Religious Distance in "This Blessed House"

Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies is a collection of short stories that encompasses quite a lot of themes, many of which are religious. In the story, "This Blessed House," the characters deal with religious identity and distance.

The characters in the story, Twinkle and Sanjeev, have just been married, though they have only known each other for a few months. The distance between them is evident from the start, since they are basically strangers that have been forced to live in the house together. While they are both Indian and Hindu, Twinkle is alone in being charmed by the Christian objects that she finds around the house. As Twinkle continues to find the objects, she becomes attached. In the meantime, Sanjeev becomes more and more detached from his wife. While Christianity fascinates Twinkle, it alienates and somewhat angers Sanjeev. As a foreign religion becomes more and more a part of their lives, their relationship is stressed and they become distant from each other.

Perhaps Lahiri is expressing her own struggle with being a Hindu in America. Christianity is such an ubiquitous topic in America, and Sanjeev feels like a stranger in his own home because it keeps popping up and invading his life.

The Feeling of being Misunderstood

Each of the stories in Interpreter of Maladies deal with characters that are going through everyday life. At times finding happiness by getting over their problems (A Temporary Matter) or luck (The Treatment of Bibi Halder). At other times, their hopes and dreams gets shattered (Interpreter of Maladies).

Some of the stories, I felt, left me with a few questions unanswered. For example, in the story Mrs. Sen I couldn't figure out at the end why there was a gap between Mr. and Mrs. Sen? Is it because they don’t have many children? Or was I really missing something? Also in the story The Blessed House, how come so much treasure had been left behind by the previous owners? Jhumpa doesn't attempt to unravel the mystery behind this treasure stored in the Blessed House, but only inform her readers that this discovery leads to the relationship between the newly-wedded couples getting stressed.
Lahiri's collection of stories shows the experience of being "foreign." Her characters long for a connection, but what they find is rarely what they expected. Those trying to adapt to an unfamiliar world don't always succeed. Some are homesick, many are misunderstood. In her short store Mrs. Sen Eliot quickly becomes aware of Mrs. Sen's loneliness, her confusion in a strange new culture. She alarms him by asking: "Eliot, if I began screaming right now at the top of my lungs, would someone come?"

Overall, Jhumpa adds a little magic too her stories to catch the readers. Written in a plain and simple language, her work is a enjoyable to read.

Where Has the Love Gone?

Throughout Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, a common “thread” that exists among the texts is the theme of failed/failing relationships. For instance, in “A Temporary Matter”, the couple’s relationship is failing because of a stillborn child. In “This Blessed House”, the couple suffers from a lack of communication about religion and in the “Interpreter of Maladies”, the wife reveals that she has had an affair on her husband. While reading these texts, it made me realize that Lahiri may be inferring that the constitution of marriage is not as serious as it used to be. It is not uncommon to know that divorce rates are very high among couples in the United States and that couples are separating at a quicker pace. During class, we discuss the concept of arranged marriages and it made me realize that this concept could be a very clever idea for United States’ families because it places a lot of importance on family. One thing that has become obsolete in some marriages today is the concept of having parental acceptance about a potential spouse. Also, while reading the texts it made me questions what is really important in a marriage: communication, love, trust, or compatibility? Has this contemporary society become so fixated on the perception of having a beautiful wedding or attractive spouse, that we have ignored the things that are really important for making a marriage last? I believe we have. Today, it is so common for the media to place some much importance on the cost of a wedding, instead of the commitment that a marriage involves. In conclusion, even though Lahiri makes the reader take a look at failing relationship, she also makes the reader see the possibility of a relationship succeeding. So, there may just be some help for marriages in the future.

"This Blessed House" Jhumpa Lahiri

In Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies, "This Blessed House" was one of the most powerful stories to me. It exemplified the respect for a religion that people have whether they actually believe in it or not. Sanjeev and Twinkle were Indian Hindus who were certain that they weren't Christians. Lahiri presents Twinkle, the female character, as the dominate force in the relationship. Twinkle has all of the masculine traits in the story such as the bad habit of smoking, laziness, a wild side, and is the decision maker of the relationship. Although Sanjeev insists on getting rid of all the Christian paraphernalia, Twinkle simply replies to him with, "No, we're not Christian. We're good little Hindus" (137) as she kissed the head of the Christ figure.

The inclusion of music symbolism helped highlight the role reversal between Sanjeev and Twinkle. The music is playing in "adagietto" at the point when Sanjeev first began to question his love for Twinkle. He references Mahler and the 5th Symphony to relay to the reader that slow, funeral-like music is being played. This music was supposed to symbolize "love and hapiness" and Sanjeev was not happy at that moment. An example of the role reversal is evident when , "a few ashes had fallen to the floor where she'd been standing. He bent down, pinched them between his fingers, and deposited them in his cupped palm" (140).

"This Blessed House" included a lot of themes including: love, sacrifice, respect, etc. Sanjeev's love and respect for Twinkle made it possible for him to sacrifice his personal beliefs and hold the Christ's head at the end of the story, "Sanjeev pressed the massive silver face to his ribs, careful not to let the feather hat slip, and followed her [Twinkle]" (157).

Miscommunication and Unexpressed Feelings

Common themes running through Lahiri's, Interpreter of Maladies, are miscommunication and unexpressed feelings. “Mrs. Sen’s” and “A Temporary Matter” are two stories in which the characters long for a meaningful connection they never find. Characters try to adapt to an unfamiliar world and don’t succeed. Some are homesick, many are misunderstood.
In "Mrs. Sen's," Lahiri tells of a woman who finds herself completely isolated. The narrator is 11-year-old Eliot, and Mrs. Sen is his after-school babysitter. We learn early on that Mrs. Sen doesn't need to work; she's only looking for a way to fill up her lonely afternoons while her husband is at the University working. Eliot quickly becomes aware of Mrs. Sen's loneliness and dissatisfaction in a strange culture. Driving the point home, she asks: "Eliot, if I began screaming right now at the top of my lungs, would someone come?" At home in India, she explains, "...just raise your voice a bit, or express grief or joy of any kind, and one whole neighborhood and half of another has come to share the news, to help with arrangements."
When Eliot gets off the bus at the edge of the complex, Mrs. Sen is already there, and seems to have been waiting for some time. She gives Eliot some snacks she produces from her pockets, and then they get into the car and she practices driving around the complex awhile. She is not allowed to drive onto the main road without her husband. This is a perfect example of Mrs. Sen’s loneliness and confined isolation. Eliot becomes Mrs. Sen's companion and confidant, and ultimately, witness to her unraveling. He discovers that she lives for the two things that make her happy: letters from home and whole fresh fish from the sea. Since she can't drive, Mrs. Sen must rely on her husband to take her to the fish market, but he is busy and resentful of her persistent requests.
In "A Temporary Matter," a young couple, whose marriage is at an end, receives a notice from the power company explaining that their neighborhood will be without power one hour each evening.On the first evening, they sit down to a candlelit dinner, their first meal together in months. We learn that they had a baby who'd died at birth. Shoba, his wife, used to be very capable and organized. She paid bills on time, and was always prepared for surprises. Now she was distracted, her clothes left lying around the house. Their responses to grief are opposite: as Shoba stays away, working late, burying herself in work even at home, Shukumar becomes a hermit, and cannot focus on his work at all. During dinner, Shoba proposes a game she used to play with relatives during power outages in India, in which each person takes a turn sharing something with the others. She suggests they tell each other something they've never told before. What ensues is a series of disclosures exchanged between Shukumar and Shoba during the dark hour, revealing "the little ways they'd hurt or disappointed each other, and themselves."Although Shukumar is wary of this game at first, he begins to look forward to their meals and this exchange with anticipation. Shukumar becomes hopeful, seeing this as the beginning of the restoration of their relationship. On the fourth night, they make love.
Shukumar has misunderstood the point of Shoba's game. For during this time, when he thinks they are growing closer, when it seems they might survive their grief after all, Shukumar learns through Shoba's final admission that she has been planning to move out. She returns home on the fifth night to announce that she has signed a lease.
Shukumar reveals to us that Shoba's one consolation was that they did not know the sex of their baby. She believed keeping that information a mystery lessened the blow somehow, the only thing she'd ever wanted to remain a surprise. However, unbeknownst to Shoba, Shukumar had held the baby in the hospital before the doctor took it away, and he knew it had been a boy. Realizing the end, Shukumar makes this his final confession to Shoba. "A Temporary Matter" is the most moving of the nine tales in Lahiri's collection. It is so tenderly written that by the end, we feel sorrow for both Shoba and Shukumar, for what they shared and lost, "for the things they now knew."

