Obviously, Old Nick is Jack's father, but will we be able to tell based on Jack's personality? Jack's behavior and personality are clearly very unique, but as far as I can tell, most of this can be attributed to his upbringing in such a closed environment and his contact with only one (two if you count Nick) other human being. Jack certainly draws sympathy from the reader, but nonetheless, it bothers me that Jack supposedly inherited old Nick's genes. In the reading for Tuesday, (Spoiler until the end of the paragraph) Ma's Dad from Australia comes to visit, and he cant look at Jack because he reminds him of Old Nick. Maybe if we didn't have Jack's point of view, this would be a more natural way to think about him. Nonetheless, everyone sending cards seems to be sympathetic. Clearly some people more than others share my apprehension toward Jack's genetics, and some, like Jack's grandpa take it too far.
This ties into the whole Nature vs Nurture Debate. Here is the link to the Wikipedia article in case you want to familiarize yourself with it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture. I think most people, including I, believe that the adult personality is shaped both by a person's genes and through their upbringing. How large of a role each plays, however, is more subject to controversy. On the nature side, I would imagine Jack growing up perhaps slightly twisted, because after all, he has half the genes of a kidnapper and rapist. On the nurture side, I Jack's childhood plays a large role in his adult personality and I would imagine that the first 5 years might have a more detrimental role than expected. Either way, the circumstances are less than ideal, but I hope that the rest of the book will shed a bit of light on what direction Jack is headed. Unfortunately, we are two thirds of the way through the book, and only a week or so has passed, so at this rate, we will not get to see very far into Jacks future. Hopefully, though we will get a clear enough picture to predict how things will end up for Jack and Ma.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Sunday, November 16, 2014
A comparison of Suzanne and Smithy
The last of the three books we hear about is Suzanne of the Aspens. On page 265, Kate gives Suzanne of the Aspens to Smithy, telling him it is an appropriate book for him. Smithy says "It was a fat book, and I hoped I would like it." On the next page he starts telling us about Suzanne of the Aspens. It is a true story of Suzanne Bowen, who left Boston with her husband, Captain John Bowen and their son, John Jr. The cross the country with a wagon train to settle in California. When Captain John gets sick, the other settlers think it s smallpox, so the Bowens are forced to leave the wagon train. Captain John dies that night in middle of nowhere. Suzanne and John Jr. buy the captain, and they start back towards the wagon train but they get lost and John Jr. gets really sick and dies the next morning. At this point, Smithy stops reading for the night.
He resumes his book on page 274 on the evening of his first day in the bike tour thing. For the second time in three days Suzanne had to bury a loved one and it was driving her crazy. For several days she lay over the grave of her dead son, not moving. Finally with the wagon horses starving and thirsty, she realized that no matter how much she willed him back, John Jr. was gone. Something inside her made her start doing the things she would need to do to survive in the Rockies alone. She got her act together and started preparing for the winter. She built a house and a stove for herself. She stockpiled wood and and started to ration her food.
Just like Suzanne, Smithy lost all of his relatives in a very short amount of time. He feels very depressed and is unable to cope with the situation. Something, however, pulls him together, just like something made Suzanne start preparing for the Winter. Although they start their journeys at different times in the story, they still traveled roughly the same path (from the New England to Colorado). Once again we see a connection, but Smithy is actually picking up on it this time. He says he is not sure if the book is really about him.
Snow fell every day and elk ate part of her firewood store. She claims that this "state of grace" was what led her to survive. She is shy towards the Indians, who are always watching her, but she showed no fear. She often left them small offerings, and in return she was often left with a feather.
Like Smithy, she is willing to help strangers, who may seem scary, but she doesn't show fear. We get many examples of Smithy's selflessness, just like Suzanne's.
We don't hear much more about Suzanne of the Aspens for a while until page 329. She sees two old Indians walking in the snow, and she wants to help them, but they turn and run away. She was confused. Unfortunately page 329 is the last page that contains any material about Suzanne of the Aspens, but nonetheless, we got a pretty good sense for the story, and saw some similarities to Smithy's journey.
He resumes his book on page 274 on the evening of his first day in the bike tour thing. For the second time in three days Suzanne had to bury a loved one and it was driving her crazy. For several days she lay over the grave of her dead son, not moving. Finally with the wagon horses starving and thirsty, she realized that no matter how much she willed him back, John Jr. was gone. Something inside her made her start doing the things she would need to do to survive in the Rockies alone. She got her act together and started preparing for the winter. She built a house and a stove for herself. She stockpiled wood and and started to ration her food.
