The Wedding~Nicholas Sparks

The wedding is a book that i read a few years back and i decided to reread it this year because i really connected to his writing and craft.
His characters in this book are dynamic and they feel the emotions deeply in every situation they are cast into. One thing ive noticed is that the setting in all or most of his stories is north carolina.
I can connect to his stories because i lived in north carolina for so many years of my life. The events may be too adult for me but i really like imagining myself in my hoise in nc with my family. Nicholas Sparks has a craft that draws all hungry readers and he has captivated me and made me a dedicated reader. His characters are real but not his problems are expressed in word and lifd is spun on an angle.

The Wedding

I am rereading this book by the brilliant Nicholas Spaeks, who has weitten many of my favorite love novels. I enjoyed reading this book the first time and I previously finished The Help, so I decided to refresh my memory by analyzing it again.
Throughout his novels, Nicholas Sparks uses beautifull language that literally transports me into the time period of his charcters and when i close the book i feel that my world is not my own because I get so engaged in the story. Probably the strongest thing about his masterpieces are his characters. Each one even if they say one thing is REAL and even as a young eighth grader I can connect to the relationships portray and created. The book on the top of my list is The Choice.
This novel should be the book that readers disect and connet with first out of his novels (that I've read) because even though the story can be as dramatic as a play,the characters aren't just actors acting for $20, the characters are IN and ALL OVER even IN BETWEEN the boom and its pages. Even if i cant relate to specific situations mentioned i can connect to the emotions because every emotion is o e that any and everyone experiences at one or more times in their life.

The Help

I am so obsessed with this book and the social issues have lured me in so deeply, that it's hard to wrap my mind around them. Even though I'm almost done reading the book I'm still learning about the consequences that could fall on a white person that associated themselves with a black person (vise versa) even with the black person having their uniform. The boundaries in this book are very thick and it takes both strong readers to analyze the issues and dynamic characters to bring the reader through a complicated and deeply meaningful conflict.

The Help, the book collaborated by Skeeter Phelan has twelve stories of black maids and their working trilogy, leading from their  first domesticated jobs to their current jobs. The y also talk about the white women they work for, but these interviews are just fun and games. Medgar Evers is recently killed and other blacks are being beaten for simple things such as accidently using the bathroom for white people and the maids are terrified that someone will rat them out and possibly even kill them. One thing I found weird, was the fact that even though Skeeter has lived in Jackson, Mississippi all her life she never tapped into how harsh the life of a black person was and she didn't believe the possible punishments that she and the maids, like Minny and Aibileen, are faced with. Racism is such a big topic, but when you think about how it wires peoples' minds...it's unbelievable. I mean when Hilly wanted Skeeter to print her bathroom initiative stating that black maids should have separate bathrooms outside the house of the boss because of the "infectious diseases they carry" I wanted to punch Hilly out. She made that initiative out of sheer ignorance and didn't see it as a problem or rude thing to say. When Skeeter organized for toilets to be spread all over Hilly's front yard, that was the smallest bit of justice she could try to stamp into Hilly's mind to say she didn't agree with her nonsense.

Influence can control you, but strangely enough, even living in a society swarming with issues, you could walk outside and be completely oblivious to them, like Skeeter being unaware of the extremes of her actions, or complete and utter ignorance like Hilly.

How Justice is Slipped into "The Help"

In The Help, Kathryn Stockett focuses on a racially controlled era, when African Americans still worked for whites and separate bathrooms were constructed outside of homes for maids, because of the fear of catching "Negro diseases". Justice is a complicated issue in this book and Aibileen, Minny, and Miss. Skeeter are searching for the best and safest way for them to tell others about the injustice they've experienced.
Aibileen and Minny are both maids who work for dominant and complex white women, Miss. Celia and Miss. Leefolt. Minny and Aibileen have been working all their life and when Miss. Skeeter asks them to participate in an interview to go in her new book about the ups and downs about working for white women, they are extremely hesitant. Black people can get fired or worse for talking about their white employers behind their backs and Aibileen and Minny would have nothing if they didn't work. There seems to be no justice in the life of an African American because they are so constricted by what they can and cannot do. 
I don't see the white  people in the book as bad, but confused and shaped in a racist society that has influenced their way of life. Justice seems to be the last thing on Miss. Leefolt's mind because she doesn't see Aibileen as a friend even though she has been working for her and her family for several years. 
I think the main thing that upsets me about the injustice in this book is the fact that skin color can keep people away from each other and prevent strong relationships. I already know Minny has given Miss. Hilly, her old employer, a taste of what she considers justice by giving her a cake of something that is supposedly really bad. In Minny's case, her justice was out of revenge, but revenge just escalates problems and now Minny tries to avoid Miss. Hilly on every occasion to avoid starting a bigger problem. If Miss. Skeeter collaborates with Aibileen and Minny to make the book, that justice will be even more powerful because they're speaking out and letting others know what they're feeling.

Social Issue in The Bluest Eye

I think the main social issue throughout this book is, self image and negative life changing moments. Pecola's family goes through many hard times and her parents, Pauline and Cholly, both have stories that molded them into the people that they are when the story begins.

Cholly runs away from home after his great aunt's funeral and embarks on a mission to find his father, who abandoned him before he was born.. When he meets his father, he wants nothing to do with him and is more focused on his gambling game to care about Cholly's feeling. At an early age, Cholly develops a ruthless attitude and chooses not to feel emotion because feeling got him disowned by his father and live without a family to call his own.

Pauline, was a lively soul who wanted to fit in with the women of the town she moved to with Cholly after they got married. The women scrutinized her and she continued to buy makeup and clothes in order to win their acceptance, but they never did. She imagined her marriage to be beautiful with scenes of her and her lover kissing in the moonlight or under the sunset but Cholly never gave her that. In the beginning of their relationship, he was bright and alive wanting to take care of her every need especially with her crippled foot. Pauline soon noticed the affection between them dwindling away and their arguments becoming more frequent and intense. She abandoned her dreams and lived a dull life, believing the Lord was punishing her for marrying Cholly.

Pecola as I have mentioned in several posts, has the need for blue eyes because she wants the happiness white girls have because of their blue eyes.

Self image can be how other people see you and how you see yourself. Pauline sees herself as a punished women who is paying everyday for her sin of marrying Cholly. Cholly is a torn man suffering from a life of his own choosing and Pecola would give anything to have the bluest eyes. (Pecola has a brother, but he isn't mentioned in detail). The Breedloves have suffered from hopes and dreams and because their dreams didn't come true, they adapt to a new way of life.

Segregation in The Bluest Eyes

Toni Morrison formatted The Bluest Eyes in a unique way that allowed me to familiarize myself with the characters and have a greater respect for them because I actually see and experience their childhood, teen, and middle aged lives, leading up to the intro of the story. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different character, but the chapter about Cholly interested me the most.

When I first met Cholly, I labeled him as a bitter and violent husband and father.  He was always too drunk to care about anyone or anything and I added him to my mental "bad influences in the book list", but when I started reliving his childhood, I understood why he was such a hard person.

About six months after his birth, his mother left him on the train tracks preparing to desert him, but her mother found Cholly, beat her daughter and as a result her daughter left and Cholly was raised by his Great Aunt Jimmy, lovingly called Aunt Jimmy. After four years of school he asked his aunt about his father and all she could tell him was his name, Samson Fuller, and where he could have possibly gone after his birth, Macon. Sadly, his aunt dies and he has trouble realizing this reality, but at the wake, he fools around with a girl named Darlene in the fields near the house. To raise the stakes, two white men hunting in the nearby woods, stumble along the two and command Cholly to continue having sex with Darlene in their presence. 

Cholly's mind is quickly changed from fun and innocence to hard and unforgiving. He blames Darlene for what happens and runs away in search of his father. In Macon, his father sends him on his way without a nice word as he gambles in an alley. Cholly, at age fourteen, had already lost the one person who loved him and was now turned away from his biggest fantasy; a father that would welcome and love him.