Jhumpa Lahiri is a sexist

Jhumpa Lahiri is a sexist. In three of her stories, A Temporary Matter, Interpreter of Maladies and Sexy, she portrays men negatively. She portrays them in different negative lights, but in all cases their bad traits shine through more brightly than any other.

In A Temporary Matter Shukumar is a weak, brooding man. He is depressed and he is not there for his wife in a time of shared pain and selfishly focuses on his own pain. He is blind or unconcerned that his marriage has disintegrated in front of him.

Mr. Kapasi is the center of Interpreter of Maladies. He is old and discontent. He dreams of being unfaithful to his wife. He fantasizes about a woman whom seems pretty but not stunning. He is like a small child.

In Sexy Dev is a voracious womanizer. He woos Miranda, who is portrayed as naive and guiltless in the affair. Dev comes and goes throughout the story without mention of his emotions. He is cold and calculated, shrewd and distant.

In short, Lahiri is a sexist.

Endings Schmendings

Jhumpa Lahiri has a strange pattern amongst all her stories. In class we talked about some stories seeming not to fit, or lacking some of the poignancy of other stories. What I found interesting is that there is a universal theme between them in that Lahiri is writing about endings without ever actually writing one. In each of Lahiri’s stories something important for the characters ends. It could be the end of a family friendship in “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”, or it could be the end of the affair in “Sexy”, but whatever it is Lahiri manages to couple it with a vague and inconclusive ending. All of her stories lack a sense of conclusion, or more to the point they lack any form of closure for the reader. The characters go from one state of being to another through some experience or hardship, and then the story is over. At first this bothered me a bit. I can count the number of stories I’ve enjoyed that had “Lady or the Tiger” endings on one hand with fingers to spare. This is probably the result of my being a spoiled reader, and I fully admit that it doesn’t necessarily weaken the impact of the stories that they have these non-endings. Still Lahiri’s lack of conclusions made me wonder if she knew how to write an ending. I have since taken a more distant look at the content and context of these stories, and am forced to admit that in a sense they fit. How often do relationships really end in a neat little package? One smart and witty paragraph that seamlessly moves you from being one of a unit to one alone, or from one job to another, one friendship to another, or even one country to another? For Lahiri to write about these interpersonal relationships it makes sense to give them the same unfulfilling and pointless endings real world relationships have. This doesn’t mean I enjoy them anymore, because generally I read stories to escape those kinds or dreary realizations, but it does make me respect them more. I suppose Lahiri was going for realism and her endings, or lack of endings, are a tool to achieve it.

Distance in Lahari's Interpreter of Maladies

In Interpreter of Maladies, there were nine short stories that were approximately 23 pages each. The theme of the stories seemed driven by distances. Some deal with the distance between lovers or families. Some deal with distance between ideas. Others deal with physical distance. In the stories “A Temporary Matter”,” Interpreter of Maladies,” and “This Blessed House,” we see distance in marriages. “The Treatment of Bibi Haldar,” “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine,” “The Third and final Continent,” and “Mrs. Sen’s” focus on physical distance. The two stories “Sexy” and “The Real Duran” do not link with the rest of the stories.
In “A Temporary Matter,” the man and wife lost their child and since then were unable to see each other without remembering their loss. The husband attempts to rekindle the passion in their relationship by turning out all the lights and revealing all of their secrets. The wife tells the husband near the end of the story that she had found an apartment and was going to move out. The husband reveals that he had held the deceased infant and knew the sex.
In “Interpreter of Maladies,” the tour guide and driver looks at this couple he has in his car that seems incompatible. The couple has three children, two boys and a girl. The mother appears to be detached from them. He dreams of having a secret affair with the wife but finds out when the child is surrounded by monkeys and the parents join together to save him that their relationship may seem strange but it works for them.
The story “This Blessed House,” is about a couple moving in to a new home. The wife discovers many “Christian paraphernalia” in the house. The wife loves them and wants to display them all over the house. However they are Christians and the husband is concerned about what the neighbors and people from his job will think. He wants to destroy it all but for some reason he doesn’t. his wife delights in finding these things all over the house.
“The Treatment of Bibi Haladar” speaks of a female that has an extreme case of epilepsy. The doctor diagnoses sexual interaction as a cure for illness. The epilepsy interferes with her everyday life and because she could never function very long her parents failed to show her the rituals that all women were supposed to be able to follow by as a wife. When people realized that she was incapable of doing these things no one wanted to marry her. When her brother’s wife becomes pregnant they move Bibi to another part of the house which shuts her off from everybody because they fear that her illness will bring harm to the child. The child is born healthy but falls ill one day after Bibi is moved back down to the main part of the house. Bibi is sent back to her area above the house and when the family moves away she refuses to come down. They discover that she was pregnant. Bibi was distanced from the family as well as from others because of her disease.
In Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine, Mr. Pirazada visits a family’s home before and during Halloween. He is distanced from his family who are in a war zone. He becomes attached to the family’s little girl because she is much like his daughter’s.
In “The Third and Final continent,” the elderly lady who allows the young man to live n her home is distanced from the world. In that everything has changed so since when she was young because she is 103 years old and has dementia.
In the story “Mrs. Sen’s,” Mrs. Sen is distanced from her sister, her birth home, and her husband who works a lot. She has to learn how to drive so that she can get around. She babysits a young boy and they form a strong bond. He is distanced from his mother.
The story “Sexy” has two main characters the female who is going with the married man and a child that seems whose father is cheating on his mother. There should be a distance between the boy’s mother and father in the story and the man who is having an affair and his wife; but there isn’t. The wife is “beautiful”. Yet the females that the men are cheating with are “sexy”. Therefore its more about sexual freedom or desire rather than filling some void that the marriage isn’t fulfilling anymore.
The story “The Real Duran” focuses on good luck charms and witch craft. The woman is distant from her home but this isn’t the primary focus, even though she is shunned when they find out that she can’t ward off anything.

Trethewey's Mark

I have never really been a fan of poetry. I tried writing poetry and only focused on rhyming so it never really had much meaning. Natasha Trethewey, on the other hand, has changed my view somewhat. The first poem in Native Guard that actually got my attention was "Graveyard Blues." It was actually a poem that I could relate to because I remember being in a similar situation. The poem describes the process of her mother being buried. My uncle's burial was almost like Trethewey's mom's. It reminded me of what Trethewey said at the Fall Poetry and Fiction Festival about people trying to figure out which parts of her life are a part of her work. It is obvious that this poem was a dark time in her life. Her writing contradicts the statement she made at the festival because if she didn't want people to wonder, why write it and publish it? Another poem I found interesting was "What The Body Can Say" because it raised an interesting connection between the body and spirit which is linked by the soul. I enjoyed Trethewey's creativity when reading the references made to God and communion throughout the poem. Overall, I actually enjoyed reading Trethewey's poetry and I'm not a poetry lover.

Men as Boys in Bastard Out of Carolina

In the southern culture presented in Bastard Out of Carolina, the women are raised to believe that men should be treated with the forgiveness and extra care as little boys. It is evident that Bone's mother gives Daddy Glen multiple chances to prove his love to her. After Anne finds out about the injuries Bone had, she still can't resist the boy in Glen. Granny notices the inconsistencies of Glen on their first encounter, "That boy's got something wrong with him" (37). We find that Daddy Glen does have a problem. He is an apologetic, pedophilic boy. Glen has not been able to accept the fact that he is not suitable for a family. He cannot keep a job and his immediate family has already rejected him. His wife won't be able to give him a son to redeem himself before his father and that drives Daddy Glen crazy. He is the only boy in this ready-made family and he is acting out against Bone for not accepting him. Daddy Glen shows his power by molesting Bone and not giving her a chance to accept him. Hurting her does not bother him because he feels like he has control at those moments.

Trethewey's Language

I have to start off by saying that I was not really impressed with Natasha Trethewey. I read poetry for the way that words run together and sound beautiful. I think it is very possible to use everyday words to create lyrical poetry, and while Trethewey uses simple language, her poetry doesn't feel natural when it's read. To me, the language feels choppy and forced, as if she were forcing herself to use colloquial words when she would normally use a more elevated vocabulary.

I really only enjoyed a few poems from the first section of the book. My favorite poem overall is "After Your Death." This was the only poem that seems to have real emotion behind it, and the language flows really well and is actually very pretty. Phrases like "I twisted a ripe fig loose from its stem" and "I'm too late, again, another space emptied by loss" exemplify simplicity in language but are still poignant and meaningful. Trethewey proves that she does know how to write beautiful words (she did win the Pulitzer, after all) and create true emotion through those words.

High-school Poetry

As a poetry fan, I find Natasha Tretheway's Native Guard to be a refreshing look into history and the injustices endured by African Americans. Tretheway not only explores her African American past through many of her poems, but she also shares her personal story of growing up mulatto and losing her mother to domestic violence as a child. Native Guard demonstrates Tretheway's struggle to find her true identity in a world that forgets its African American history and without a mother to tell her of her family history. Tretheway's poetry collection is the voice of identity struggle further undermined by a deep grief. Her particular struggle is deeper and more complex than most identity crisis'; however, the search for identity is something that can be related to by every individual.
Tretheway's style of writing is simple and easy to understand. I find it easy to read, which makes it easy to relate to. The poetry has a flow that is easy to read that adds to it's function. This collection would be a wonderful collection to read in a high-school poetry section. The subject matter isn't too complex, the text isn't too lengthy, it's based on topics that are relevant to today's youth, and teens of all ages could relate to it in their search for identity I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tretheway's Native Guard, it was both educational and entertaining.

We are in Control of how we Absorb History

Trethewey’s Native Guard poems shows the differences between a candid look at the history of the south, Trethewey's personal experiences in that environment and her feelings toward her mother. Trethewey’s poems in the text are each in some way references to one another. In the poem "Native Guard", the speaker takes a journal from the house of an imprisoned confederate and uses it to record his thoughts. The speaker writes over the previous owner's words and the cross-stitched look of the journal shows an embrace of both the past and the present. That we are all bound to something in the past while we build toward the future. How much control we have over history and how much history has control over us.

Trethewey talks about her own personal history in her poems. The first section of the book deals almost entirely with the death of her mother and how that affected her throughout her life. Poems like "What is Evidence" and "Photograph: Ice Storm, 1971" Trethewey describes how her mother was physically abused and how it affected her. In the poem, "What is Evidence" Trethewey further explores the abuse her mother suffered. This is most clear in the lines "Only the landscape of her body - splintered clavicle, pierced temporal - her thin bones settling a bit each day, the way all things do." She is referring to her mother's buried body, showing all of the scars of abuse from when she was alive. In this way her mother is just like the members of the Native Guard buried on Ship Island. This book teaches that we are in control of how we absorb history, and that we are not a result of past events but the result of the way we interpret those events.

Analyzing Tretheway’s Native Guard Without Biographical Interpretations

Can we really look at text without trying to analyze how much of it came from the writer’s life? Well let’s try. During the poetry festival, Natasha Tretheway stated that she really disliked it when people tried to figure out how much of her writing came from experiences that occurred throughout her life. No one likes anyone probing into the sad parts or darker parts of their lives; however those parts of our lives drive our emotions in our writing and allows us to be viewed as human. Our goal when we write is to make an experience seem real. Thus, if we achieve that people are going to assume that we are writing about an actual occurrence. Therefore, let’s remove these thoughts from our mind for a moment and just analyze Tretheway’s poetry without biographical knowledge and interpretation of her life. Does this take away or add anything to the poem?

For the sake of brevity, i will only analyze the poems "Myth." Tretheway writes all of the poems of this book in first person. in the poem myth she used the word "Erebus." Erebus is a reference from Greek mythology which refers to a deity and a place. The diety was the son of Kaos and darkness and the brother of Nyx (night).the place is the underworld. Tretheway uses Erebus as an underworld which is used as metaphor for her memories and dreams.

Throughout the poem, there is a lot of repetition of phrases. We see this in the lines "I was asleep while you were dying, it was as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow, i make between my slumber and my waking, sleep heavy turning." If you look closely, you will notice that the poem has sort of a ballad rhythm. Its almost like a pendulum swinging back and forth. The first repeated phrase "I was asleep while you were dying" has a change in tone and meaning as it is repeated on the last line. First, it appears that the author is stating what happened, and in the last line, the phrase seems to saying that he/she missed the last moment that the person was alive. The phrase "sleep heavy turning" is repeated. However at one point, its not the persona who is sleep but the deceased. The narrator was in a deep sleep while the person was dying however in the next mention of the phrase it describes the deceased in eternal sleep. the deep sleep that the narrator speaks of is him or her not seeing the small hints given that signified that the deceased was going to die. The entire poem switches around phrases which adds to the pendulum effect. The pendulum effect demonstrates how the person went away every time the narrator awoke.

The rhyme in this poem is abcabc, the middle two stanzas end the lines with the words "turning", "follow", and "forsaking". The last stanzas imitate the same rhyme scheme as the first two stanzas. The stanzas are written in tercets.

To answer the question: If you remove the biographical interpretations away from the poem does the poem maintain the same effect? The answer is yes. When people ask questions about the author's life, sometimes its because they are looking for someone that has been through the same thing as themselves, or they are simply curious about the mystery of converting difficult emotions and occurrences into words.

The Power of Hearing

This past Friday night, I had the pleasure of hearing Dorothy Allison and Natasha Trethewey read from their respective works. Since the Dorothy Allison post is past due however, it will suffice to say that she put on an entertaining show. Natasha Trethewey, though decidedly less energetic in her reading, was equally impressive. It’s hard to put into words the feeling you get hearing a Pulitzer Prize winning author read her works live, the way they were meant to be heard, before a small crowd of like-minded dorks and literature enthusiasts, but that said, I shall try. Reading from her book of poetry, Native Guard, Trethewey prefaced most poems before reading, setting the scene and mood of each piece.
In “The Southern Crescent” Trethewey deals with feelings of maturation and memory, of plans failed and set again. The scene is on board a now defunct train line and gives a nostalgic feel that is at once sad and hopeful. Though she is burdened with the memories of past trips “gone wrong”, there is still something that “awaits” her, “the rails humming like anticipation.” The mere reading of this poem is great, but having the author read it allows further insight. I particularly liked hearing her thoughts on seeing her mother’s face in the train window, the author’s own face actually, that nevertheless bears the stamp of her mother.
Trethewey’s reading of “Genus Narcissus” is another example of how a poem can be elucidated in a way the text simply cannot achieve. Trethewey spoke of researching in her work to help themes develop. Sure, the reference to Narcissus seems a fairly apparent parallel to the child’s self interest in the work, and the fact that the poem is titled as it is hints that daffodils are probably termed in Latin as genus narcissus, but I did not know that beforehand. And apparently, neither did Trethewey. I just find it immensely interesting to hear how works progress and come about, and attending these types of readings can afford one such an opportunity. Thank you, Pee Dee Fiction Festival, thank you.

