Happy Monday!
For this week’s blog, pull a quote from your choice book that you think is important. Analyze it and break it down explaining why it is important.
Your post should be one to two paragraphs. Really pick your quote apart and explain how it speaks to the theme your see emerging in your novel.
The novel The Round House has a theme of vengeance. After Joe’s mom is raped, he starts down a path to find the attacker. Once he is finally caught, Joe and his father know this isn’t the end, “If it happened anyplace else...Sure, but it happened here” (Erdrich 197). Joe and his father are discussing what they will do with the man. The problem is they can’t do anything. This family lives on tribal land, which gives them a different set of laws and conditions to abide by. When a crime occurs, it is important to know where it occurred to know what laws to use- tribal, state, local. Although they know who raped Joe’s mother, she doesn’t know where the attack occurred, therefore they can’t prosecute him. This quote shows a moment of frustration. Joe desperately wants to avenge his mother, but it is difficult. If this crime had occurred in another city where there was no tribal land, it would be easy to know what laws apply and the man would already be punished. At this time, they feel a huge disadvantage because of their culture.
ReplyDeleteThis feeds into the growing theme of the novel of if revenge is worth it. Joe and his father have to put a great deal of effort into finding who the attacker was and then on what lands the crime occurred. All of this time and effort is being poured into this investigation, but it is unknown if they will even feel better knowing the man is behind bars. This quote just adds on to the reasons as to why it may not be worth it.
The story, The Round House that was written by Louise Erdrich has a lot of quality that seems to depict the piece itself. The author seems to get into depth on what the plot setting is being based off of, on how the inner family circle is being deteriorated due to the attack the mother, Geraldine has just gone through. This is what changes the home environment from the start, as Joe is destined to find the attack by pulling pieces and parts of the evidence he has found so far. The details provided,forms the mannerism of taking steps by a leap of faith to come to terms with a crime that was committed, “I have to heal any way I can. You will stop asking questions and you will not give me any worry. You will not go after him. You will not terrify me, Joe. I’ve had enough fear for my whole life” (Erdrich 90). This quote identifies with the plot lining of the story, of how there is no series of connection between the mother, father and Joe. The distance stimulates the isolation Geraldine puts herself in, because she needs time to understand what has happened, and in a sense of the manner feels ashamed for what she has just a victim for. At the beginning of the novel,innocence was shown, because every Sunday dinner would be made, the characters haven’t undergone any pain. Then by the middle, everything seems to be changing due to this life threatening event.
ReplyDeleteJoe feels the need to discover concrete proof to find the attacker, and he does this by going to the Round House without the knowledge of his parents. That is the place where he realized his mother’s life could’ve ended, from finding a gas can that would be used to burn down that shelter with her inside. However, Geraldine got away in just enough time before the man turned back around to notice she was gone. From the clues that are given off from the text of the book, how the mother just keeps to herself now, and wants Joe to drop the subject, it seems that she knows who has attacked her, but isn’t willing to admit it. She feels dirty in the comfort of her own body, and with Joe getting in the way she lost all purpose for humanity. However, the quote brings up that she has had enough fear her whole life, it is suspected that she’s just tired of hiding beneath the rocks, then something like this happens which makes her even more terrified to go out into the public anymore. Although this case is under mature content, to leave it to the detectives the father also brought in Joe to look at old case files to get a lead. Like every other 13 year old at this time, they would want to do more, especially if nobody else is doing anything. He has to put more out there to analyze a typical Sunday evening, and as to what made his mom leave the house to get those files on her desk from work. The crime was an inhumane act, along with death that comes to a close calling; there deserves to be work put into the case, because eventually the family along with the Geraldine will have to realize what has happened in an unjust way.