Just like Suzanne, Smithy lost all of his relatives in a very short amount of time. He feels very depressed and is unable to cope with the situation. Something, however, pulls him together, just like something made Suzanne start preparing for the Winter. Although they start their journeys at different times in the story, they still traveled roughly the same path (from the New England to Colorado). Once again we see a connection, but Smithy is actually picking up on it this time. He says he is not sure if the book is really about him.
Snow fell every day and elk ate part of her firewood store. She claims that this "state of grace" was what led her to survive. She is shy towards the Indians, who are always watching her, but she showed no fear. She often left them small offerings, and in return she was often left with a feather.
Like Smithy, she is willing to help strangers, who may seem scary, but she doesn't show fear. We get many examples of Smithy's selflessness, just like Suzanne's.
We don't hear much more about Suzanne of the Aspens for a while until page 329. She sees two old Indians walking in the snow, and she wants to help them, but they turn and run away. She was confused. Unfortunately page 329 is the last page that contains any material about Suzanne of the Aspens, but nonetheless, we got a pretty good sense for the story, and saw some similarities to Smithy's journey.
A comparison of Ringo and Smithy
I know I said I would cover all of the books Smithy reads, but it turns out that we dont actually know much about one of them. In chapter 29, we see Smithy browsing the Lovella Loveland books. He says that he had "never heard of Lovella Loveland, which wasn't a surprise, because Iggy was the first book [he] had read in years. Smithy counts forty titles, lists a few, and notes that each cover had had "a drawing of a beautiful woman, her full breasts ripping and pushing to escape her shirt fabric, and standing over her was a man, a bulging, heavy sort of man." As we brought up in class, the book with the woman whose face and defiant expression resemble Norma's catches his eye. He buys it, although he doesn't actually tell us the name of the book.
As far as I can tell, the next time he mentions his reading is on page 201 when he is talking to Norma. Presumably, he lost his old book (the Norma faced girl one) in the car accident. He tells her that he bought a book called Ringo by the same author as Iggy. So we never really hear much about this Lovella Loveland book. So without further adieu, I will move on to Ringo.
On page 207, he tells us more about Ringo. He says that he didn't have to get into reading shape again like he did with Iggy. Smithy describes Ringo in some detail:
"Like Iggy, it was the story of a guy who has a good and interesting life despite all the odds that ares stacked against him. Ringo was a cowboy in 1900 Wyoming who had lost his left leg and right arm in an accident. Even though some of the other cowboys made fun of him, he relearned how to ride as well as anybody and fell in love with an Indian girl. named Doris Redleaf who had gone to Carlyle Indian College in Pennsylvania and had come back to Wyoming to teach little Indians English. It was, I guess, a heartwarming story. I wondered, if I were Ringo, could I have taken all that he did?"
Ringo loses an arm and a leg, and it looks like all hope is lost for him. His fellow cowboys make fun of him, but, he perseveres in relearning how to ride. At the end of the book, he sits taller in the saddle than anybody else, and is able to ride again, even it takes him a bit longer to get up there. Smithy's life falls apart as he grows fat and worsens his condition as a chain smoker and alcoholic. But he gets his act together and rediscovers his old self, just like Ringo. He starts riding his old bike and sheds his weight, quits smoking, and quits drinking. just like Ringo learning to ride his horse again. The similarities are very clear.
On page 236, Smithy finally hints at the logical between himself, Ringo and Iggy. He imagines how Harold Becker, the author would describe him: a little flowery, but very majestically. He says "Iggy, with all the prejudice and stuff from being black in 1878, never felt sorry for himself at all. And Ringo, with one arm and one leg, sat taller in the saddle than anyone. It just took him a lot longer to get up there. I didn't have anything to overcome, except maybe my fat ass--which dropped off somewhere in Missouri, or at least part of it did."
As far as I can tell, the next time he mentions his reading is on page 201 when he is talking to Norma. Presumably, he lost his old book (the Norma faced girl one) in the car accident. He tells her that he bought a book called Ringo by the same author as Iggy. So we never really hear much about this Lovella Loveland book. So without further adieu, I will move on to Ringo.