Rereading the title I gave this post, I realized there is not only segregation with skin color in the book, but segregation within yourself. Cholly chooses to be mad at Darlene instead of the two white men that mocked him in the field because she is on the same level as him. The text says, "Sullen, irritable, he cultivated his hatred of Darlene. Never did he once consider directing his hatred toward the hunters. Such an emotion would have destroyed him. They were big, white, armed men. He was small, black, helpless."(pg.119) He settles on being angry with Darlene who is an equal because they are both small, black, and helpless. A white man seems so high up on the scale that Cholly decides to settle things with his own kind, by handling his feelings with the people he feels will understand, who are on his level.

The Bluest Eyes

I'm reading The Bluest Eyes written by Toni Morrison. This book has a tight hold on me with the issues of self hatred, racism, and life as an African American girl. It's easy to say, "I hate my nose because it's so big", but when you live your life knowing everything about you; your family, your life, and more over yourself, you wallow in self hatred. This character is Pecola, who constantly finds herself praying for blue eyes.

In this book, blue eyes are cast on a higher standard than any other dream an African American girl could have. Blue eyes belong to "Shirley Temple, Mary Jane on Mary Jane candies, and Jane in the primer school" but not to black girls. Blue eyes signify everlasting happiness and acceptance in a harsh world and with insults hurled your way at school and in the eyes of strangers, blue eyes are the only escape. 

Pecola believes with blue eyes teacher would actually look at her, in her eyes, and people would have to be nice to her. The white girls never had to bear the harsh stares and gestures Pecola did, especially with her "unusual ugliness", so they joined in the taunting, never wanting to be the one ostracized and jeered.

In our lives, blue eyes are the things we want to make ourselves look or feel better, because we expect them to give us the things we pray for . We think "If I only had a car, i wouldn't be late for school" but why can't we be thankful for the things we have, or lack of, and think of them not as a burden but a blessing. This blued blessing sets us apart and makes us different inside and out, because you can try to change your outward appearance, but know you deserve more than the image you're trying to portray.

Blog Post 2

I chose to extend my thinking from the Guided Reading List with number four. Number four required me to: "Track quotes about pain throughout the book. What is Lowry trying to share with the readers about the pain? do you agree with her? Why or why not?" I enjoyed digging deeper into this topic and uncovering hidden metaphors throughout the book.

These are my quotes that were strongly describing true pain.

• "You have never experienced that. Yes, you have scraped your knees in falls from your bicycle. Yes, you crushed your finger in a door last year." Jonas nodded, agreeing, as he recalled the incident, and its accompanying misery. "But you will be faced, now," she explained gently "with pain of a magnitude that none of us can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage. We cannot prepare you for that." (Found on pages 62 and 63)
• "6. Except for illness or injury unrelated to your training do not apply for any medication." (Found on page 68)
• "From the distance, Jonas could hear the thuds of cannons. Overwhelmed by pain, he lay there in the fearsome stench for hours, listened to the men and animals die, and learned what warfare meant." (Found on page 120)

Lois Lowry is trying to maintain a thread of fear through out the book to show what the community thinks it means and what the Giver and Jonas experience it as. The experience of fear is what the Giver wants to past to Jonas, but the community wants nothing to do with this feeling and continue living as if fear is an emotion that never reaches a serious pinicle. 

Fear hangs over the everyone within Jonas's community, but the Giver and Jonas appear to be the only two who want to feel it and understand it. Both the Giver and Jonas were selected to bear all the memories that existed before Sameness, which was  the time when the land was diverse with hills and valleys, colors shone, and warfare and pain were real. I don't think they learn about these negative emotions because they were chosen to do so, but because all their lives they understood life in one dimension. For example, saying you are hurt and feeling pain are completely contrasting because when you feel an emotion you can connect to it but saying you've felt it leaves you wondering how that emotion feels. The Giver and Jonas want to say they have been pained and have truth in it while the community says they have  just to say it. The questions to think about is: if pain is too much of a burden for the community to carry why would they want others, who live so peacefully, to be selected to carry their fears and worries and what would they do with emotions such as pain if there was no Giver? Jonas and the Giver appear to be the Elders' and the community's treasure chest that they can heap everything they don't want to deal with onto and not not think about again.

In conclusion, the quotes of pain and my analysis of how the Giver, Jonas, and the community view are unique and diverse and seeing it through each pair of eyes is really interesting.