Welcome to our class discussion
board. I hope to create a forum for meaningful discussion of our
reading. Please be sure that you write and respond in a way that is
courteous and respectful of our community. When writing or
responding, be sure to review your written posts
and responses to ensure that you’ve conveyed exactly what you intended. Please read everything in the discussion
thread before replying. This will help you avoid repeating something someone
else has already contributed. Acknowledge the points made with which you agree
and suggest alternatives for those with which you don’t.
Carly Brail
ReplyDeletePassage analysis: “I was on fire.” pg 9.
I was surprised to see this type of passage in just the second chapter of the book. In my past experiences, I have observed that the first few chapters of the book are reserved for the exposition, in which the setting, characters, and possible conflicts are established. However, this chapter shattered all expectations when it jumped immediately into the plot line, introducing the first conflict: Jeanette on fire. It was very refreshing to experience an immediate “jump” into the storyline without forming an idea about who the characters are. By introducing a conflict early on in the story, the author allows the reader to follow the plot line without any preconceived notions about the characters.
I like this plot pyramid much more than the conventional, exposition type because it demonstrates the main themes
in the book itself. In the first 57 pages I have read, I have come to the conclusion that this book delves into wanderlust traveling patterns. The Wall’s family lives a nomadic lifestyle, moving around the country and never settingdown roots. They pick up and move their lives on a whim, or once they get too tired of their surroundings and are chased out by bill collectors. This impatience with the present is portrayed in the author’s immediate jump into the storyline. The “boring” exposition is removed, and instead the reader experiences instantaneous conflict.
If studied on the psychological level, this may reveal the imprints of childhood on the author’s life. This book is a memoir, and it represents all the truth and stories of Jeannette Walls life. The instant movement into the “exciting” portion of the story demonstrates how Jeanette is always searching for the exhilarating parts of life in the same way her parents did.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletejournal entry one
ReplyDeletepages 1-57
With all the craziness that has been going on lately (sorry to bring it up), I have been thinking a lot about how adaptable humans are. A week and a half ago, I spent very little time at home, and even less time sitting around watching tv with my family. However, I have very quickly become accustomed to this new life of sitting around all day, not seeing my friends, and instead painting, knitting, and watching Downton Abbey. I have already developed new habits, new hobbies, and I think it goes to show how easily we can adapt to change.
When I started this book, I was immediately fascinated by Jeanette and her family’s way of life. Their nomadic habits were so foreign, and so unthought of for me. I wondered how Jeanette could love to live with constant change, because I have had the privilege of leading a life with many constants.
After my realization, I began to understand Jeanette more in two ways. First, I realized that her family going through these sudden alterations is what is reliable for her. Fleeing towns, and sleeping on worn out blankets under the stars is her life, and she may be unsettled by leading a life without change (just as I would be to lead a life with so much change). Second, I thought of how Jeanette establishes new habits so quickly, just as I have done, as she gets to each new town. This life can make sense, because it is in human nature to acclimate very quickly. Jeanette expresses almost no adjustment time, as the lettuce fields in Blythe quickly become a normality, and soon the norm is the desert of Battle Mountain. Jeanette quickly forms habits in Battle Mountain: her explorations at dawn in the desert, or parachuting off of the roof of the depot, or flattening pieces of metal on the train tracks. It made me understand how used to different lives we can suddenly become.
I agree with Charlotte's statement that Jeanette has become so accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle. It appears that moving around and always taking flight to a new town is the living style that is most comfortable to her.
DeleteThis fact also demonstrates immense character growth. In the beginning of the book, Jeanette says that she lives in New York City with her husband. This hints to a life that dramatically differs from the one she lived as a child. She works a consistent job, returns home night after night to the same house, and has remained in the same place for an unstated amount of time. Compared to the life she lived in the west, she wakes up every day in the same place with no plans to leave any time soon.
