Thousand Splendid Suns 7

     Turns out Laila was right from the beginning: Rasheed knew about Aziza being Tariq's baby. Laila was arguing with him, complaining that he had lied to her about Tariq dying and how “’…that man [sat] across from [her] and…[Rasheed] knew [Laila] would leave if [she] thought he was alive.’ ‘AND YOU DIDN’T LIE TO ME?...You think I didn’t figure it out? About your harami? You take me for a fool, you whore?’” Why did Rasheed just now bring up what Laila hoped was still her secret?

     When Mariam or Laila’s secrets get out or they have a reason, or not, to be beaten, that is the only time one of them sees Rasheed’s “face soften,” But only if they fight back. When Rasheed has got a hold on Laila’s throat and was waiting for her death Mariam goes insane and begins fighting her husband. “She hit him across the temple…he looked at the blood on his fingertips, then at Mariam. She thought she saw his face soften…that maybe quite literally knocked some understanding into his head….was that respect she saw in his eyes? Regret?” That line makes the reader wonder if Rasheed really did have a glimpse of respect for Mariam at that point. Would he change? Or would he not? “…it occurred to her that this was the first time that SHE was deciding the course of her own life.”

     I disagree with that occurrence right there because I think another time where Mariam decided her course of life would be when she was a little girl that had never left her yard before and crossed the river. But she decided that one day to cross the river and go after her father when he didn’t show up that day. That altered her entire life! Her mother killed herself, she had to move in with her father and his wives, and then she was given away to Rasheed.

     In the next chapter, Laila is curled up on Mariam’s lap and Mariam is telling her all about the things they’re going to see and where they’ll soon live. “Somewhere with trees…lots of trees. They would live in a small house on the edge of some town they’d never heard of, Mariam said, or in a remote village…Maybe there would be a path to take, a path that led to a grass field where the children could play, or maybe a gravel road that would take them to a clear blue lake (river) where trout swam and reeds poked though the surface. They would raise sheep and chickens, and they would make bread together…they would be deserving of all the happiness and simple prosperity they would find.” Mariam is talking about her home from when she was a little girl living with her mother and daydreaming about Jalil visiting her and the dirt road he would come on and the river they would fish in.

     Before her execution Mariam thinks “…of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lonely village, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother.” Then when Laila is in Mariam’s old house she notices that “the floor is carpeted now with dry-edged leaves, broken bottles, discarded chewing gum wrappers, wild mushrooms…but mostly with weeds, some stunted, some springing impudently halfway up the walls.” Impudently means showing a lack of respect and excessive boldness: the reason Mariam was killed in the first place! She showed a lack of respect by obviously beating the crap out of her husband and seconds later he died and the excessive amount of boldness appeared in between holding the shovel and forcing contact between that and Rasheed’s skull. In the end, “One last time, Mariam did as she was told.” She kneeled down and bowed her head

Thousand Splendid Suns 6

Laila, Mariam, and Aziza make their escape but they’re paranoid about getting caught. “Everywhere [Laila] looked, [she] saw Rasheed.” It was as if he was omnipresent and tormenting her thoughts. A sour attitude is created when she sees him “…coming out of barbershops with windows the color of coal dust…from battered, open fronted stores packed with old tires...” but her mood soon switches  when she is closer to freedom at the train station. She feels “…the warmth of the morning sun, [and feels] giddy and bold…”when she’s looking for the perfect looking man to trust.”False face must hide what the false heart doth know” is one thing Laila must have never learned all the years her father taught her. Maybe the author of Macbeth should have written it sooner because the kind eyed man that agrees to help them turns them in and they get sent home to the torture of a lifetime.

The new rules of Afghanistan had Rasheed’s approval written all over it! Anything a woman or man did wrong was punishable by a beating or loosing of a limb. Laila even agrees with me when Rasheed says he could get rid of Aziza any time he wanted. “Laila shot him a disgusted look. ‘I’m making a point,’ he said. ‘You’re just like them.’”

There is symbolism when Laila should be giving birth but the baby refuses to come out even though it’s time is past due. Just like how her wedding ring was too small, the pen didn’t work to sign the contract, and now they had to literally cut Rasheed’s son out of her womb. Rasheed isn’t the one she should be with; Laila should be with Tariq! It’s always been Tariq, even when she thought him dead. They were friends from the beginning, known by everyone (except themselves at first) that they had feelings for each other, expected to be married, easily and without much thought of the consequences- they had sex, and Laila gave birth to a beautiful baby girl that came out with no fault. Now Tariq is miraculously alive! This story better straighten itself up and have a RIGHT ending!

Thousand Splendid Suns 5

Rasheed treats Laila the same as Mariam when she had her first pregnancy but when they came home with a baby girl Mariam says Laila did worse by giving birth to a girl then having a miscarriage. "Laila passed that winter of 1992 sweepign the house, scrubbign the pumpkin-colored walls of the bedroom she shared with Rasheed..." Why would Rasheed straight out tell Mariam that he's customed to having his own room and give her her own room, yet not even mention that statement to Laila when she moves in?

is it ironic that Aziza (a herami herself) is the one who brought Mariam and Laila together? Ofcourse Laila rescued Mariam from Rasheed when he tried to beat her, but the connection between Mariam and Aziza warms both of their hearts. The night when the two first connect Laila convinces Mariam to have a cup of tea with her. "One cup. They sat on folding chairs outside and ate halwa with their fingers from a common bowl. They had a second cup, and when Laila asked her if she wanted a third Mariam said she did." This shows a well built friendship is in the making. Laila was the main contributer in trying to work things out betweent he two of them, but now Mariam is wanting a friend just as much as Laila.

Thousand Splendid Suns 4

When Tariq and Laila were at the movie talking about how none of them were ever going to get married Tariq states "they'll have to make room for three on teh wedding stage. Me, the bride, and the guy holding the gun to my head." Technically those two were "married" or joined as one when they had sex and later Tariq was bombed and soon after died because of it. Comparing Laila and Tariq to the story of Romeo and Juliet also set their fate as having a relationship that fails and they all eventually die of a broken heart. Laila's road to death has changed though because she dodged it by not being in the house when it was bombed. Also she has Tariq's baby developing in her tummy. Anything and everything bad could happen to Laila and the baby though if someone finds out its not Rasheed's baby. Mariam is more than likely going to have some reaction to Laila giving rasheed a baby when seh wasn't able to. Mariam is already treated like a worthless slave without Rasheed knowing Laila's pregnant, how will seh be treated when he does find out?

Thousand Splendid Suns 3

Rasheed is becoming more and more excluded from Mairam."He didn't look at her...These days, he never did anymore, and Mariam wasn't even sure if she was being spoken to...With each dissapointment, Rasheed had grown more remote and resentful...no matter how thoroughly she submitted to his wants and demands, it wasn't enough...seven times she had failed him-and now she was nothing but a burden to him." Rbasheed: "Now you know what you've given me in this marriage. Bad food, and nothing else."

Laila talks about how her mom favors her sons and how she isn't loved much by her, but in the chapter where Laila is born it describes her as being very beautiful with stunningly blonde hair I thought she'd be the favored one because of her "high quality" looks. When Laila is sitting at her mother's door knocking but she never answers it is saying how her mother wont let anyone in her life anymore. But Laila ends up just walking in. "She would tap on it nad whisper Mammy's name over and over, like a magic chant meant to beak the spell...but Mammy never opened the door. She didn't open it now. Laila turned the knob and walked in." That shows that Laila is going to make herself be a part of her mom's life. Her Mother may not want anyone around but Laila will always be there.

Thousand Splendid Suns 2

Foreshadowing of Rasheed’s power over Mariam is shown when “[Mariam’s] own band was a little tight, but Rasheed had no trouble forcing it over her knuckles.” It foreshadows the first time they had sex and Mariam didn’t want to, the rules in the house, and the clothing Rasheed made her wear over her face in public. Again there is foreshadowing when Rasheed and Mariam are on the bus heading to their new home. “He was squinting out the window…as though something more interesting had caught his eye.” It explains how Mariam is the jewel in his eye for a split second but then he isn’t interested anymore like when they were going to have a baby but then Mariam had a miscarriage.

Rasheed is sexist and rude! “What’s this crying about? Rasheed said crossly…That’s one thing I can’t stand, ‘He said scowling,’ the sound of a woman crying. I’m sorry, I have no patience for it…In his opinion, superstitions were largely a female preoccupation…He went on chewing and staring ahead, and when Mariam spoke to him he looked at her without seeing her face and put another piece of bread in his mouth.” But for some odd reason, Mariam begins to think “Rasheed’s presence was of some comfort…” It seems Rasheed is doing exactly what Jalil did to Mariam. He would give her gifts and make her feel safe but only to try and hide the real person he was underneath. “It was disquieting to her that Rasheed owned [a gun] whose sole purpose was to kill another person. But surely he kept it for their safety. Her safety.

Thousand Splendid Suns 1

Right away in the story, something happens when "...the sugar bowl" that had a "dragon on [it]...to ward off evil...fell to the wooden floorboards...and shattered." It is foreshadowing something "evil" or bad happening like Mariam's father not showing up to get her, her father turning to hide from her when she saw him in an upstairs window, or Nana committing suicide. In the beginning chapters I am always confused who is the good and bad guy. Nana or Jalil? Nana seems to over exaggerate everything or lie about how much of a fool Jalil is, also calling Mariam a harami and saying she's nothing. But sometimes Nana turns into the insane but loving mother and Jalil is a two faced father that only wants his daughter to believe he is all good, when really he's fake. The situation isn't helped by the narrator being mariam, the child just as confused as the reader.

Jalil and Nana seem to fight one another through their daughter. They will barely have conversation when they're having tea together with Mariam, but apart they accuse the other of  lying. "And you, Mariam jo, you were in no rush. Almost two days you made me like on that cold, hard floor." "They told me it was all over within under an hour.' Jalil said, ' You were a good daughter, Mariam jo." "He wasn't even there! Nana spat.
..."Nana said she was the one who'd picked the name Mariam because it had been the name of her mother. Jalil said he chose the name because Mariam, the tuberose, was a lovely flower."

"I'll die if you go. The jinn will come, and i'll have one of my fits." A jinn is Arabic meaning "hidden from sight" and is a "spirit of lower rank than an angel...a demon" What made Nana become demon possessed in the past? Was she possessed when she commited suicide, did she just believe she was, or was she actually insane?

The Poisonwood Bible 7

 The Congo has affected each sister in some sort of way to change who they were into who they are now at an old(er) age. But Leah and Adah agree Rachel "[would] win the prize for 'Changed the Least.'" When Leah and Adah are walking infront of Rachel she was "shocked to see how alike they were...[Adah] talks now...She's exactly as tall as Leah now...they hadn't seen each other for years, and here they even showed up wearing the same heairstyle...not even a regular fashion." Why hadn't Rachel seen the physical similarities between the twins before? Even though Ada had a limp and not as strong on one side of her body, the only thing that could really be different now is that they grew up.

Why is it that Leah is the only one in the family that gets emotional about Nathan's death? Rachel didn't care one ounce, Adah seemed unaffected, and Orleanna just went to work like she did when she was told that Ruth May had died. I supposed Orleanna felt something because she kept busy with work to keep her mind off of Ruth May's death and said "Only when I stopped did hte slick, dark stuff of it come floating around my face, catching my arms and throat till i began to drown. So I just didn't stop." There's a possibility she had a LITTLE love for Nathan left from the memories of how he used to be before he went to war.

It was incredible how Adah points out that Father got 'The Verse'. The verse that Nathan would give Adah for just being slow was exactly how he ended up dying! Is there significance to why he just gave Adah that verse? It didn't really apply to someone being slow just being punished for causing trouble: "The King of Kings aroused the anger of Antiochus against the rascal...this man was to blame for all the trouble..." Wouldn't it be necessary for this message to be "taught" to the other girls because their punishments of writing The Verse is because they did soemthing wrong or caused trouble in the eyes of Nathan.

