When I was eight years old, I got sent to a different world. My mom kissed my cheek, told me I was going to be fine and left me in front of the door. This gateway, portal sucked me in with the spoken words, "Shalom Rachel!" And so began what I felt like was a dual life. It didn't matter that this world was across the street from my school or that it physically existed on planet Earth, in Park Slope, Brooklyn NY. I seemed to leave Zoe Fruchter behind whenever i transversed the boundary that seemed to surround PSJC, my other world. The temple (PSJC) made me feel small, the sheer weight of religion and tradition bore down on my eight-year-old shoulders like a yolk. I had a different name, Rachel, a different family, Yonina, Yakov and Leah and different friends and teachers. The food was different, kosher, the customs were different, even the alphabet was different. In my other world I was Zoe Fruchter, daughter of Lev and Jill sister of Ella. In my other world I was smart, in this one I could not read or write. In my other world I had friends, I was outgoing and I prospered like a flower bathed in sun synthesizing all information and experiences, with all of the materials I needed. Here I was minuscule, unimportant, an outsider who nibbled on fake Oreos in the bathroom because there was no one to play with. I was a flower in the winter, isolated, devoid of my societal nessecities bending under the weight of the frost. The two places were so different I distinguished them as separate universes.
Religion is odd like that, it makes you unsure of who you are, of why you even exist on this planet. Of whether you even have any power to change who you are the actions you take in your life. Religion makes you question all that you once held certain in your life. Judaism gave me a new name, language and culture. Later I would learn how to integrate these things into pre-existing life, but at eight it felt uncannily like I changed every time I kissed the mezuzah on the arched doorway and entered hebrew school.
Hannah, in A Time Of Angels by K. Hesse is weighed down by her religion. Growing up in plague ridden Boston at the time of World War II, Hannah is weighed down enough as it is. She pretends to be a boy as to keep a job as a paper boy (adolescents who hawked news headlines in order to sell periodicals to the public), evading the groping hands of her supervisors and waking up at dawn to provide for her haphazard family consisting of her beloved sisters Libbie, Eve, her Tanta (aunt) Rose and Rose's companion of sorts Vashti. Hannah mothers her sisters in spite of hardworking Rose's insistence that she leave it to Vashti, who Hannah believes to be "like a buzzard" or parasite that sucks the life out of everything that she knows to be good about the narrow world that is all that Hannah knows.
However, Vashti is not the worst thing out in Hannah's world, influenza is a threat much worse than any one person and when Hannah's cherished Tanta and sisters fall prey to it, Hannah is left alone with Vashti, the one person in there family who is selfless enough to send Hannah away from flu riddled Boston, to the country where the plague cannot touch her no matter how much her blood family pleads for her to stay with them. When you love someone, it is the hardest to let them go. You want them so badly that you cannot send them away, even though it is the very pinnacle of love: letting go.
So Hannah is alone, on a train to be entrusted into the care of a strange family, she turns to her faith her religion. The fact that it was so hard for her to do this. She "wrestled with the unknown force, whose magnitude of decision and aftermath seemed of greatest weight and caused the greatest of terrors to a girl who survived only by focusing on the path just in front of her."She is torn because her closest person, her aunt told her to pray to God for deliverance but Hannah is not sure if she can. By choosing to accept religion, you are choosing to accept that you are not in control of your life anymore. Hannah has survived her harsh world purely relying on her own wits and talents, to give up this control is like betting your life on something. You are completely at a loss for jurisdiction concerning yourself, but you have something to blame when things go wrong.
Hannah is at a loss for what to do, she wants to respect Tanta Rose's memorie but cannot bring herself to relinquish her firm belief that she can decide her fate. But subconsciously, she transcends into a dream world. She begins to see angels everywhere saying "powers once unknown to me now look like the works of a phantom hand, one that cradled Tanta Rose..." in other words, God. Hannah describes her acceptance of a higher power and joining a new society and seeing a new world. I think that Hannah had to completely let go of what she had known before in order to survive her present. The past was weighing her down. And the idea of religion was weighing her down because it was bonded with the past. Yet be releasing her past as the thing that shaped her essence of self, she could embrace a belief that could lift her away from her loss.