Although many years have passed since she was 7 in the desert and the present in New York City, I still believe this represents tremendous character growth. Growing up she became accustomed to constantly moving around and never staying in the same town for more than a few months. She became familiar with this living pattern, and one would assume that these nomadic patterns would stay with her as she grew up. However, because she is living the exact opposite life as an adult, Jeanette hints at a change in her ideology at some point during her life. Something must have happened for him to “shun” the wanderlust lifestyle and revert to a stationary being. I am excited to read further into the book to discover this conflict.
One thing that intrigued me about this section of the book was how much Jeannette loved her childhood. This is my third time reading this book, so I have read over The Desert many times. I understand how love of your family can cloud your ability to judge situations, as can limited experience. Jeannette’s love for her childhood, however, was genuine. It didn’t come from not seeing the whole picture, or not understanding more complicated things. She honestly just liked the on-the-road, self-sufficient adventure lifestyle. This is clear in the numerous times she tells Lori how much she likes being on the road, but also in the care and detail she uses in her descriptions of the desert and her experiences there. Starting on page 21, there is a passage almost like a love letter to the desert, so descriptive and evocative that it made me see, for this first time, how somebody could love the desert the way Jeannette did, even though I’ve read this book so many times. It goes: “I loved the desert, too. When the sun was in the sky, the sand would be so hot that it would burn your feet if you were the kind of kid who wore shoes, but since we always went barefoot, our soles were as tough and thick as cowhide… We’d search for gold, and when we couldn’t find it, we’d collect other valuable rocks, like turquoise and garnets. There’d be a cool spell come sundown, when the mosquitoes would fly in so thick that the air would grow dark with them, then at nightfall, it turned so cold that we usually needed blankets.” And later, on page 22: “Raindrops the size of marbles came pelting out of the sky. Some parents worried that their kids might get hit by lightning, but Mom and Dad never did, and they let us go out and play in the warm, driving water. We splashed and sang and danced. Great bolts of lightning cracked from the low-hanging clouds, and thunder shook the ground. We gasped over the most spectacular bolts, as if we were all watching a fireworks show. After the storm, Dad took us to the arroyos, and we watched the flash floods come roaring through.” These passages make the desert sound like magic, an adventure, somewhere I would want to go. The best thing about these sections is that they convince me that Jeannette’s childhood was as good as she thought it was. She acknowledges that there were flaws and things she didn’t like, that her life wasn’t perfect, but out of the entire book, these are her happiest moments, even compared to the end of the book. The love that Jeannette used to craft these paragraphs and the guilt she feels when seeing her mother in the first section make me wonder if she ever misses these moments of her life.
ReplyDeleteWhat really intrigues me, is how indifferent Jeanette seems to be toward all of the horrible situations in her life. When she was burned, she didn’t cry or scream, and when she was in the hospital, in response to a nurse telling her that she would be okay, she said “but if I'm not that's okay too.” She also didn't seem to mind when her dad told the family that they had to go on the road and only take the things they needed to survive. She was accustomed to it, and the only part that bothered her was having to leave behind her doll and her cat, and even those, she seemed to forget about very quickly. It’s amazing to me how growing up with parents like Jeanetts’s will harden you, because she experiences so many things that would have more of an effect on me than they seem to have on her. A sandstorm would absolutely terrify me, but to her, it’s just another normal event that happens in everyday life. The thing that most intrigues me about Jeanette, is her fascination with fire. Instead of her parents warning her to stay away from fire, they sparked an interest in fire for her. Matches seem to fascinate her and she even wanted to watch the fire burn in the hotel they had been staying at. When the three girls from her school beat her up, she lied to her dad and told her there were six because she wanted her dad to be proud of her. On page 28 her mom said “people worried too much about their children… fussing over children who cry only encourages them.” While I mostly agree with that statement, I think they take it to a more extreme level by allowing a three year old cook for herself, or have her “confront her fear” of fire by touching the flame.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete