Last week, I talked wrote a letter to Jeannette telling her to run away and escape. But this week, I really got a chance to see the connection that she has with her family. Despite all the tough events and abuse that she goes through, she really loves her family and lives a happy life. Her dad believes that people who pay a lot of money to live life are fools and that one can live a perfectly normal and healthy life with only the materials they find around them and the things that they can create by themselves. This actually works out pretty well for them a majority of the time. Jeannette's family is able to buy items from surplus, use items creatively to maximize their use, and use the rules and laws of life to their advantage.
Jeannette actually seems pretty happy through all of this. Several times through the novel, she comments on how lucky they are to have these experiences. For example, when her family moves to Battle Mountain and Jeannette and her siblings have to live in cardboard boxes: "We liked our boxes. They made going to bed seem like an adventure" (52). It could just be that Jeannette is an extreme optimist and is not able to see the poverty that surrounds her. Jeannette also never complains when conditions are dangerous or even life-threatening. When her parents force her and her siblings to ride in the back of the U-Haul and the gate opens up on the highway, her writings style doesn't change and she remains calm: "I was holding Maureen, who for some strange reason had stopped crying. I wedged myself into a corner. It seemed like we'd have to ride it out" (49). This clearly demonstrates her "make lemonade out of lemons" mentality.
It will be interesting to see if this mood is maintained throughout the book. There is only a certain amount of abuse that a human can take.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
hey tom-
just a few quick thoughts. what did you think made her switch her view so drastically to the tone that she takes in the beginning of the novel when she now has a home and a normal life? also, what makes you characterize the treatment that she receives as abuse? do you think her parents had similiar experiences? what made them the way that they are? what makes this treatment of her seem so wrong? is it because she is a child? i think that it has to do with that she doesn't have a choice. her parents can live anyway they want but to affect children and limit them just isn't right. but don't all of our parents limit us in some ways in our choices? like what instruments we play as a young kid, the importance of school work in our lives.... is this wrong too?
sarah
Post a Comment