could probably do with a bit more Heaven down here anyway.”
Heartened that Mrs. Jackson seemed to somewhat get what he was saying, Chicken Little began running towards the riverbank. His bare feet tossed up more dirt with each step as he increased speed. Not watching where he was going, he tripped on a rock and fell flat on his face. As he slowly picked himself off the ground, his eyes traveled all the way up to meet those of his older brother.
“Where ya headed brother?” Albert asked.
“Nowhere…” Chicken Little muttered. “I hafta tell everyone Heaven’s fallin’.”
“What did you say?”
“Heaven’s falling! It hit me in the noggin!”
“You an idiot! Heaven ain’t fallin’ down on nobody. Now git outta here ‘fore I tell Mama ‘bout your crazy talk. Or maybe I’ll just knock ya into Heaven right now,” Albert threatened, picking up a stone from the ground.
Heeding his brother’s warning, Chicken continued on his path toward the river. He ventured down to the lower bank to play in the water. After unbuttoning his knickers to go for a swim, he heard voices from above. He buttoned back up and started up the riverbank. There he spotted Nel and Sula gazing over the water. He stopped when they saw him and picked his nose. Nel yelled at him, but Sula quieted her.
Sula. Despite the strange fox over her eye, she was always kind and helpful to little Chicken. She even let him climb a tree.
“Hey, Sula. I think I can reach Heaven. It’s fallin’ down ya know.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well it hit me smack on the head.”
Sula flashed her big white teeth. “Alright Chicken, Heaven’s falling.” Looking into Sula’s eyes, Chicken knew he everything was going to be okay.
Back on the ground, Sula “picked [Chicken] up by his hands and swung him outward then around and around” (Morrison 60). Chicken laughed and laughed. He felt the release of Sula’s grip, but he kept on laughing. His fingertips grasped Heaven as he flew over the water. Once his body hit the sandy bottom he was face to face with Heaven’s gate. Chicken smiled with confidence as he walked on in and whispered in amazement. “I knew it was falling.”
* * * * *
The name Chicken Little was used in the book for a reason and I wanted to capitalize on that. I was just going to use a version of “The Sky is Falling” fable and use Chicken Little from the book instead of the chicken in the story, but it sounded funny for a boy to be walking around with a bunch of birds. So I decided to take the Chicken Little from Sula’s perspective on what happened to him, while still keeping some of the fabric of “The Sky is Falling” story. It took me a long time to figure out what to name Chicken’s brother but I chose Albert after I researched Sula’s name online and found out that in Icelandic it meant “the sun.” I found a website, http://www.halfdan.is/vestur/nofn.htm, with meanings of Icelandic names and found one that mean high-born. I figured Chicken’s brother would be older since he was so intent on telling him how high he was in the tree. The actual Icelandic name is Aðalbjörg, so I turned it into a more manageable name, hence Albert. I made Chicken see Sula’s birthmark as a fox because in the version of Chicken Little that I read, Chicken is eaten (killed) by a fox and Sula (accidentally) kills Chicken.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Sula
This book surprised me. I was warned that there were some explicit scenes, which I found to be truer than I expected. Not just the sexual parts, but the deaths, especially burning. Toni Morrison is a very detailed author. From the beginning I was struck by her descriptions, like of what Shadrack sees after getting out of the hospital. “There were many people…they were thin slips, like paper dolls floating down the walks…A good high wind would pull them up and away and they would land perhaps among the tops of the trees” (11). Throughout the book Morrison’s language makes me feels like I am a part of the scene.
She is also good at making me feel what the characters are feeling. When Eva is explaining to Hannah why she killed her own child, I want to cry along with her. “I just thought of a way he could die like a man…But I held him close first…My baby boy” (72). Eva is a mother who only wants to do what she thinks is best for her son, even if that means murdering him.
The relationships between children and their parents was a strong topic in this novel, and a disheartening one. This subject is mainly exemplified with mothers and their daughters. A daughter seeks loves from her mother, but does not receive it, and the pattern gets repeated down the generations. This is evident with the Peace women: Eva, Hannah, and Sula. Hannah asks Eve if she loved her when she was little and Eva says “No. I don’t reckon I did” (67). Then when Hannah is talking to her friends, Sula hears her tell them “I love Sula. I just don’t like her” (57). Sula is crushed, as any child would be.
Yet what I took from these relationships is the way the characters define and express love. Hannah says she loves Sula, but basically only because she’s her mother. Nel too “had looked at her children and knew…That they were all she would ever know of love. But it was a love that…had cooked out” (165). Eva interprets love as her motherly duty as well. She yells at Hannah saying “what you talkin’ ‘bout did I love you girl I stayed alive for you” (69). In Sula, being a mother is an act of love in itself.
Sex is a common act in the book, and one usually thought to be of love. However, the characters in Sula challenge that belief. After Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband Jude, Nel is devastated. A few years later when Sula is sick in bed, Nel comes to visit and asks Sula why she did it. “[Sula] looked bored…‛Well, there was this space in front of me, behind me, in my head…And Jude filled it up. That’s all’”(144). Sula doesn’t see sex as a very big deal, a lesson she probably learned from her mother. “[Hannah] would f--- practically anything” which “taught Sula that sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable” (43,44). Sula adopts her attitudes about men from her mother, but her way of life affects many people.
It really surprised me that the whole town is affected by Sula’s actions. Being a tight-knit community, it makes sense that people gossip about Sula, but I didn’t expect that they would act differently because of her. Sula is named a devil after sending Eva to an old folks home, sleeping with Jude, and doing “the unforgivable thing…[sleeping] with white men” (112). Yet the town, rather than be stirred up and angry as I would anticipate, unites with love. “They began to cherish their husbands and wives, protect their children, repair their homes and in general band together against the devil in their midst” (117). Sula’s corrupt behaviors cause the people of the Bottom to be kind.
Just the opposite happens when Sula dies. While “The death of Sula Peace was the best news folks up in the Bottom had,” the community does not react happily (150). “Hard on the heels of the general relief that Sula’s death brought a restless irritability took hold….The tension was gone and so was the reason for the effort they had made” (153). Sula, however disliked, is a powerful woman who has a strong hold on the town. She is persistent with what she did. And although she may make the wrong choices, at least in the eyes of others, one thing is very true—she is herself.
Sula always knows what she wants, and she goes out and gets it. Her confidence makes her a good friend for Nel, who even with her “new found me-ness” lives under a mother who “drove her daughter’s imagination underground” (29,18). Nel and Sula are opposites, but that is no hindrance to their friendship. “[Sula] made [Nel] laugh…made her see old things with new eyes, in [her] presence [Nel] felt clever, gentle and a little raunchy” (95). Nel needs Sula and Sula needs Nel. “[Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self...Nel was the one person who wanted nothing from her, who had accepted all aspects of her” (119). Even though it takes Nel a long while to realize it, she needs Sula more than anyone. At the end of the books Nel discovers that she was grieving the loss of Sula, not Jude.
A major lesson I got out of Sula was the value of a great friendship. Nel and Sula have a strong bond, and while they never regained that bond after Sula slept with Jude, both women were changed by their companionship. This book makes me value my own friends even more.
Some things I want to talk about in discussion are the characters of Shadrack and Eva, and what it means to be part of the Bottom. I also want to discuss what happened when everyone joined Shadrack in the National Suicide Day march. Actually, I just need some clarification on everything relating to Shadrack because his character confused me, especially at the beginning of the book. I don’t know why he was in the hospital or what was going on when he first got out of the hospital.
She is also good at making me feel what the characters are feeling. When Eva is explaining to Hannah why she killed her own child, I want to cry along with her. “I just thought of a way he could die like a man…But I held him close first…My baby boy” (72). Eva is a mother who only wants to do what she thinks is best for her son, even if that means murdering him.
The relationships between children and their parents was a strong topic in this novel, and a disheartening one. This subject is mainly exemplified with mothers and their daughters. A daughter seeks loves from her mother, but does not receive it, and the pattern gets repeated down the generations. This is evident with the Peace women: Eva, Hannah, and Sula. Hannah asks Eve if she loved her when she was little and Eva says “No. I don’t reckon I did” (67). Then when Hannah is talking to her friends, Sula hears her tell them “I love Sula. I just don’t like her” (57). Sula is crushed, as any child would be.
Yet what I took from these relationships is the way the characters define and express love. Hannah says she loves Sula, but basically only because she’s her mother. Nel too “had looked at her children and knew…That they were all she would ever know of love. But it was a love that…had cooked out” (165). Eva interprets love as her motherly duty as well. She yells at Hannah saying “what you talkin’ ‘bout did I love you girl I stayed alive for you” (69). In Sula, being a mother is an act of love in itself.
Sex is a common act in the book, and one usually thought to be of love. However, the characters in Sula challenge that belief. After Sula sleeps with Nel’s husband Jude, Nel is devastated. A few years later when Sula is sick in bed, Nel comes to visit and asks Sula why she did it. “[Sula] looked bored…‛Well, there was this space in front of me, behind me, in my head…And Jude filled it up. That’s all’”(144). Sula doesn’t see sex as a very big deal, a lesson she probably learned from her mother. “[Hannah] would f--- practically anything” which “taught Sula that sex was pleasant and frequent, but otherwise unremarkable” (43,44). Sula adopts her attitudes about men from her mother, but her way of life affects many people.
It really surprised me that the whole town is affected by Sula’s actions. Being a tight-knit community, it makes sense that people gossip about Sula, but I didn’t expect that they would act differently because of her. Sula is named a devil after sending Eva to an old folks home, sleeping with Jude, and doing “the unforgivable thing…[sleeping] with white men” (112). Yet the town, rather than be stirred up and angry as I would anticipate, unites with love. “They began to cherish their husbands and wives, protect their children, repair their homes and in general band together against the devil in their midst” (117). Sula’s corrupt behaviors cause the people of the Bottom to be kind.
Just the opposite happens when Sula dies. While “The death of Sula Peace was the best news folks up in the Bottom had,” the community does not react happily (150). “Hard on the heels of the general relief that Sula’s death brought a restless irritability took hold….The tension was gone and so was the reason for the effort they had made” (153). Sula, however disliked, is a powerful woman who has a strong hold on the town. She is persistent with what she did. And although she may make the wrong choices, at least in the eyes of others, one thing is very true—she is herself.
Sula always knows what she wants, and she goes out and gets it. Her confidence makes her a good friend for Nel, who even with her “new found me-ness” lives under a mother who “drove her daughter’s imagination underground” (29,18). Nel and Sula are opposites, but that is no hindrance to their friendship. “[Sula] made [Nel] laugh…made her see old things with new eyes, in [her] presence [Nel] felt clever, gentle and a little raunchy” (95). Nel needs Sula and Sula needs Nel. “[Sula] had clung to Nel as the closest thing to both an other and a self...Nel was the one person who wanted nothing from her, who had accepted all aspects of her” (119). Even though it takes Nel a long while to realize it, she needs Sula more than anyone. At the end of the books Nel discovers that she was grieving the loss of Sula, not Jude.
A major lesson I got out of Sula was the value of a great friendship. Nel and Sula have a strong bond, and while they never regained that bond after Sula slept with Jude, both women were changed by their companionship. This book makes me value my own friends even more.
Some things I want to talk about in discussion are the characters of Shadrack and Eva, and what it means to be part of the Bottom. I also want to discuss what happened when everyone joined Shadrack in the National Suicide Day march. Actually, I just need some clarification on everything relating to Shadrack because his character confused me, especially at the beginning of the book. I don’t know why he was in the hospital or what was going on when he first got out of the hospital.
Fort Marion
I made a poster about Fort Marion and to answer the question of what happened to the prisoners kept there.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Goldman, Marlene. "Mapping and dreaming: Native resistance in Green Grass, Running Water." Canadian Literature. 1999. 18. eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
Kirkwood, Scott. "Drawing on Experience." National Parks. 01 Apr 2006. 20. eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
Werner, Louis. "Captive warriors' eloquent sketches.(ledger drawings by Plains Indians)." Americas (English Edition). 01 Jun 1998. 28(8). eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
PROCESS
I went to the Champlin Park website and found a list of online resources to use for research. I ended up using all of my sources from Elibrary because they had the most scholarly articles that had beneficial information. I then read through the articles and typed the summarizing notes to use as points on my poster.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Goldman, Marlene. "Mapping and dreaming: Native resistance in Green Grass, Running Water." Canadian Literature. 1999. 18. eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
Kirkwood, Scott. "Drawing on Experience." National Parks. 01 Apr 2006. 20. eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
Werner, Louis. "Captive warriors' eloquent sketches.(ledger drawings by Plains Indians)." Americas (English Edition). 01 Jun 1998. 28(8). eLibrary. Proquest. 03 Mar 2007. Available: http://elibrary.bigchalk.com.
PROCESS
I went to the Champlin Park website and found a list of online resources to use for research. I ended up using all of my sources from Elibrary because they had the most scholarly articles that had beneficial information. I then read through the articles and typed the summarizing notes to use as points on my poster.
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