On page 207, he tells us more about Ringo. He says that he didn't have to get into reading shape again like he did with Iggy. Smithy describes Ringo in some detail:
"Like Iggy, it was the story of a guy who has a good and interesting life despite all the odds that ares stacked against him. Ringo was a cowboy in 1900 Wyoming who had lost his left leg and right arm in an accident. Even though some of the other cowboys made fun of him, he relearned how to ride as well as anybody and fell in love with an Indian girl. named Doris Redleaf who had gone to Carlyle Indian College in Pennsylvania and had come back to Wyoming to teach little Indians English. It was, I guess, a heartwarming story. I wondered, if I were Ringo, could I have taken all that he did?"
Ringo loses an arm and a leg, and it looks like all hope is lost for him. His fellow cowboys make fun of him, but, he perseveres in relearning how to ride. At the end of the book, he sits taller in the saddle than anybody else, and is able to ride again, even it takes him a bit longer to get up there. Smithy's life falls apart as he grows fat and worsens his condition as a chain smoker and alcoholic. But he gets his act together and rediscovers his old self, just like Ringo. He starts riding his old bike and sheds his weight, quits smoking, and quits drinking. just like Ringo learning to ride his horse again. The similarities are very clear.
On page 236, Smithy finally hints at the logical between himself, Ringo and Iggy. He imagines how Harold Becker, the author would describe him: a little flowery, but very majestically. He says "Iggy, with all the prejudice and stuff from being black in 1878, never felt sorry for himself at all. And Ringo, with one arm and one leg, sat taller in the saddle than anyone. It just took him a lot longer to get up there. I didn't have anything to overcome, except maybe my fat ass--which dropped off somewhere in Missouri, or at least part of it did."
Sunday, November 9, 2014
A comparison of Iggy and Smithy
I think a meaningful comparison can be drawn between Smithy and the books he reads. I plan to make a post about each of the books Smithy reads. .
The first book Smithy reads is Iggy. Smithy initially gets reading headaches after very short periods of reading. Smithy tells us the following about Iggy. Iggy never knew his father and he abandoned his mother when he was freed after the civil war. His mother was a "kind but powerful" woman named Esther Booklook. "She had gotten her last name from her father who got it from his father who got it from the nine year old daughter of a plantation owner because he liked to look at books." In 1878, Iggy changed his name to Hannibal, after the Carthaginian hero, because he liked it better than his mother's name, Booklook. After that he headed west. He was fourteen at the time. (page 131)
Beyond that, we don't hear much until the very end of the book, because Smithy interrupts his description of Iggy by announcing the onset of his "reading headache." It goes all the way until the end when Iggy is sitting under a Colorado cottonwood eating an apple. Smithy says "Everybody would think he was just another old black man, but all of us who had read the book knew that he was a giant. A great man at the end of his life. In was a tender kind of secret and I loved knowing it" (page 154).
Iggy's story is quite related to Smithy's. Iggy faced prejudice and discrimination, but was a great man inside; a giant. Smithy is just the same. People judged him throughout his journey, but he continued performing good deeds, humbly refusing to accept credit. There is no doubt that Smithy was a great man who looked just the opposite from the outside.
The first book Smithy reads is Iggy. Smithy initially gets reading headaches after very short periods of reading. Smithy tells us the following about Iggy. Iggy never knew his father and he abandoned his mother when he was freed after the civil war. His mother was a "kind but powerful" woman named Esther Booklook. "She had gotten her last name from her father who got it from his father who got it from the nine year old daughter of a plantation owner because he liked to look at books." In 1878, Iggy changed his name to Hannibal, after the Carthaginian hero, because he liked it better than his mother's name, Booklook. After that he headed west. He was fourteen at the time. (page 131)
Beyond that, we don't hear much until the very end of the book, because Smithy interrupts his description of Iggy by announcing the onset of his "reading headache." It goes all the way until the end when Iggy is sitting under a Colorado cottonwood eating an apple. Smithy says "Everybody would think he was just another old black man, but all of us who had read the book knew that he was a giant. A great man at the end of his life. In was a tender kind of secret and I loved knowing it" (page 154).
Iggy's story is quite related to Smithy's. Iggy faced prejudice and discrimination, but was a great man inside; a giant. Smithy is just the same. People judged him throughout his journey, but he continued performing good deeds, humbly refusing to accept credit. There is no doubt that Smithy was a great man who looked just the opposite from the outside.
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