Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Outside reading! Cha cha cha. (#3)

Throughout the novel, The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman, the reader gets a clear perspective on mother-daughter conflict. It directs all the Sparrow womens' relationships with one another. Every reply has a hint of sarcasm, and every comment is twisted into an insult. Even Jenny proclaims, "You take everything I say and turn it around" (186). Later in the argument, Stella bites back with, "Everything was perfect until you got here, everything was absolutely fine" (187). Talk about sassy. After this spat between mother and daughter, grandmother Elinor comforts her daughter, Jenny. She evens makes her laugh a little. These small gestures are what help the three women survive together under the same roof. However, several pages later Elinor says, "Do you realize you never agree with me? If I said it was noon, you wouldn't care if the sun was in the center of the sky. You'd tell me it was nighttime. You'd want to argue no matter what" (195). How can these ladies even bear to argue and bicker over every detail? Do they have some idea in their heads that none of them could ever begin to understand the struggle of another? That mothers can never understand their daughters, and daughters their mothers? Yes...maybe that is the problem. On Stella's birthday, she declares to a close friend, "I hate my mother...She watches over me like I'm some sort of wilting flower" (37). Many daughters today fell as if their mothers hate them, even though they do not. They strive, as do the Sparrow women, for independence. Rebellion. Love. Risk. They have a thirst for it. A chronic hunger. Although they do desire all of these things, mothers will always be waiting. Always willing to forgive. As in Jenny and Elinor's case. Jenny awoke in the middle of the night and walks into her mother's bedroom like a child who had just experienced a nightmare. As she crawls into the bed, the author describes, "There was a woman beside her with black hair who appeared to be her daughter. Could that be real? Wasn't that an impossible thing, no more likely than a dish that could grow legs and run away over the moon or a roomful of straw spun into gold?" (244). Elinor already believed the impossible could never happen and just then, in that very moment, she had been proven wrong. Even though it was unspoken, both of them knew, "After all this time, they forgave each other on this morning in May when the world was green, when bees circled the laurel, when words didn't need to be spoken, when anything that had been lost could still be found" (244). What more could be given that is more valuable than forgiveness and knowing that the impossible can be achieved?

Monday, October 22, 2007

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Outside Reading Blog...Post Numbah Two.

In my novel, The Probable Future written by Alice Hoffman, the characters experience a lot of struggle and conflict. Will Avery especially goes through tons in his life. His personality is really self-absorbed and he tends to think only of himself. This trait leads him directly into trouble. Even Will's brother, Matt, declares, "He was so unused to giving of himself, so unable to place another's needs before his own" (104). When his own mother is dying, he can't even bring himself to visit her. He used "flimsy excuses" just to get out of the so-called obligation (104). Another perfect example is the number of news reporters that track Will down. He was put in jail for murdering a young woman. In truth, his daughter Stella saw how the woman was going to die (as it is her power, being able to see how someone will die) and made her father promise to tell the police. In doing so, this made him the perfect suspect. Once people found out, news reporters surrounded him day in and day out, wanting the scoop. When Will is all alone and down in the dumps, a Boston Herald reporter comes to the door and asks for an interview. The author says, "If he hadn't been such a greedy fool, his radar might have been out about this Ted Scott individual. It took one to know one, isn't that what people said? Well, not this time. This time he'd been blinded by a few dollars" (183). Will felt horrible about his naivety. He overlooked everyone's feelings but his own. He learns then and there that he had made many, many mistakes in his lifetime. When he decides he needs to make a trip to visit Stella, against court orders, he tells his ex-wife, "Baby, I made a mistake" (199). And to his surprise Jenny replies, "I understand completely" (199). At last he admits he had done something wrong, and he finally understands that he can be forgiven. It didn't have to be all about him. Will realizes how many stupid mistakes and decisions he has made, and how easy it was for him to make them. However, he has also learned that it is much harder to admit to those mistakes and ask for forgiveness. But when he finally does, it pays off. With interest.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Outside Reading Post. Numero Un.

The main characters in my novel, The Probable Future written by Alice Hoffman, are quite varied from each other. They all strive for different things: better family relationships, a way to change things already said and done, or even save a loved one from a fate they did not deserve. The protagonists are mostly women, all from a different generation of the same family. Granddaughter, mother, and grandmother. Stella, from the youngest generation, has just turned thirteen and has discovered that she has the unfortunate ability to see how a person will die. Jenny, the mother and daughter, is recently divorced and has a dwindling relationship with her daughter, and her relationship with her mother isn't great either. She also has an interesting power, she can see peoples' dreams as they are dreaming them. Elinor, the grandmother and mother, is aging and still living in the same house as the rest of the Sparrow women had for years. She has the undeniable ability to smell a lie the moment it is spoken. She wants to bring Stella closer to her, and make her alienate her mother. The main guy role is taken by Stella's father, Will Avery. He has an incredible amount of care and support for his daughter. He tends to lie quite often, and he is the kind of person who always seems to let you down. Despite his seemingly imperfect personality, he always tries his hardest to come through for Stella when she needs him most.
Back to the youngest of the characters, Stella has the strong urge to rebel against her mother's strict wishes. As Stella pulled the braids out of her hair, she thinks, "Anyway, braids were worn by the kind of girl her mother wished her to be, the sort who wore pink sweaters and was voted class president, who excelled in after-school activities, from the drama club to the Mathletes. Clearly, that was not the sort of girl Stella happened to be" (Hoffman 33). She wants to break away from her mother, and she wants to be independent. She feels as if her mom would never be able to understand her, and according the rules and ways she treats Stella, she obviously doesn't. As for Will, the "careless and self-centered" dad that he admitts he is, is somehow much more important in Stella's life, and she looks up to him much more than she does her mother (Hoffman 40). When Stella tells him that they are going to dinner without her mom, he accepts willingly, "Will was certainly agreeable to a maneuver such as this. It was of course of action he understood quite well...he'd done the exact same thing" (Hoffman 41). Throughout the beginning of my novel, we see that all of the characters strive for different things. Will clearly strives to improve his way of life, filled with lies and disappointment. Stella wants to break free and make her own decisions on her own accord, even though that is quite far-fetched for a thirteen-year-old with the power to see how people die. Instead of "Nothing Jenny did seemed right," Jenny wanted to do things right (Hoffman 26). She wanted to be friends with Stella, and she wanted them to accept each other and let go of their differences. Although they have many differences, and they struggle to survive with each other, they continue to go on with their lives, and take each day one at a time.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Vent away, dear memoir.

Memoirs can be found everywhere. You walk into Barnes & Noble, and there is always a new memoir out about some politician or famous author. But the celebrities and well-known are not the only ones who write memoirs. Normal people do too. People with regular, average lifestyles. Like Richard Wright, he had quite a lot to write about. His childhood was a struggle, and he dreamed of bigger and better things, which often times dragged him down even further. However, he still wrote that memoir of his life. Why? You ask. Well, I think that it is because people live their lives to connect with others. They want more ways to communicate. They want to relate with each other! Think if no one could relate to anyone else. You would never be able to ask for advice, never be able to understand, never be able to learn. Your life would be pretty much pointless. Despite all of this pessimism however, people do connect, relate and learn from each other. Memoirs are sometimes written to entertain a crowd, or tell about a life-changing story. However, they are also written to connect with everyone. Anyone can pick up a memoir about someone they don't even know, or have never heard of, and feel an instant connection with them because they have felt what the author has felt, and they can relate. That feeling that you're not alone, and someone else understands what you're feeling and thinking is an awesome feeling. And memoirs help people attain that sometimes unreachable feat. Telling our own stories helps us reach this "goal". It's almost like venting, where you can just tell someone all of your worries and thoughts and in return, you feel as if a weight has been lifted off of your shoulders. There is so much power in writing memoirs, because for some people, it sincerely helps release all of that pressure that has built up for days, months, and years. This on-going connecting and relating is something that is definitely helped by the writing of memoirs, not only for the author, but for every person that reads it too.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Hunger for Life

Throughout the entire story so far, we continuously see Richard's physical hunger. He is practically starving for most of the book. There are several intervals of time when he is not hungry, but that quickly disappears. Physical hunger for food however, is clearly not the only hunger that Richard experiences. In the beginning, he doesn't fully realize the black and white tension and also how much much he wants to know. Later though, he finds out that there is much tension, and no one cares to answer his relentless questions. I think that they don't comprehend the fact that Richard simply wants to understand and have reasons for everything. Like proof for reality. He hungers for that knowledge. He wants to know more, and learn everything he can. This is why he wants to get jobs and save money. He needs to buy books and school clothes, etc. to fill his want for a higher education. In addition to this, he has a strong passion for writing. It occupies his time. He loves reading and writing anything he can. He told someone that he wants to be a writer, and the woman replies, "'A what?' 'A writer,' 'For what?' 'To write stories,' "You'll never be a writer'" (147). This woman assumes that he could never be a writer, and that he must be insane for thinking such a thing. However he continues to write and pursue his dream. Another example of this is when the principal wants him to present a speech at the graduation, and Richard refuses to present the suggested speech, because he wants to read his own. When asked for an opinon, his uncle says, "'The principal's speech is the better speech'" (177). He wants to take control of his own life, not let it be controlled by someone who doesn't even understand his passions, and his wants and needs. Richard hungers for many things and is also very passionate. What he really hungers for though, is his own life. Freedom from the difficult and unreasonable reality in which he struggles through for his entire childhood.