Refusal to be a Parent

The thing that really struck a nerve with me in Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allision is how Anney refused to be a parent. She neglected and decided to choose a man over her child. As a future parent, I do not understand why she allows a man to tear her family apart. If I was Anney, I would’ve killed Daddy Glen and never thought twice about it. (This sounds very harsh, but I do not believe a woman should ever forgive a man, especially her husband, for sexually abusing her child). In actuality, before Anney met Daddy Glen, she was doing very well for herself. She was working and providing her children with the necessities in life. After she met and married Daddy Glen, everything went “downhill”. The interesting thing about the situation is that Daddy Glen never physically abuses Anney. Throughout the story, Daddy Glen posses many traits that an abuser might exhibit; for instance, many abusers try to abandon their partners away from their family. This is the first thing that Daddy Glen does when he marries Anney; he moves her away from her family. Also, I think this decision to move Anney and her children away from their family allows him more access to abuse Bone. If they would’ve stayed closer to Anney’s family, I truly doubt he would have abused Bone, as much. The second thing that Daddy Glen does that is relatable to an abusive person is his constant mood swings. Throughout the story, Daddy Glen has everyone afraid of his rage. Usually, an abusive person is aggressive, than his/her attitude turns into apologetic. Whenever Daddy Glen beats Bone, he then turns around and says he didn’t mean to do it; this is an example of his constant shifts in mood swings. Another thing that Daddy Glen does is manipulation. Daddy Glen is very good with this throughout the story. He manipulates Anney, but making her thinks that she needs to treat him like a man. Every time Daddy Glen loses a job, he makes it seem like it was not his fault that he got fired and Anney lets the situation slide. Whenever Daddy Glen kept losing his job, this should’ve been a sign to Anney that she did not need a man that could not support her family. Wasn’t that the reason, she married him in the first place? As I think about it, Anney really didn’t have any reasons to remain married to Daddy Glenn. He mistreated her family, did not support them, and constantly had excuses for his actions. To sum it up, I guess Anney stayed with Daddy Glenn because she did not have any self-respect for herself. She was needful and wanted someone who she thought was going to be a good person. In truth, he was the worst person she could’ve met.

Mishapen Identity

In Bastard out of Carolina, Bone's identity and sense of self are completely negatively shaped by how others see her. She is immediately categorized with the reputation of her uncles because of her dark hair. Kids in town tease her for having dark hair and eyes, claiming that she is part African-American. Bone is an outcast from birth when she's labeled "illegitamate." She associates herself more with her boy cousins and uncles than with the females in her family. She is labeled a liar and a theif due to her family's reputation; in turn becoming a liar and a theif. She has a low self-esteem and never quite fits in anywhere due to all the harrassment she endures about her dark features. Her own family even outcasts her, attributing her features to either the Cherokee in her (the strong, angry, and silent side); or to her "no good" father. All the negativity makes Bone develop a negative self image, one that allowes her to relate to the anger, violence, frustration, and lonliness inside herself more than the love.
By watching the females in her family, Bone doesn't learn much other than how to tolerate an alcoholic husband. She does learn a lot about life, bad experiences, coping, and hard work from her Aunt Reylene. Most of Bone's advice and learning comes from her Uncle Earl and cousins. She relates more to their strength and the respect through fear that they command. Bone learns to be tough, mean, and hardened by watching her uncles and cousins. She admires the power they hold through the fear they strike in others. Bone learns to deal with pain by inflicting it on others.
With little to no guidance from the women in her family and a group of men from the wrong side of the tracks being the only mentors, it's no wonder Bone gets trapped inside herself in a search for her identity. Bone is not only confused with who she is as a person, she is also surrounded with complete chaos and abuse that leaves her distant, cold, and introverted. When nothing outside your own mind makes sense and you cannot find anyone or anything in which to identify, inside yourself becomes the safest place to be.

Inner Strength

I’m not a mother. I have no wish to be a mother, and certainly little to no maternal instinct. The best I can drum up when it comes to maternal instinct is dealing with drunken friends, and my two small nieces. I know nothing about feeling a child growing within yourself, bringing that child into the world, or raising that child and forming their moral attitudes and personal beliefs. Now with that disclaimer aside I am a daughter, and sometimes a very troubling one. My mother never had to deal with me whining for clothes or makeup privileges, and she certainly never listened to me beg for a pony. Instead my mother had to deal with me raising hell with the boys in the neighborhood, cursing out my Girl Scout’s troop leader, and being overly independent even at a risk to my own health. Despite all the lectures, and all the stress, my mother loved me, and every time I did something good she would point out how much of herself she saw in me. Bone and Anney have a somewhat different problem. My mother saw herself as a contributor to my laudable character aspects, but Anney sees within Bone the person she wants to be instead of the person she is or was. Bone is a strong character, and strong in a way Anney can almost never hope to achieve or reproduce. Bone is strong internally, and in the end she proves unbreakable. There’s little question that Anney’s character is weak in many ways. She fails at the primary task of motherhood, protecting your child, and she fails at being able to stand as an independent and self-owned person. Bone seems to lack that problem from birth. She is constantly redefining herself, and she learns from those around her what kind of person she wants to be. She allows others to give her input, but her ultimate decision is her own. With or without Daddy Glenn’s actions Bone is a force unto herself, and Anney can only long for that kind of strength, and feel shame that it is her daughter that possesses it and not herself. Bastard out of Carolina paints a vivid portrait of Bone’s struggle to become the kind of person she would want to call a friend. It is this struggle that makes Bone such a wonderful character, and it is this struggle that makes for a story. We may never know where Bone’s strength came from, but we got to her see her develop and refine it, and that made a fine story indeed.

Importance of illegitimacy, seld concept, and class struggle in Bastard Out of Carolina

In Bastard out of Carolina, there are four things that I've noticed as the reasons for Bone's interpretation of self and assumptions of what people think about her. In the story, we know that the rape played a large role in the development of Bone's character. Daddy Glen used his abusive ways to make Bone feel as if she was wrong, due to his own doubt of his own self worth, which was the result of his fathers's mistreatment. We notice before the rape, just in the matter of Bone's conception and her father leaving, that the mother's drive to have Bastard removed from Bone's birth certificate was to omit the chance of being judged and treated as something of scorn. Bone's mother fights the negative label that her child is given due to actions of her mother and father. However, ironically the actions of Bone's mother continue to add to Bone's negative self concept. Her marriage of Daddy Glen, her knowing that Bone was being brutally beaten, her witnessing her daughter's rape and feeling sorry for Daddy Glen display of need and her leaving her raped child to be with the raper all contribute to Bone's view of her self as "white trash" and a "bastard."

Her grandmother says that Bone isn't too pretty and the tries to tell her that she resembles her grandfather. The entire time she is feeling sorry for herself because her mom is light haired with soft features where as her hair is dark and she has strong features. Through out the whole story, she is questioning who she looks like and pitying herself for being different until the Pearls come along who have everything she desires except for they are grotesque creatures as far as appearance. She finds someone that harbors the same hatred as she has as far as looking differently and people judging her. They have an emotional tie yet, she also realizes or notices what that amount of hatred does to a person eventually.

The descriptions of her family past time activities, lack of religion, and criminal records also adds to Bone's labeling of her family as "white trash." When she is forced to return and pay for the candy she stole and ate, she feels that the man is looking down upon her removing "her kind" from his store.

Even her nickname, Bone, causes a blow to her self concept. When we think of the word "bone", we think of something that can be broken however when it heal becomes strong. A bone is tender in some ways but hardens when fragmented. Another connotation of the word "bone" is a quick sexual interaction therefore hinting to her illegitimate birth.

The story mentions hunger which can be taken metaphorically as a desire to belong and be cherished as something of worth. She reads a lot and becomes religious in order to reject her family's ways as well as place herself in a world that is different from her own and she has a choice of who she is.

Bastard...

In Bastard Out of Carloina we see another fine example of a protagonist who gives readers ample opportunity to feel sorry for her. Bone like Lil Bit and Didion are victims of tragic circumstances beyond their control. This seems to be a recurring theme within these award winning texts authored by women. So again the question is begged is this a story of a victim or a survivor. Obviously, Bone is a victim on several levels. She is a bastard child, state-certified. This archaic designation is a permanent brand given to her by the state of South Carolina; a permanent reminder of her inherent inferiority. She lives in increasingly impoverished circumstances. She is cold, hungry and rootless. She is finally the victim of verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

As the narrative progresses we forget that Bone is a bastard. We forget about this victimization; it losses it's power within Bone's narrative. The aspect of poverty is also forgotten. Bone and the rest of her family are poor, poor beyond what most will ever be able to comprehend in this age of subsidized housing, medicine and large charity organizations. This oppressive poverty also falls by wayside by the end of the narrative. Only the abuse is left victimize Bone, but she is not dead at the end of the book and we must assume that her narrative will continue beyond the last page. It seems only logical that the abuse she has endured will also fail to define Bone.

Identity Crisis

"Being pregnant was proof that some man thought you were pretty sometime, and the more babies she got, the more she knew she was worth something" (Allison 230-31).
Anney expresses her disgust when her aunt makes this statement. But in actuality, she was trying to attain some sense of self worth, in some way or another.

In Bastard out of Carolina , Anney's search of self-fulfillment takes her on a twelve-year journey trying to find social acceptance. The purpose of this journey is to try, in a sense, to shield Bone from future hurt and pain caused by the stigma that is attached to the word "bastarg", but she neglects to see it in the present. Anney's persistance in attempting to remove the word from Bone's birth certificate, in my opinion, is a result of her own selfishness. Although, it generally means a child that it born out of wedlock, the word "bastard" reflects more on the mother than it does the child. Therefore, I feel that Bone being referred to as "bastard" is more of a reflection on Anney than her. During that time, girls/women (who engaged in premarital sex and had a child out of wedlock, especially at an an early age) was considered to be, as my grandmother would say, "fast" or "hot in the pants". The boys/men of course stood blameless. I have heard many stories about girls in those days being "sent up the road" when they became pregnant because of the shame and embarrassment. The poor child usually ends up being referred to as their "brother" or "sister". I think Anney felt as if this was how the world was going to perceive her.

I do not question Anney's love for Bone, but her neglect in trying to teach Bone (which Raylene attempts to do) that other's do not define your identity. In her attempt to "make everything right"(ie. correcting the birth certificate, marrying Glen) Anney has introduced Bone to far more hurt than she could have possibly ever known.

Sexual Abuse

In the novel, Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison explores the cycle of abuse and demonstrates how abused children grow up with self-hatred and anger, and become the source of abuse themselves. From almost the beginning of his relationship with Anney, Glen abuses Bone. His first sexual abuse of her takes place shortly after he marries her mother. At first, Anney knows that Glen is physically beating Bone. She hears, through the closed bathroom door, his first brutal attack on her. She cleans up Bone after this and subsequent beatings, all the while adamantly denying what her husband is doing. Bone’s mom may have left Glen for a while, but she always went back to him. It made me sick – and it is hard for me to understand how anyone can make the choices this particular mother makes. The biggest question I have about this book is why did none of Bone’s family ever come out and help Bone? Even after her mom knew what Glen was doing to Bone, her mother ignored the fact that her daughter was being beaten and raped. Why it is that her mom insists on putting the blame on Bone. Bone’s mother could be worried about the fact of being alone again. Glen sucks up to Anney so much to the fact that she is too blind to see what is really happening to her daughter. The story itself made me furious – which may have been Allison’s goal.

Sex Addiction

In the story Bastard Out of Carolina, the main character Bone is sexualized at a very young age. She has a great deal of knowledge about sex and masturbates often to masochistic thoughts. After doing some research on sexual addiction, I found that sex addicts are often sexually abused as children. One description of a sexually abused child fit Bone’s situation well. “The child may have grown up in a hostile, chaotic or neglectful home, or the family may have been very normal but the child grows up emotionally starved for love because affection is rarely expressed” (Ewald). Bone starts the book as a happy child, but when her mother marries Glen and begins to abuse her, she isolates herself and expresses anger toward her family. She is desperate for the affection of her mother, however with Glen in the picture, she cannot receive the love she needs and desires. For abused children, sex becomes a comfort to them in many different situations. For Bone, masturbation becomes an escape from her family situation, a method to fall asleep at night, and possibly a way to make her feelings of guilt more tangible. If the story were extended into Bone’s adulthood, could she become a sex addict, an abuser herself, or possibly partake in an abusive relationship with a man? Many critics believe that Bone is a lesbian in the story, but the abuse she suffers at the hands of her step father would obviously make her wary of men. If Dorothy Allison were not practicing an openly gay lifestyle, would the topic of Bone being a lesbian even be explored?

http://allpsych.com/journal/sexaddiction.html

Trethewey's Biblical Symbolism

Natasha Trethewey uses a plethora of Biblical and religious symbolism in her poetry collection Native Guard in the first section. The introductory poem which leads the entire section includes the river Jordan: "I'm only going over Jordan / I'm only going over home." The first poem in the first section is titled "Southern Crescent," and Southern Crescent refers to the old train system that ran through the South and the actual waning of the moon is considered the eye of God, for it resembles an eye and eyebrow when the North Star rests directly under the moon.
Trethewey also uses fruit, very symbolic of the fallen Eden, and may even represent herself in a wayward momentary loss of the memory of her mother in "After Your Death." More religion pours out with the mention of Ash Wednesday in "Letter," which is led by "What the Body Can Say" which suggests hand gestures in the form of prayer and/ or communion: "just as / we open our mouths in church to take the wafer."
Her first section is becoming more and more Catholic in nature, even more obvious in her addressing of the mortal sin Vanity in the poem "Genus Narcissus": "a whisper, treacherous, / from the sill. Be taken with yourself."
Also, she even leads us into the second section with the first poem titled "Pilgrimage" which offers more Catholic and possibly other religions to the basket. Mostly during the Medieval Ages did the pilgrimage become popular, way before the Canterbury Tales, and right around the time of the Crusades, which was not just a search for God, but remission of sins and absolution of guilt and the offering of penance.
Is Natasha Trethewey searching for penance? Is she harboring some sort of guilt?

Who Should Take the Blame?

Who is truly responsible when a child gets molested by an adult? This is one of the many questions that went through my mind as I read, How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. It is very easy to put the blame on the child, the molester, or even the parents; but who is really at fault? During our class discussion, they were some that argued that control and manipulation had a lot to do with Lil Bit and Uncle Peck’s affair, but in the “eyes of the law”, an adult is also responsible. It does not matter how mature a child’s body is, whenever an adult advances or has sex with a person under the age of eighteen, he or she is responsible. Throughout this play, there were many individuals that could have taken the blame for Lil Bit and Uncle Peck’s affair. Personally, I think all the adults are at fault in this situation. As a future parent, I do not understand how Lil Bit’s Mother allowed her to think that she was able to handle Uncle Peck. How could a child handle an adult, especially a man? Whenever those suspicions started in Lil Bit’s Mother mind that Uncle Peck was looking at Lil Bit strangely, she should have kept Lil Bit away from him. Lil Bit’s Mother is not the only person responsible in this situation, but Aunt Mary also. As Uncle Peck’s wife, she tries to justify her husband’s behaviors by insisting that it is her niece fault that he pays so much attention to Lil Bit. I do not understand how she allows a child, to be victimized by an adult, just because of her love to her husband. Ultimately, the person who is fully responsible for the situation is Uncle Peck. There are no excuses for his behaviors. As a small child, Uncle Peck makes Lil Bit do things against her will. For instance, when they are alone in the car for the first time, Lil Bit questions and tries to get Uncle Peck to stop feeling on her private parts; but he ignores her and continues to abuse her. As a child, Lil Bit handled the situation correctly. Whenever a person says stop, it means to discontinue any further actions.

In some ways, Lil Bit decision to continue the affair with Uncle Peck could have been influenced by her family’s views on sex and sexuality. It was very strange that the family discussed sex, so openly around one another. The part that really freaked me out was how everyone got their nick names; that really disgust me. As a family, they really needed to clarify and explain what sex really was. The family treated sex as a joke and women as a commodity, which probably allowed Lil Bit to think that she was doing the “right” thing. The thing that amazes me is how everyone ignored all the signs of a pedophile. Some distinct features of a pedophile include someone is closely related to the child, a person that has a strong interest and enjoys doing things with a child, or someone that is insecure or an outcast. Uncle Peck fits all these descriptions. Throughout the play, Uncle Pecks always finds a way to spend time with Lil Bit, instead of anyone taking notice to this situation everyone tries to commend his behavior as being a father figure to her.

As I think back about all the details in the story, I really liked the way Vogel structured the play. The plot was very interesting and it allowed the reader to stay curious throughout the story. The only thing that disturbed me was the minor parts of the abuse. There were several times, when I had to put the book down and pick it back up. In conclusion, the play was very interesting and raised some questions that should make all individuals aware of this problem.

A Family Affair

The other day in class we discussed which character within Paula Vogel’s play, How I Learned to Drive, had the power. That discussion was incredibly in depth, but somehow the issue of responsibility became entangled within it. That discussion was not elaborated on. Vogel knows the same truth anyone who’s interacted with other people could tell you; that responsibility is a difficult beast to pin down. It’s easy to point out who pushed over the chair, or who has their hand in the cookie jar. Blame is simple to assign, but true responsibility is a lot harder. Add two people and it becomes almost impossible. The problem is, and any good historian will tell you this, the winner writes the history. Is Uncle Peck to blame for what happened to ‘Lil Bit? Is he responsible? Yes in the simplest and most straight-forward way possible he is. Uncle Peck is a child molester, and that is a simple truth. He forces himself upon a child, and uses complex adult seduction and manipulation to gain ‘Lil Bit’s complicity in his sexual acts. At the same time it’s possible Uncle Peck is not entirely responsible. There is a strange difference between the way he treats ‘Lil Bit and the way he treats Bobby. His seduction method is the same at the beginning, but it’s the follow through that causes issues with Peck’s character. A child molester is a child molester because they molest children. Peck’s interest in ‘Lil Bit goes way beyond her childhood. He claims to love her, and as easy as it is to look at him and say it’s an excuse to get her to let him touch her, it doesn’t quite fit. He goes against his essential nature as a child molester by continuing to want her after she is mature. Is it the kind of love we know? Obviously not, and it’s certainly not a healthy love, but without being inside his head we can’t say it’s not love. Where is ‘Lil Bit in all this? Is she silent? I find it morally repugnant to blame a victim of sexual abuse for the abuse, and I won’t go so far as to say that ‘Lil Bit has overt blame in all of this. At the same time ‘Lil Bit responds to Peck, and it is hard for her to break away from him. She has spent so much time being loved by him it’s probably hard to let that go. Does she love him back? Maybe she does. It wouldn’t be impossible; Stockholm Syndrome is a scientifically proven emotional response. What about Peck’s death from drinking? Is ‘Lil Bit responsible for that? As a descendant of two different Irish families I know a good bit about alcoholism, and I can tell you all it takes to make a dry drunk fall is one drink. Does ‘Lil Bit know that? It’s impossible to tell; because while we know she is struggling with her own alcoholism she hasn’t tried her hand at sobriety yet. It is possible to say that when she tells him to take the drink she was angry, and so she did put it in his hand. I tend to think that given Peck’s affection for her he would have started drinking again with or without her help. Without any support system or reason to stay sober a drunk will inevitably fall again. So I don’t entirely blame Peck, but I don’t blame ‘Lil Bit much at all. So who is responsible? Who holds the most blame? Is it society for instilling certain macho preclusions within men, and for making the picture of feminine sexuality young and innocent girls? Is the chemical imbalance that causes Peck to prey on children to blame? Maybe it’s whoever abused Peck if he was abused at all. If I had to look at one cause for all the trouble I would honestly say the blame (or responsibility) has to be shared. It was Peck’s responsibility to keep the acceptable lines drawn between himself and his niece. It was his responsibility to care for her, and to treat her the way an eleven-year-old girl is supposed to be treated. So Peck is to blame for his actions in that sense. He shares the blame though with ‘Lil Bit’s family. It takes a village to raise a child is the old maxim, but in this play it took a family to make a tragedy. The Mother character puts her daughter into a position no child should ever be put in. The Aunt character senses what is happening, puts the blame on her minor niece, and then doesn’t try to stop it. Big Poppa teaches her she’s not good for anything but sex anyway and her Grandmother tells her ghost stories about sex, but encourages and allows Big Poppa’s aggressive sexual attacks in front of ‘Lil Bit. Between the group of them they give ‘Lil bit no reason not to bite onto Peck’s bait, and no safe harbor to go to when it starts. It is their responsibility to protect her and raise her to be a strong and independent woman. Instead they leave her alone constantly with a man who raises all their suspicions, almost never question her, instill a sense of blame in her, and fill her with mature sexuality and no healthy way to channel or understand it.

Therapy for the Abused Soul

In How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel presents a sensitive, taboo subject by using both humor and honesty. She takes us on a journey through a complex relationship between a niece and her uncle. The driving lessons are symbolic in that Lil' Bit traveled down the bumpy roads of life just as she did those roads in Maryland while on her driving lesson. From the humor of grandma and grandpa, to the Driver's Manual that exudes lessons of life, this play presents an interesting look at the subject of incest.
I applaud Paula Vogel for this realistic portrayal of the cycle of abuse. I think this play offers abuse victims, in a sense, some type of encouragement that there is the ability to forgive and survive. This is strictly my opinion. I, in no way shape or form, would never claim to know the "appropriate" response to abuse. But perhaps, in some way, this can act as a form of therapy and can help victims confront abuse and somehow find the strength to move on.
It's sad to think about the horrible manipulation of this poor young girl. On the other hand, we laughed at the funny comments interjected by the "Greek Chorus". I, for a moment, forgot about the serious subject of incest that was taking place in the story. But then again, laughing and crying are the two emotions that are the most therapeutic when faced with life's unexpectancies.

Communication Breakdown?

In her memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion explores the nature of grief and its impact on the human psyche. After the unexpected death of her husband, and more importantly companion, Didion is left to grapple with the struggles of her everyday, “ordinary” life and the overwhelming desire to remain strong in the face of her daughter’s ultimately fatal illness. For any person, the events which took place in Didion’s life in a matter of months would be an incredibly hard burden to shoulder; for anyone, the toll of the stress would be both physically and emotionally incapacitating. Yet, Didion was not afforded the opportunity to “fall apart” when the need arose, and for that, I must say, I truly admire her grit. Perhaps my bias is shaped by my admiration for her might in the face of such suffering. I truly cannot image the amount of pain Didion must have suffered.

With that said, I also enjoyed her novel on a literary and analytical level. Didion is obvious a lover of literature, of the power of words to explore, enlighten, and elucidate. Yet, in her memoir, words become a source of healing and a place of solitude. So often in life, we use words to fill empty spaces and we lose their meanings. The symbol connected to the word is undermined by our frequent and irreverent use of the word. However, Didion is fully aware of the impact of the words she chooses. Her life’s work and her understanding of the world around her rely on her ability to communicate her emotion through syntax and word choice. The need to write, read, comprehend, and share meaningful words becomes not only a means of maintaining some semblance of control, but also a sign of normalcy.

Didion has, at the time of the book's publication, lived a year after the death of one of the two most important people in her life; finding her place in the ordinary through communication has been her only constant. Ironically, Didion uses her ordinary abilities to express the extremely inordinate circumstances of her life in the previous months. Even when she speaks of her "mudgy" period, Didion is able to express her apprehensions and desperate fear through her voracious consumption of medical texts and her subsequent pestering of medical professionals. In this way, Didion's ordinary talents of communication, even through experiences so horrifically tragic, are elevated to a level of reverence and idealized awe.

Grief and Reality

Most of us, even those who have lost someone close – be they family members, spouse, or other – have not experienced the kind of tragedy Joan Didion suffers in The Year of Magical Thinking. Imagine the situation: your (happy and recently wedded) child is suddenly hospitalized, is in critical condition, and you have been standing by her side vigilantly, seeing little improvement, hoping against hope that she recovers; then, after a grueling night of this, you go home and sit down to dinner where your husband proceeds to have a massive coronary – right before your very eyes – and dies on the spot. Who has experienced reality on such harsh terms? And furthermore, who wouldn’t want to believe that what happened wasn’t real? Of course Didion seems “detached” and fails to accept John’s death at first. Her logical thinking and emoting capacities were severely limited, if not predominantly shut down. This is why the doctors at New York Hospital (where John’s body was taken) deemed her a “cool customer”; the woman was in shock. To make these matters worse, Quintana later seems to improve, only to fall ill again and has to undergo brain surgery. This is life – reality – pulling out the rug from Didion once again. The fact that Didion has been accustomed to a relatively privileged life may not make her a more likeable character, but it may be at least a small factor in why she is in such disbelief. Didion refers to this in the first lines of the book with, “The question of self pity.” Some of us may have thought this very thing, just differently. As in, “Why me?”
But Didion is far from helpless. She wants control and laments that some things in life are “beyond [her] ability to control or manage[...]” This is a theme throughout her work: the urge to mend the ills of herself and her loved ones. This is not then, some sort of detachment. This is her way of coping. She further fulfills this desire to control by learning all she can about Quintana’s condition, the circumstances surrounding John’s death, and everything else relevant to her situation, including how to grieve. This woman is connected to these events and connected intensely. It’s reality she has to grasp at, and she does so by stating things the only way she knows how; that is, factually and unflinchingly.

Didion: Grief and Faith

In The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion gives us a narrative detailing her inner-monologue during the year immediately following the fatal heart attack of her husband John. Didion's grief is presented in an unpolished form; Didion does not filter her grief. Grief is, by nature, selfish and self-centered. Grief is not for the deceased; grief is not for the other survivors; grief completely exists for the grieving. Additionally, Didion's grief is portrayed in its rawest and most uncensored state. Didion realizes that some readers will think negatively of this memoir. She knows that some will see it as "boo-hooing" or "thumbsucking". People who would see grief this way have either never felt grief or have refused to face their on grief without deluding themselves. Faith is opposite of grief. Faith gives a future to the deceased and it offers inspiration to other survivors. Faith offers fairy tales to cope with loss. So why do we read books like The Year of Magical Thinking? What do we ask from Didion's and other writter's narratives of tragedy and loss. We see in their narratives the most powerful beings in the universe, human beings, battling with powerful, unseen forces. It's like real life science fiction, but not drivel with space ships and super powers.

Five Stages of Grief

When I “Googled” the word “grief,” I came across many sites that describe five stages of grief. The stages include: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. When comparing these five stages with Didion’s mourning for John I can see that she seems to go through at least four of the stages. Didion starts in the denial stage by not wanting to believe that John is dead. She thinks the paramedics are going to revive him and that he will be transferred to a different hospital after he is stabilized. The second stage of grief is anger. We never witness a time when Didion is angry at John for dying, or blames him for his death. The third stage of grief, bargaining, seems to be prevalent in the novel. Didion spends a lot of time trying to think of what she could have done differently to change the outcome. She analyzes the things they said and did before the incident trying to think of what she should or shouldn’t have done. The fourth stage of grief is depression. Didion spends at least a year grieving over John’s death, and she is constantly having flashbacks of the time they spent together. At one point she acknowledges that she is depressed, and sees a doctor. The final stage of grief is acceptance. At the end of the novel Didion says everything is less chaotic, but no clearer than it was the day he died. She does however say that “…there comes a point at which we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead.” This indicates that she has somewhat accepted the fact that John is dead and the memories of him will slowly become “mudgy” over time.

Useful Death?

Is any source of death helpful for coping with ones encounter with grief and death? Some may argue that it does, but death and grief is always a personal struggle. In Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking, Didion draws from many sources of literature and even medical texts to cope with the death of her husband, John.
Being a person who does not address a religious struggle through the death of a loved one, Didion not only shows her readers how lost a person is without faith, but a person in need of finding faith in something. Desperately trying to investigate her grief and its source is odd to me, since grief is only natural to anyone human. But is a person not human if they don’t appear to grieve?
Death in any case is never helpful or useful. That is only society breathing down our necks, forcing us to move on with the threat that if we don’t, we appear to the world as a person lost in an abyss. Death is fundamentally something we all have to deal with in our lives, whether that of someone we know or our own eventual death. Mortality then becomes the main issue here, where Didion shouldn’t necessarily focus on death, but mortality. Although death is a sign of our own mortality, death is negative and therefore swept under the social rug of human flaw. Looking at the race of man as being flawed may offer more comfort in the fact that death is only written about so often because people try to understand why we die and maybe not so much when or where or how.
Although Didion does not directly address religion in her book, she still seeks the same answers that religious individuals also try to find. The afterlife is only one way of approaching grief, but Didion must have found this track commonplace and decided to write something unique in respect to death. Looking at others’ way of dealing with grief may be useful only for the sake of the moment, but in the end we all have to come up with our own way of comfort.

A Guilt Complex

I really don't have an intro so I'm just gonna jump right into this...

My main problem with Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know is the guilt I felt after I finished reading. I think it begins with Lippman's decision to write Sunny as a whiny, self-centered, narcissistic baby. (Harsh, I know.) Because Sunny is such a despicable character, I as the reader wanted to place blame on her at the end of the novel, once we find out that she did, in fact, lead Heather into a dangerous situation. While I do not think she is in any way responsible for Heather's death, I believe that at 15, Sunny was old enough to know better than to take Heather to the hotel.

This is where the guilt begins--how could I possibly want to put blame on someone who went through physical and sexual abuse by the same man who killed her sister? I believe that this is where Lippman fails. Had she written a character that readers could empathize with and would enjoy reading about, we would not want to put any sort of blame on Sunny.

I also believe that the novel was way too long and complex--too many chapters, characters, and dead ends, so that by the time we were finally told what happened, it was easy to point fingers at the nearly 40-year-old woman who still acted as though she were 15.

What the Reader Knows...

Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know may or may not be a “good” novel, but I believe that it was an entertaining and easy read. At times, the plot seemed to be a bit confusing but it was entertaining. I still don’t quite understand how Sunny is Heather or how Heather is Sunny but in all fairness, this made the plot interesting. I believe that the most interesting character in the novel is the person that we know least about: Heather. I say this because we really don’t know if the Sunny/Heather character is an honest character (as stated in class) which makes me want to know more about her. Even so, she shouldn’t be blamed for the things that she is going through throughout the novel because I do believe the idea that she has been scarred and she can’t really trust anyone (which is probably why she lies so bad). Its difficult to actually form a connection or fondness to any of the characters because the novel seems so random and all over the place. That’s the major defect I find in the novel: I can’t really connect with any of the characters. Miriam just seems indifferent and separated, Dave is just weird, and Heather is just a selfish person. Lippman doesn’t really give us much personality of the other characters, so I can’t really form an opinion on them. I wonder if that was Lippman’s intent. If this is so, then she really shouldn’t be winning major awards for novels such as this one.

Character Flaws

Frankly, I do not know how Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know managed to win any awards. Sure, her narrative is engaging, even clever at times, but what the text delivers in intrigue pales in comparison to the cluster eff of essentially pointless character views. And what a shame too, for some of Lippman’s best writing comes out of these character interactions. For instance (though even this could be argued as a bit of clichéd banter), the vulgar and offensive back and forth between Det. Kevin Infante and his boss, Sgt. Lenhardt, rings strikingly true. After a brief discussion on “rich cops,” the talk turns pseudo-sexual and Lenhardt calls Infante a “faggot and a whore,” at which point Infante leaves the office “feeling about as content as he ever did” (95). These details are (again) offensive but nevertheless effective, creating a believable scene that plays on male-male relations, as well as boss versus subordinate. Unfortunately, scenes such as these never pay off. Indeed, the character for whom the previously mentioned scene is a set-up for, former Det. Willoughby, is yet another dead end route Lippman pursues that, at the conclusion of the book, we are left to ponder over, asking indignantly “Why?”
Though it seems plausible that the former Detective for the Bethany case could offer some insight to the novel, what we receive instead is yet another buffer between Dave and Miriam. I should say, in case it seems I speak to harshly, that I didn’t hate the book. In fact, I quite enjoyed the character studies Lippman fronted for her readers. However, in this instance, there was simply too much to chew on.
The way I see it, there are two agreeable options for the improvement of this book: Lippman could have focused on fewer characters (perhaps Sunny/Heather, Infante, and one or both parents) and kept the narrative more plot oriented; or she could have kept the character studies and made the book twice as long, with Sunny suffering some sort of mental break (i.e., schizophrenia or the like), adding a plot twist or two. Then, again, what do I know? I mean, I’ve never won a book award.

To Be or Not To Be Great Literature

Let me begin by stating that I am not a well-read person. I love to read, but mostly for entertainment purposes. I do not, nor have I ever considered myself to be a literary wiz.
Having said that, we all agree that this story could have taken a different route. However, for some strange reason, with all of its inconsistencies, I found my self becoming quite engaged in this book. Yes, there were alot of characters. Yes, we are not sure why some people are even there. But as the characters were introduced, I thought that they were relevant at the time and didn't think much of it.
This book, with its many flaws, created a positive dialogue. I believe that this book presented an opportunity in which it opened up the door for many views to be expressed. Some of these views represented peoples belief and were very sensitive and dear to people's hearts. Many views were expressed that I would have never thought of. They made me realize all the potential aspects that a book has.
As awful as this book may have seemed, it gave me an opportunity to expand on my Literary knowledge of the Mystery Genre. I have added another book to my repertoire that I would have otherwise never read. I personally feel that every book I read after this one will be observed differently. Aside from having more in-depth questions that I could ask, I feel that I am a little closer to becoming equipped with the necessary tools to distinguish between good and bad literature. On that note, Here are some pressing questions (pressing to me that is) :
What is great literature?
Who defines what great literature is?
Is it possible to dissect a book so much that it takes away from its original intent?
Maybe Laura Lippman's task was not to invoke deep thought in "What The Dead Know". Maybe she wrote it because she had a great idea for a mystery novel and hoped that someone like me would find it interesting. Yes I said interesting (not sure about award-winning worthy, but it held my attention if that it saying much). Whatever the intent, whatever the views, I believe it offered a platform in which many different perspectives could be presented.

Inconsistencies in Pseudo-Human Characters

The characters in What the Dead Know are meant to be personable, identifiable, and above all just simply human. But is this really achieved? The most inhuman character out of all of them is Sunny.
How can she, Laura Lippman, expect anyone to identify with Sunny when she has created such a wretched, lying, and deceitful fictional person? In the book, Sunny uses several cards that are never worth playing, especially if for her own means. One card is of course the sexual abuse. Yes, she states many things, but how many things as readers are we made to believe what she says is true and false? She has already lied so many times by this time in the book and continues to the very end of the novel.
To counter an argument about her falsehood, Lippman has several gratuitous sex scenes within the first thirty pages. These would lead some to believe that the idea of sexual abuse is prevalent and that Lippman has her readers constantly thinking about wrongful sex throughout the novel. But, my question is why after her identity is brought to our attention through Miriam does no one address the issue? She could be potentially held liable for her actions, which I am confused about since lawyers were present in the book. Laura Lippman did not address the actions a lawyer would actually take and if such a lawyer existed he/she would already have lost her license, especially if she belonged to a large or medium firm where down payments were mandatory...and staying at the lawyers house is grounds for conflict of interest.
I believe the inhumanity of the lawyer ought to be addressed as well. If she was a lawyer, then her actions do not flow with actuality and reality. Lawyers operate, after a certain amount of schooling and practice, by the book and in this day and age straying a little could mean the end of her firm. Her inconsistent portrayal as a lawyer leads me to believe Laura Lippman did not do enough research on lawyers, even torts and criminal law, therefore made the female lawyer unrealistsic and inhuman.

The Curiosity of Humans

Curiosity is a trait that most humans possess. Curiosity allows us to delve into other’s lives and stories in hopes of learning something new. People tend to be more curious when others have extreme experiences or experiences unlike our own. Recently, Jaycee Duggard was in the news because she was kidnapped as a young girl and held hostage for 19 years. The media broadcasts her story and new updates are constantly being released. Her brutal living conditions and horrific experiences are being detailed for the world to hear. I am also guilty of extreme curiosity of cases such as Duggard’s. I constantly read the new updates to find out every detail about her life during those 19 years. I have to ask myself, why am I interested? Why is anyone interested other than her friends, family, and authorities? Why do we get the privilege of knowing the details of her life? I recently went to see an Auschwitz survivor tell the story of her time in the concentration camp. The room was packed with people….but would they have been there if her story were not something so horrific? If she had been raised in a stable family in the country and had a wonderful childhood, would anyone have come to see her speak?

This theory of human curiosity seems to capture the reader of What the Dead Know. The novel doesn’t seem to be extraordinary based on the mechanics of how it was written or the development of the characters. So why is it such a popular novel? The novel draws us in with the idea of a horrible crime committed against two young girls. The reader doesn’t know who committed the crime or even what the crime was, but we want desperately to find out and therefore we keep reading. We can only imagine throughout the book what has happened to Heather and Sunny and why they have disappeared. While I read it, I secretly hoped that something horrible had happened to them and that the mystery girl would tell the story of her horrific treatment, abuse, and environment.

As humans, we don’t like to see people suffer, but when they do, we want to know all the details of what happened. Sunny and Heather both went through this ordeal and suffered at the hands of their “abductor.” What the Dead Know contains a lot of characteristics of crime stories we see on the news. The novel allows us to connect with the characters and feel more involved in the events that occur. It satiates our natural human curiosity in a safe, fictional form.

Hi

Just trying this thing out....

Hello

I'm simply trying things out.

Writing About the Texts--Some Pointers

This blog will serve as the repository for your thoughts concerning the texts you'll be reading this semester. You should choose any three of the texts and write an entry which you will then post here on the blog. Each class member will have access to your blog post and will post comments to your own thoughts. Thus, you should respect the ideas and opinions of your classmates while also vocalizing your own opinions and concerns about the texts we read together as a class. Be creative, but always respectful of your audience.

What should you put in your blog entry? Obviously, you will not need to provide plot summary since everyone will have read the text. You should probably not simply regurgitate class discussion. Rather, you should use the blog post as a way to extend your own personal ideas concerning the text. You might examine a text in relation to something else you've read by the same author or from a different time period. You might also find the blog entry as a place to tidy up any loose ends you have in your understanding of the text in question. Ideally, you can also use the post as a way to address any problems or issues you have with the text. Remember, however, that you need to do more than simply blanketly praise or condemn in your blog post. Provide an intellectual response to your reading, one that you will be proud of others' reading later.

Each book will have a blog entry due date, roughly a week after the book has been discussed. If you do not post by that due date, I assume you are not posting on that book. Keep in mind that only one person can post at a time. If two people at two different computers try to log in at the same time, only one will be able to post. For that reason, I recommend writing your blog post in Word, then cutting and pasting it into the blog post, thus cutting down on the time needed for actual mechanics of posting.

Your grade for your post will be given to you on a notecard, then posted onto blackboard grade book. Each post will be worth up to 25 points. You must post on any three texts. If you do not post by the due date, you give up your right to post on that text. There are no late posts accepted.

Please comment on others' posts. You can earn extra credit if you do so. Make sure you sign your name when you comment.