“We are never so poor that we cannot bless another human being, are we?" (Erdrich, The Round House). This quote speaks to me because it expresses a lot of themes throughout not just the book, but also life. By stating that humans always have something to offer, hence "giving" or in Erdrich's words "blessing", she is stating that even in the lowest points of life, people still have to ability to offer something. This shreds the meaning of being rich or poor, because a person can be rich in material goods but not rich in heart, and yet just the opposite. A person might not have much to give physically or finnancially, but they may have the best type of moral and emotional support. They might have a way with words that can bless a person's day or heart. They might have an excess of love to give. They might have unconditional care. They might show the most empathy. They might have the best advice. These types of things can't be bought. However, they can be given by anyone.
ReplyDeleteIn the book, Joe might just be young and not really have much power over the situation with everything going on, but he offers as much love and support to his family and friends as he can. He goes out of is way to figure things out and understand how others are feeling and what they went through. He put himself at risk just to find out what happened to his mom when most people didn't even think about trying so desperately to find out the truth. He tries to protect those he cares about. He has a deep desire to find truth. All of these qualities in his personality are a blessing that he can't buy or replace with any material goods and it blesses those around him. This quote really represents the important aspects of life in general, and more specifically Joe's story.
The main theme in ¨As I Lay Dying¨ is the thought of existence and identity. After the death of his mother, Vardaman goes fishing and ends up running home and crying. ¨It is cut up into pieces of not-fish now, not-blood oh my hands and overalls. Then it wasn't so. It hadn't happened then. And now she is getting so far ahead I cannot catch her¨(Faulkner 53). When cutting up the fish Vardaman is disgusted by the transformation of the fish. The reason why he gets so upset is that he relates the cut-up fish to that his mother went from a live person to now just a lifeless body or even just an object. Throughout the book, the author has each one of the children narrate to see how each of them copes with the death of Addie. Each child reacts to it differently but I think this quote shows that Vardaman had the hardest time dealing with it even though they knew it was going to happen at some point soon. The quote overall showed how it just hit him that his mother is dead and out of existence. If you compared his reaction to Anse's first reaction they are pretty much opposite. Anse is so distracted with her pregnancy she doesn't mourn her mother's death. Addie's death played a heavy role in Vardaman's change in mental thinking and his fishing trip was the turning point in is life.
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DeleteThe novel, "As I Lay Dying" shows a theme of suffering throughout the plot. After the mother dies, her spirit reappears and tells her side of the life she was living and the feelings that she had for her family and the acts that she committed. In this reappearance she talks about her relationship with her husband and a conversation that she had with a woman of religious belief (Cora) in which she claims, "People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too" (40.5.12). In this quote, the theme of suffering is revealed from her perspective. Because she was judged for living her life wrong by someone of religious beliefs, she countered it by the fact that she died in order to atone for her sins (that of which is having an affair with Whitfield). Often times people pray to have their sins forgiven and it is always seen as a communication through words. Because of this, she claims that sins are often time just words and the salvation of them is just words that echo back without any real value. But, her way of salvation is seen through the suffering of life that she went through and dying in order to pay for the sins that she committed.
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Fear seeps into even the tiniest cracks when dealing with the slaves in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Morrison speaks, “Risky, thought Paul D, very risky. For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, he knew, was to love just a little bit…” (Morrison.) Repetition lies in the text through the words “risky,” “slave,” and “dangerous,” and it reveals the underlining fear of closeness. Using this repetition is a bold move as it paints the emotional impact left on the slaves. Love, an emotion considered a human core value, can not be filled because of the lasting effects of children being stripped away from families during slavery. Despite slavery ending, this fear carried over into the former slave’s everyday life. It’s causing them to live in a toxic lifestyle that will only bring morbid continuity.
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One can suppress and ignore the past, metaphorically killing it. However it can only be ignored for so long before it becomes unhealthy for the emotional stability of all those involved. Such is the message of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. In the novel there is a message stating, "Anything dead coming back to life hurts," (Morrison 35). This line is said to main character Sethe by Amy, a compassionate woman who helped deliver Sethe's daughter Denver. The quote essentially means that there is pain in bringing anything back, this including memories. As seen in the novel Sethe struggles with the past and the memories hurt her. The same goes for the character Paul D. Even if they are both out of slavery, out of danger there are many painful scars left behind both physically and mentally.
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