The Poisonwood Bible 6

"I went on foot because i still had feet to carry me. Plain and simple, that was the source of out exodus: I had to keep moving...Carry us, marry us, ferry us, bury us: those are out four ways to exodus, for now." An exodus is the removal or departure from a place. Each lady of the family is described in these two sentances of how they left the Congo: "Plain and simple...I had to keep moving." All Orleanna did once Ruth May died was move move move. If she quit moving her thoughts and reality would catch up to her. She left the Congo is a hypnotized state it seemed; in a haze. "Carry us.." Adah was now the youngest of the girls and her mom "carried" her by doing all she could to finally find a ride in a banana truck for a few miles. "..marry us.." is the bargain Rachel had for flying out with Anatole and leaving her family behind. A "..ferry.." is how Leah got away because she was taken into a small boat to bring a banana truck battery to help the ferry.

The Poisonwood Bible 5

"This has been a whole terrible time, from teh beginning of the drought that left so many without food, and then the night of the ants, to now, the worst tragedy of all. Each bad thing causes something worse."This reminded me of the plagues God sent on the egyptians when they wouldn't let the Isrealites go. There was a terrible drought and all the harvests and cattle died along with people. There was also the infestation of toads and locus and illness.

When the "...congragation...interrupted the sermon to hold an election on whethere or not to accept Jesus Christ as teh personal Saviour of Kilanga" it was just like teh children playing Mother-May-I.They didn't understand the concept or "Rules" of having faith or believign in God, they just went to church because that's what they were told. They had no idea what they were being taught or saying, they were just speaking and singing empty words.

Leah is becoming a piece of the Congo: "She'd vamoosed into the tall grass, and off she was headed for the jungle, where it was plain to see [Nathan would] never fing her." Leah would, in a sense, blend in with the jungle and hse was no longer scared of it: "...we mad eNelson promise to hide out the night at Anatole's...Leah ran halfway there with him, because he was scared, and came back by herself." She hunted with the men so she could be seen as an animal herself. Also she is still loosing her faith in God and questioning him: "Jesus may have sounded like a helpful sort of God in teh beginning, but He was bot bearing out...I prayed to Jesus to help me, then to any other god who would listen."

Adah states: "In...America, I was a failed combination of too-weak body and overstrong will. But in teh Congo I am those things perfectly united: Adah." Adah isn't becoming a piece of the Congo like Leah could be, she is connected to it; she matches it, mirrors it, they reflect on another. What could that mean if Orleanna is finally able to get herself and her children back to American? Will she have to make a choice between daughters again or will Adah want to stay anyway?

The Poisonwood Bible 4

Rachel is going for a walk with Axelroot in the beginning of this reading and she promised "to walk with him around the village, and not a speck farther. [She] swore to Mother [She] would not set foor into the forest with him or anywhere out of sight." But next thing you know they were "outside [their] village." and continuing to walk toward the forest. "Axelroot just kepr walking, and suddenly i didn't care what happened next." After they reached the forest, Axelroot kissed her and this was foreshadowed when they first begin smoking. "...he took the cigarette out of my mouth and put it in his...struck the match...and lit the two of them together...Then, ever so gently, he put the lit cigarette back in mylips. It seemed almost like we had kissed."

Rachel is constantly having to remind herself that Axelroot is a creep. "Chills ran down my back, but I couldn't tell for sure if it was thrills chills or the creeps...you cant for one minute let yourselfforget he is a creep." But if you think about it, it seems like she is attracted to some kind of mysteriousness about the guy. Something like how her mother, Orleanna, was attracted not to Nathan but to the mystery of him. Hmmmm!!!

"how could I leave Adah behind again? Once in teh womb, once to the lion, and now like Simon Peter i had denied her for the third time." What is the significance of Leah reffering herself to Simon Peter? Peter was a man that was always willing to put himself "out there" and see what Jesus could really do, but he was foolish too. He didn't think before he did and sometiems that got him in a mess of trouble. Could this be foreshadowing for Leah or simply just making a comparison?

We see Adah speak for the first time in one of her chapters! "I spoke out loud, the only time:help me...I spoke again: Please." She never yelled or cried or pleaded these words, she just spoke them. It makes a person wonder if there was emotion of the terror she felt inside show through her voice or through her face. The image she portrays next makes me think of what hell might be like; "...though i felt it vaguely, already numb from the burning ants. I knew when i went down...i was being trampled. A crush of feet on my chest. I rolled over again and again, covering my head with my arms...Ants on my earlopes, my tongue, my eyelids. I heard myself cry out loud-such a strange noise, as if it came from my hear and fingernails...Left behind." That last part is what really put a connection to hell. It was as if the rapture had come and the person that didn't quite make it was thrown down and trampled on; being eaten alive by "burning ants" and she was left behind.

Leah confessed a deep feeling to Anatole; "I love you, Anatole."  His response was like a slap in the face. "Leah! Don't ever say that again." "I never will." Then Leah becomes even closer to the Congo because she envisions the dead skeliton chickens just the way they were when they returned days later. "I was surprised that their dislocated skeletons looked just the way I'd imagined them. This is what i must have learned, the night God turned his back on my; how to foretell the future in chicken bones." it seems all of the girls in the price family are slipping away from their faith! Rachel, when only having time to "...save one precious thing."  chose, "...not the Bible-it didn't seem worth saving at that time..." but "It had to by [her] mirror." Then also, adah said she didn't believe in God anymore a while back in the book...What is happening to the Price family?

The Poisonwood Bible 3

Previously  it was a wonder why Orleanna and Nathan got married or if they even truely loved eachother in the beginning of their marriage when they said I Do.When Nathan was supposedly courting Orleanna "[she] didnt' recognize that's what it was. [She] thought he was just bound and determined to save [her]." He read her passages from the bible and, to her, "The words were mysterious and beautiful, so [she] let him stay." So Orleanna didn't fall in love with Nathan but with the words and passages he spoke of; The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times; and He makes me lie down in green pastures. "[She] could taste [it]..." To Nathan, "...the idea of marriage suited him well enough...[Orleanna] hardly had time to think about [her] own answer-why, it was taken to be a foreigone conclusion." In a way Orleanna didn't have a say in her own marriage, as it seems. Picturing the situation, one might see her daydreaming or in her own world while her dominant world is controled and pushed around by other people in her life. After a while, she seemed to grow affections toward Nathan but when he went off to war and came back wounded the only sign of her "old husband" was the letters he had written. "That was the last I would hear from the man i'd married- on who could laugh...call me his "honey lamb," and trust in the miracle of good fortune.

I found it ironic when "[Nathan] brought his hand down agains [Orleanna] for the first time" when she tried to laugh about the similar situation of Mary and Joseph at the Inn and their family where they didn't have any more room for another child when Orleanna was "swollen." That night when Mary and Joseph were trying to find room in the Inn was the night God's son was "born" as a human. A miracle pretty much. Something amazing and in referrance to that Orleanna was hit? She began seeing marriage as a cage; "Like Methuselah i cowed beside my cage, and though my soul hankered after teh mountain, i found, like Methuselah, i had no wings...This is why...I'd lost my wings. Don't ask me how i gained them back- the story is too unbearable." She supposedly got her wings back, eventually, but i don't think the reason how is shown yet in these chapters. Curiosity has got me!

The Poisonwood Bible 2

The title of this book is called Revelation which is the last book in the Bible. Why do you think it starts with Genesis then skips all the was to Revelation?

Again here Orleanna talks about the scent of Africa "...ris[ing] up from inside [her] and [she knows] you're still [there], holding sway...It is the scent of accusation." What would it be accusing her of? Was it her fault one of her daughters died? Maybe she could have seen it coming so she blames herself. "I could have been a different mother, you'll say. Could have straightened up and seen what was coming, for it was thick in the air all around us." Because of the statement "I could have been a different mother, you'll say." I have the reason to believe it is Leah that dies. I dont think it'll be Ruth May because she is still a child, she wouldn't tell her mother would she could or should have seen. Leah is said in the previous book that she is the one that normally sasses to her mother. It also singles Leah out when the mother has lost sight of her children in the forest "...but could see only Leah." All she could see was Leah. Normally in her chapters Orleanna is randomly and constantly talking about her lost child and focusing on how much she misses her; so in a way the dead child could be described as who she could only see. Maybe this proves it also?

We also see more of the hidden side of Nathan. He is very abusive when he gets angry and that doesn't take much considering he's a red-head! "My steadfast husband tore his hair in private...Then i saw him reborn, with a stone in place of his heart." "(Ruth May) She was afraid to tell father because he might whip me, busted arm and all...he didn't whip me. Not yet. Maybe when i'm all fixed, he will." "While my husband's intentions crystallized as rock salt...teh Congo breathed behind the curtain of forest...(Orleanna) I was blinded from the constant looking back: Lot's wife. I only ever saw teh gathering clouds." This brings in a very important story from the bible! It is about a family that God spared their life, running from the destruction of their city. God told them not to turn back, no matter what happends to keep running forward. But sadly, Lot's (the husband) wife turned back for only a split second and was instantly turned into a pillar of salt. No one will know what she saw. Or did she ever get the chance? Maybe all she saw was the gathering clouds too. Orleanna says she was "...blinded from teh constant looking back..." This shows she had no faith what-so-ever. She would run on but the minute she'd had too much of being out of her comfort zone she'd have to turn around to try and see what was going on. This blinded her faith, her energy, possibly all her senses!

 Orleanna describes herself as "...his instrument, his animal. Nothing more." There is obviously no love between her and Nathan and i'm beginning to wonder if their ever was. Why would they even marry if they couldn't get through things together or even tolerate eachother! Later the fact is exposed that Orleanna hasn't always been a christain; "In those early months, why, half the time i would wake up startled and think i was right back in Pearl, Mississippi. Before marriage, before religion, before everything." Nothing is said about who she was before, just who she will become.

In the story the parrot represents the Congo; "Mama tataba and the accursed parrot, both released by Nathan." "(Leah) At first i wanted Methuselah to come back and live in the cage, until father explained to me that this whole arrangement was wrong. We let Methuselah go because his captivity was an embarrassment to us. It made teh parrot into a less noble creature than God intended. So i had to root for Methuselah to learn to be free." The parrot hung around the house or where it's cage was thrown in the bushes because it didn't know how to be free. Its muscles were weak and he wasn't able to fly when thinking of it so he was trapped on teh ground where all teh preditors live and eventually, on independance day, he was killed. His remains were spread out and his feathers blew away in the wind leaving a trail from his "home" (the latrine) to where his body lay.

The Poisonwoon Bible 1

"In the beginning God created..." are the first words in the bible, but in the Poisonwood Bible the first words are "Imagine a ruin..." The books are already crossing eachother's paths but in opposite directions: it's not beginning with an amazing creations, but a strange ruin "...as if it never happened."In the first paragraph we also see both the "garden" (forest) and the serpent ("glide of a snake belly on a branch"). I'm thinking now: all the story needs now is a woman to come along and be tempted or show a sign of sin. Then what do you know? Here comes not just a woman, but "...four girls in tow...they are pale, doomed blossoms...Be careful. later on you'll have to decide sypathy they deserve. The mother especially-watch how she leads them on, pale-eyed, deliberate." Did you catch that? The mother is leading, not a man that knows better; right from wrong, but four girls that still have their innocence. They are "doomed blossoms...The mother especially-watch how she leads them on, pale-eyed, deliberate." To me it sounds like she is either blind to her sins or knows them, but still chooses to walk into them blindly setting a bad example for the girls following her. Could this be foreshadowing? Maybe something in the boundries of swearing when she's mad at herself can rub off and take effect on the girls. Maybe it already has planted a seed by the way they always seem to have to cover for her. "None of us could let [father] in on that awful secret. Not even me(Leah)and i know i'm the one to turn my back on her the most."...once in a great while we just have to protect her. Even back when we were very young i remember running to throw my arms around Mother's knees when [father] regaled her with words and worse..."

There is a different chapter for eacher girl and their opinions, thoughts, and reactions to similar events. Just like in the bible when a story or event will reappear in a different chapter but from another person's perspective with a whole new insight on it. I don't remember if it was said how old Ruth May is but it shows she if young because of how innocent her chapters are."In sunday school Rex Minton said we better not go to the Congo on account of the cannibal natives would boil us in a put and eat us up...Our sunday-school teacher Miss Bannie told him to hush up. But...she didn't say one way or the other about them boiling us in a pot and eating us up. So i don't know." Just like in "Huck Finn" when Huck believes just about anything and everything Tom tells him because he is a role model and older. Children just assume us old people know it all and if we say it's so-it's so. Miss Bannie is Ruth May's Tom Sawyer and because Miss Bannie never corrected Rex, Ruth May remains confused about the truth of the situation.

Rachel makes a comment about all the black faces setting on her father "...as if they all were shiny, dark plants and his red head was the sun." The refferance to "dark plants" could be based off of the sin their lives and the lack of understanding about christianity and what the Price family believes. The father, having a red head that was "the sun" could show him as a christ figure? The Price family is a white family in a black community, a light in the darkness, and the father is the head of the family; teaching the gospel to a lost "world" trying to make them understand the life of living for God. The father has complications because of the difference of language in his new surroundings and he needs to learn the ways of the people before they learn his. Jesus came to the world not to just spread the word of God but to live as we do and truely understand what is it takes to live the lifes we do. When Jesus taught, some people wouldn't be able to grasp what he was trying to say. For instance being "Born again" A man asked how oen was supposed to reverse time, become a baby, and go back into his mother's womb. He didn't understand the concept of dying to your old life, or to your flesh, and starting a new one living for God.

Adah is probably my idea of an incredible girl! I can relate to her, oddly, at times and it's amazing the things she can do but doesn't let anyone know who she is on the inside because it's hard for her to express herself because, for a "normal" person, the main way we express ourselves is through voice and words. The thing she understands and her mind becomes at times, are poems. She uses amazing imagery with her words in her chapters: "Sunrise tantalize, evil eyes hypnitize: that is the morning Congo pink." "...sky bleeds, passes out, goes dark, nothing exists. Ashes to ashes" "...the pink sunrise surprise." She humors herself but only she knows when she's laughing. "Hah! I can laugh very hard without even smiling on the outside." So this shows she is even more quiet then other people think she is.

Huck FInn 17

I thought it was funny when the gossipers were saying that the writing in the diary with blood was "secret African writ'n". It was also rather humorous to me when they said "sperits couldn't a done better and been no smarter." when they were talking about how the "niggers" got away from the best dogs around. Because the couple of slaves we're seen in the book have believed whole-heatedly in witchcraft and spirits, but this time it was the whites saying it.

We even see proof that Huck is keeping his way of having feelings for other people now and having some sense when he "...wouldn't 'a'[left Aunt Sally] not for kingdoms."

Is there a simularity between the doctor that helped Tom and the one that knew the Wilk's family? I don't remember a whole lot said about him or if he looked like a real kind gentleman, i just remember him trying to rat-out teh duke, king, and huck.

Then when Huck described Uncle Silas, after hearing that Tom and Huck were the ones that set Jim free, as "...kinda of [making] him drunk." I thought back to when the Duke and King were descovered and chased after Huck when he got away on the raft and They took after drinking too.

And, finally, I loved the part where Jim tells Huck what happened to his dad. I remember having a discussion about the man in the wrecked house and why Jim would cover his face. I don't remember anyone ever saying it was to hide the identity of the man but it all makes sense now! Jim is probably the best friend anyone could hope for, even when he didn't know Huck too well, he protected him as if they'd been close their whole lives.

Huck Finn 16

The beginning of chapter 39 I noticed that Huck started saying "we..." in the stupid ideas Tom came up with. So Huck seems to have given up with questioning his ideas once again. "...we like to got a hornet's nest, but we didn't...We was feeling pretty good (about their creepy letters)" Also i noticed Huck was supposed to dress up like a girl...again! But this time he was supposed to be a servant girl, the other time he was a normal, lost child looking for her uncle. Is this just a coincedence? Or should it mean something? A hornet's nest was meantioned again in the next chapter describing the situation Huck got himself into when Aunt Sally found him in the cellar. Maybe him and Tom WANTING to put a hornet's nest in the cabin and never doing it, huck's sticky situation being described as a "...thundering hornet's nest...", was just the thing to kick off a crazy night for the three of them.

Now, on the water, Huck is back to his old..old self with being close to Jim and all. He describes him as "[being] white inside..." So he's gone from slave, having emotion, having trust, having friendship, being worth "going to hell" over, and now; he's got white inside him! I think we've got our Huck back. Hopefully.

Huck Finn 15

i noticed In chapter 37, Huck meantions "[going] for the woods till the weather moderated." He was talking about the aunt and how she was making a storm a-brew, but in the first chapter Huck called the woods his place of escape. A place where he felt closest to his old way of life. The quote that Tom got out of a book "the more haste the less speed." Should be that kid's motto: he creates diversions and greater challenges.

Then it really made me wonder what kind of books Tom was into when he tells Jim to "Tame [the rattlesnake]...Every animal is grateful for kindness and petting, and they wouldn't think of burting a person that pets them." Sounds to me like he's into snowwhite, poohbear, bambi, and the fox and the hound!

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In chapter 35 I just wanted to reach into the story and knock some sense into Tom!!! He was really getting on my nerves I started to think he had gone half crazy and wanted Huck to get caught letting Jim free! Why does that boy have to be so arrogant and naive all the time? It annoys me. It's rediculous how many times Huck would tell Tom "there aint no necessity for it" but Tom would get away with getting his way anyway.

Then we see Huck being influenced by Tom when he "stole a watermelon" but he was scolded and told to go pay the slaves for what he did, even though they didn't know. Huck has his own mind but he is trapped in the habit of letting Tom do the thinking for him when he's around, there's not as much arguing.

I found it really rediculous when Tom decided BEFORE they completely freed Jim and went running, they would "rush him away at the first there's an alarm." Excuse me, what?! He doesn't even care there's an actual, real life mission here. "I wish there was a moat to this cabin. If we get time, the night of the escape, we'll dig one." It's as if he's watching and creating a movie at the same time, or writing his own script for a book by stealing lines, characters, and events from multiple books and making it one big confusing mess.

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I thought it was pretty cool on Huck's part when Tom is asking him about everything that happened to him because " it was a grand adventure, and mysterious..." and normally it would be Huck bragging about Tom's adventures. But think ever sinse Huck has the title of Tom's name, he has basically as equal as the real Tom. Then what really surprised me was when Tom decided to help Huck steal Jim! Here is a boy that was "respectable and well brung up; and had a character to lose...he was bright and not leather-headed' and knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to this businiss, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, before everybody." He seemed almost like a whole new Tom away from home and all his friends. I wonder if he's let anyone else see this side of him.

I was curious about "Jim's nigger" as Huck called him. Is there significance in the way a calls him that? Or just a way to say he's been the one bringing him food and caring for him...But also the one that locks him up.

Huck Finn 12

I felt just as surprised as Huck when Jim bailed on him! Did the men find him on the raft and take him downstream or did he run off?Is Jim still as commited to him and Huck's friendship as Huck is? I found it kind of funny when Huck "was trying to make [his] mouth say [he] would do the right thing and teh clean thing..."(telling on Jim or saving him) when really, instead of choosing to "go to hell" and do whatever it takes to save Jim, He was doing both good things, but again society had put the blanket over his eyes about what was right and wrong.

Then once again Huck is in a house hold where a slave is just a working machine and when the Aunt Sally says "well, it's luck(just a black person was killed); because soemtiems people do get hurt." In the beginning of the book i probably would have just continued reading on and excepted he saying that but sinse i've read and studied Huck's change of view and, in a way, rooting him on when he becomes closer to Jim, Aunt Sally saying that seemed very rude for the occasion and I half-expected her to apologize or realise what she said wasnt respectful...she never did :/

When Aunt Sally introduced Huck as Tom Sawyer I'm sure i smiled just for Huck because that would be such a relief from the stress of finding out who he was and any information he could gather up, and plus Tom was his roll model pretty much, so it was his dream-come-true!

Huck Finn 11

In chapter 29 Twain uses the weather once again to create the mood when the crowd is digging up the corpse. "...the wind swished and swushed along, and the lightning come brisker and brisker, and the thunder boomed..." The thing that struck my attention was when he told the reader that "...them people never took no notice of it, they was so full of [business]" I believe there is some meaing here about society maybe, but i don't understand what it may be trying to say. The closer the diggers got to the corpse and the bag of money, they "brisker" the weather became but it wasn't noticed? Does anyone have an imput on that?

Next i found when Huck was running away from everyone he "had the road all to [himself], and [he] fairly flew- leastways, i had it all to myself except the solid dark..." It doesn't say it's black out but it is assumed when he describes the darkness as solid. Blackness normally represents sin or evil and Huck ran through it all the way to the river and where Jim was. Maybe this is what was going on inside Huck about what happends on land, (but now seen visually) and how he is fighting to keep his his opinion of Jim the same as when they are on the river.

Huck Finn 10

Once again Huck is changing according to society. When the king and duke finally catch on and see that the money is gone, Huck says he never saw anyone else go into their room but by-and-by he puts the blame on the slaves that were just sold and he was " glad [he'd] worked it all off on the niggers, and yet hadn't done [them] no harm by it." So there is still a little bit of concern showing through his actions so maybe his realization of colored people that takes place on the water is slowly seeping into the life he has on land. This proves correct when he steals the money from the two frauds and talks to Mary Jane about leaving and helping him out with a plan to get them arrested. "The truth is better, and actually SAFER then a lie" he stated while debating if it was worth lying to Mary Jane again. Also another reason this theory is proved right is when Huck corrects his first thought of a good plan because it may harm Jim, so he would need to rescue him first.

I noticed though that at the end of chapter 29 Huck brings Tom Sawyer back into that story by meantioning that he could have done a better job putting together a more flowing and "[stylish]" plan or way of dealing with the situation. Does this have any signficance to the way he's changing?

Huck Finn 9

It frustrates me what the duke and king are doing to that family! I thought maybe sinse they had gotten on teh raft with Jim and Huck that they would eventually have a change of heart also, but that possibility seems to shrink every reading we have. One thing that caught my attention was how Huck ended up being "[the king's] valley (or slave)". Huck is seen becoming more mature as we read on and he is also, finally, understanding that colored people are just as much people as the whites, and i find it ironic that he's now treated like a slave. At teh big celebration feast Huck "waited on [the king and duke], and the niggers waited on the rest.." Then he had to eat in the kitchen with the other workers.

I think an easy way to show that Huck is becoming more mature is the stories and lies he's making up. In all the previous chapters he would make up a new story for every place he stopped, whether Jim was taken into consideration or not, and he always used his imagination to make his stories untracable so the people would have to trust his word. But we see in the part where he is eating with the girl in the kitchen and she continues asking questions that make his lie bigger and bigger, he is finding it more diffficult to come up with an explanation and eventually makes it all sound fake.

Huck Finn 8

I questioned why Huck didn't tell Jim that the two men weren't really kings at all when Jim said, " ...dey's reglar rapscallions." That would have been the perfect time to do so because he was starting to think they weren't! But now he just streached the lie more so Jim'll be even more hurt if he finds out the truth.
There is satire when Huck is saying " It wouldn't a done no good (to tell Jim teh men were fakes); and, besides, it was just as i said: you couldn't tell them from the real kind." Twain is talking about the leaders we have and saying that they are all fakes and take advantage of other people and use them to their own advantage.

There was a piece in chapter 24 that brought it the Bible. Huck was describing the king in his new clothes and how "...he looked teh grand and good...that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, and maybe was old Leviticus himself." Is there an important meaning behind this? What's the importance of bring the ark of Noah and Old Leviticus together to describe a fake, yet apparently good looking, king(once he cleans up)?

I was in shock when i see Huck saying "if ever I struck anything like it, I'm a nigger." He sarcastically called himself a colored person?! WOH! This was his reaction and attempt to describe his feelings from teh sight the king and duke were playing; pretending to be a dead man's brothers. Is this a way of saying Huck has decided to help Jim with his plan of freedom and getting his family no matter what the concequences? Or maybe now he knows for sure Jim is just like him; a person with feelings, not a working machine with no emotion or mind of his own. I'm kind of excited to see what test Huck will have to take on to see how connected he is with Jim!

Huck Finn 7

Right away in chapter 21 it  says that the "...king and the duke turned out by-and-by looking pretty rusty; but after they jumped overboard and took a swim it chippered them up a good deal." By jumping overboard into the river the two had to have gone under water, and from Lit like a Professor, that symbolizes baptism. I don't really understand what they could be getting cleansed from because the book hasn't said a whole lot about their past, besides the lies of who they are maybe?

Then the two start talking about " ...all kinds of adventures they'd had in other times along the river." Maybe they used to be a whole new type of person a long time back and being back on the water, a place of refuge of society, they brought up the memories to share together.

I also thought it was odd/funny how Huck was describing the duke while he was tring to remember the speech for their play (Or come up with it is more like it). "...he went marchign up and down, thinking, and frowning...then he would hoist up his eyebrows; next he would squeeze his had on his forehead and stagger back...moan...sigh, and next he'd let on to drop a tear." The guy must have been quite emotional in trying to remember something he half put together himself. Then the best part was how he concluded all of the dukes emotions, and huck's reaction, into one sentance: "it was beautiful to see him." For soem odd reason that made me laugh because it seems to me that the duke was a complete disaster!

Huck Finn 6

Like we discussed for our last reading, the raft is the place where Jim and Huck become closer friends. This is proven once again when "[they] said there warn't no home like a raft, after all. Other places do seem so cramped up and smothery, but a raft don't. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable on a raft." They are also quite comfortable out there on the water because "[they were] always naked, day and night..." That's awkward. Unless, they were comfortable with eachother and their surroundings. i love hannah

Also, i found a little bit of sybolism of Jesus in both of the men that got on the raft with them. The first one said, " the world may go on jsut as it's always done, and take everythign from me- loved ones, property, everything' but it can't take [his grave]. Some day i'll lie down in it and forget it all, and my poor broken heart will be at rest...by rights i am a duke!...and here am i, forlorn, torn from my high estate, hunted of men, despised by the cold world, ragged, worn, heartbroken, and degraded to teh companionship of felons on a raft."
Christ was whipped, cursed at, spit on, mocked, and killed to take the sins from the ones that broke his heart. He lied in his grave for three days. He was rightfully the "king" but worked as a carpenter with his dad and grew up as a regular boy. He was "hunted" by the priests in a way because they always tried to catch him in an act of doing wrong. Then the second man said he was " ...the rightful kind of France."

Huck Finn 5

Fog is mentioned a lot in chapter  15 while they are on the river. The river is a place where Huck and Jim bond and the fog can symbolize the separation between them, both physically and mentally. I also noticed that it is Huck chasing Jim. This can show the bond between the two is becoming stronger and it may be foreshadowing a coming event. There may be some ways that show Huck might be maturing a little bit but when he plays a trick on Jim saying the whole thing that happened on the river was a dream, it proves he is still a boy.  

Then when Jim excepts that it may have all been a dream he starts telling Huck all the things it means. I wonder if all those things actually do have symbolism. He’s looking at what had happened as if reading a book and picking out the symbolism.

I made a relation between the lights of Cairo that Jim was franticly searching for and Christianity. Jim says when he finds Cairo he finds freedom. Freedom from slavery, from being judged, from being sold and bought, and the chance of getting his family back. The river is the road they follow, fast or slow, rapid or smooth, foggy or clear: the road of life. Cairo could be heaven because they’re searching for the light, freedom, a new home. The little blotches of lights along the way could symbolize worldly things to us that distract us along the way and things we hope will bring us joy but have us walk away disappointed.

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I found quite a bit of humor and sarcasm in this reading and it was, so far, one of the most enjoyable ones too. Like when Huck and Jim find the crashed boat Jim says, “…dey’s a watchman on dat wreck.” And Huck replies, “Watchman your grandmother…”

Also, in chapter 12, restating from my first blog, I said Huck decides whether a thing is true or not to him normally by having hard evidence.  This time it’s when they are on the raft floating past St. Louis. People have told him there were twenty or thirty-thousand people living there but “ [he] never believed it till [he saw] that wonderful spread of lights at two o’clock that still night.”

Now in chapter 14, we see Huck’s opinion about Jim evolving when he realizes “…he [has] an uncommon level head for a nigger.”  And again when he says, “I never seen such a nigger.”

My favorite part has probably got to be when Jim and Huck talk about King Solomon in the bible and Jim isn’t getting the importance of the king saying he’ll split the child in two so both women are happy. His reasons of why he thinks it “[has no sense]” is so innocent because his mind is set and Huck soon realized that “ if [jim’s] got a notion in his head once, there warn’t no getting it out again.”

Huck Finn 3

In this reading there was A TON of superstition! Whether it was Huck doing thing he knew about from Tom, or it was Jim doing to saying them. I'm startign to think that, according to Jim, there's bad luck from evey innocent thing you do! I hope he realises some day that whether you expect it or not, bad luck is going to come. There wouldn't be such a thing as bad luck if there wasn't always good luck to come with it. But according to Jim, knowing how to bring good luck "aint no use to a body."

On page 66, chapter 9, two things caught my eyes right away. I'm not sure if they mean a whole lot to the book but to me, it seems like they mean a whole lot more then what is just said. The first one i just glanced over: "(the lighting) it was bright as glory". Then once I saw "...; dark as sin again..." and i knew something might be trying to be said? But i'm not quite sure what.

Huck Finn 2

The main thing that caught my attention is this reading was the part when Huck's dad chases him around the cabin with a knife screaming bloody murder...literally. It reminded me of a part in a horror movie when the dad "...was laying over by the corner. By-and-by he raised up part way and listened, with his head to one side.He says, very low: Tramp-tramp-tramp; that's the dead...they're coming for me." I think he very well could have been demon possessed there. The only thing that would contradict that idea would be because he was chasing Huck, trying to kill him, calling him the Angel of Death, and normally demons flee in teh presence of an angel or the power of God/ holy spirit

Another thing i thought of was the things Huck did and the events that happened when he finally escaped the cabin. The very first thing that he did was go hunting. He killed and used the blood of a pig to, in a way, -set himself free- from anyone trying to find him. Just like we have the -blood of that lamb- to set us free from our bonds and sins. After throwing teh pig to it's "grave" Huck runs and hides in hid canoe just like the soldiers that hung Jesus on the cross ran away. Now, considering the sin(s) that are to be forgiven, who changed at that moment in the book? Who could have been seen as "forgiven"? I think it was Huck's father. Unlike Huck expected, he came back COMPLETELY sober. I wonder if his character has changed at all after that night in town.

Huck Finn 1

It seems to me that Huck has only a One-Track-Mind when it comes to new things poeple tell him. Whether true or not, he decides if they're true in his mind or not. An example would be after supper when the widdow took out the bible and began reading passages about Moses. Huck was excited at first "and [he] was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by-and-by she let it out that moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then [he] didn't care no more about him.." I think the reason he quit caring was because he couldn't get any "real" hard evidence of his existance and all the things he had done. Who better to get the information from then from Moses himself, but he couldn't. However, he could prove himself right or wrong with the idea Tom gave him about witches and genies. "[He] thought all this over for two or three days, and then [he] reckoned [he] would see if there was anything in it. [He] got an old tin lamp and an iron ring, and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed...but it [wasn't any] use, none of the genies [came]. So then [he] judged that all the stuff was only just one of Tom Sawer's lies."

TTC 4th

In the chapters we read this time, i saw ALOT of times where i really began questioning the stories that were being told. In the letter Bowker wrote to O'Brien, he says he "If [(the author)]want[s], [he] can use the stuff in th[e] letter.(But not [his] real name)." Right now you're thinking what?! So you start thinking this whole story including him was all made up or the guy isn't who he says he is. Then later is says "Norman Bowker's letter hit [him] hard." After explaining to you that the guy didn't want his real name in there, it  makes you really think about if it actually is his real name, the whole thing's a confusing MESS!

After a couple chapters (or that really long one) O'brien tells you yet another piece of the novel that was a complete story; "The Man I Killed". That was, hands down, the best chapter for me so far. It made you feel the emotion and awe that he was going through and it also made you realise how much agony a soldier can have over tha death of someone he knew nothing about. That's exactly what O'Brien was trying to do though. "I want you to feel what i felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes then happening-truth." What he's basicalling saying here is that he can tell you stories about everything that happened. He could describe to you how much he carried with him everyday, but we'd never fully understand and see it the way he did. He is simply explaining to us through examples of different events to get us to get a small glipse of what pain he endured. He sweeps you into a story about mistakes, shock, regret, disgust, and heart ache: gets you to have that feeling deep in your stomache, and showing you that that's what killing ONE man feels like. O'Brien would tell you a story about loosing love, fighting without a meaning, witnessing soemone die infront of you and say "That's what it feels like to be away from home for so long." It's all one big mess of pure genious...

TTC 3rd

In the chapter "The Man I Killed" the author usues repetition alot when describing what injuries the soldier had after O'Brien had killed him. It talks about a butterfly on the dead man's face three times: once when it's "on his chin", another when it's "...making it's way along the young man's forehead", and the last when it had gone. I looked up the symbolic meaning of a butterfly and found it was a meaning of death and a new beginning. Even though nature itself isn't effected by the man's death, his loved ones are and they'll have to start a "new beginning" without him.

O'Brien later starts relating himself to this man he's killed and creating a story from his appearences of who he could have been or become. He first creates his opinion when he he examines his "bony legs, a narrow waist, long shapely fingers. His chest was sunken and poorly muscled-a scholar, maybe." He is comparing and contrasting a large majority of describing the man's life compared to his own: "He would have been taught that to defend the land was a man's highest duty and highest privilage. He had excepted this...he avoided politics and paid attention to the problems of calculas.", and "The war, he knew, would finally take him, but for the time being he would not let himself think about it. He had stopped praying; instead, now, he waited." Did O'Brien actually descover all these things from eventually meeting someone who had known the guy? Did he find his family out of respect? Was he just creating the man's life in his head based off of facts he saw? Or is this even a real part taking place in the story?

TTC-2

The main thing that caught my attention was Marry Anne; the way she changed so dramatically, so completely, almost un-natural. But I think that's why it stood out so much in this section because it ties it all together. The way the author describes war as beautiful and not just some useless fight with no reason. Marry was seen as pure and perfect when she first arrived, but with time she learned the ways of the veitnam war. First just picking up some language, later turning into learning how to accurately shoot a gun, and eventually "She wanted more, she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself, and after a time the wanting became needing, which turned into craving." Marry lost controle of herself and her humanity, her purity and innocence. She didn't change herself, in a way, it was the nature that began to overcome her like what the singing rocks did to the scouts when they were out in the jungle for weeks at a time.

Blog 1 TTC

In the first chapter or section we read in "The Things They Carried", a majority of it is about all the items and pounds the soldiers carried on their backs and in their pockets. Then the author starts to describe the psycological things they carried also: the death of a friend, longing for a loved one back home, or maybe they're not all mentally "there" because of past events or the chance they're high on dope. Each burden is different according to the kind of soldier he/she is. Trying to see symbolism in all of this I figured all these things they carry could be compared to sins or things they may regret or go through that destract them from their main goal. The war could be the battle of life; some willfully jump right in and risk it all without fear, some may cower scared about what around the corner, others might be forced into battle without and word from themselves, and then their's the lucky ones that don't have to fight at all and pretty much have it made for them compared to the ounes out on the field.

       The "Sins" each one carries is all dependent on how strong the person is, how prepared one wants to be in a rare situation, how much time one might spend in the past, or how dependent someone might be on another source. Whether it be a friend, a girlfriend's "panties" around the neck, good-luck charm or letters of a loved one in your pocket.