So although I am not sure whether I have accepted God I understand what Hannah means when she describes religion being a different world. Its such a controversial and relative thing, the cause of so many conflicts, yet some say it heals. Its something so different from everything else that it becomes, in a sense, a different existence.
Showing posts with label Summary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summary. Show all posts
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Blame it on the alchohol
Recently I have been reading the book Winter's Garden by Kristen Hannah. Hannah focuses on a topic that in the past has been kept very close to the chest of the former Soviet Union. It is a story of dread, of hope, of starvation, of war, and above all, of desire. The desire to tell control your life, the desire to keep someone you love from hurt and harm, the desire to finally be free of whatever shackles that this material life chains you with. This is the story of Anya Whitson. The story that she is reluctantly telling her daughters. So she begins, Anya was not born Anya Whitson, she was gifted the name Vera Petrushka of Petr Valinokas, a seemingly ambiguous man who wanted to be a poet, wanted to make a difference under the oppressive rule of Stalin, the premier of the Soviet union, posed in such a substantial position of power that he captures and kills off all who dare defy him in even their choice of occupation. This is the world that Vera comes of age into.
Yet Vera is not afraid of Stalin, sure she knows she is not to do anything that might jeopardize herself or her family in the slightest, minuscule bit but she continues her life as it would be without him. She becomes a carefree adolescent, she falls in love, takes care of her sister. And above all, she is happy. That is Vera's ultimate defiance towards Stalin. Stalin is like a black hole, sucking in every star, anything that might shine against his darkness. He extinguishes that light in most people. Although they say they are in defiance of him, he has broken them. They have winked out. But not Vera, Vera is kept out of the black hole because her light shines on. But, alas, she is not invulnerable to the light of others. Vera's father is arrested under the unforgiving streetlights in front of their sparse home and Vera knows, deep inside that he will not come back. And so, she too becomes just another of Stalin's broken toys, her happiness and innocence destroyed because he has broken into her life and her bubble has popped.
So that is Vera Petrushka, but who is Anya Whitson? Why did she change her name and what isn't she telling her daughters about her past? This is what is going through the mind of Nina Whitson, Anya's daughter. Nina is a war photographer she uses her photos as a cathartic way for her to both help other people and distract herself from the loneliness she feels without her father, who has died recently and the fact that she is practically estranged from her mother and her sister Meredith. So Nina is used to investigating the facts. She is used to hunting down every single frame and shot until she has a compete clear picture of what has happened. And not only that, Nina is used to her photos being published, she relishes the idea of exposure, the fact that now everyone can know about the horrible things that take so much effort to hunt down, to triangulate the locations the names of things people want to keep covered up. So it comes at no surprise that Nina is the one to try to uncover her mother's hidden story. She needs to know the reason her mom can barely look at her, the reason she doesn't laugh, the tragedy or insanity behind the garden she plants in the winter when only ivy blooms. And Nina is used to getting her way.
So how does she find out what changed? What changed after the night Vera's father was captured in order to make this carefree girl into who Nina sees before her, a cold women with snow white hair, a woman who's age is unknown, who doesn't seem to love her own children. Just how much light could Stalin siphon off without killing the frail woman? Nina finds a way to get her mother to tell the rest of the story.
Get her drunk.
Not really something one anticipates from such a poignant and sensitive story. How does alcohol play a part in this play set in the Soviet? Does it melt the ice that surrounds Anya? Or does it penetrate her deeper and deeper into the despair and semi-madness NIna and Meredith already see in her? Over their daily shot of alcohol Anya begins to open up to her daughters, but is it the truth? Anya is spinning tales and stories about knights and gardens that bloom in the winter, princes and snow bridges and ballerinas who can fly. How do you discern what is real or fake in this myriad of fairy tales? If Anya finally telling her story, how she changed that night and who she became? Do these fairies lead to something greater? Or is Nina just searching a woman who has fallen down the rabbit hole? Meredith, NIna's older sister sums it up perfectly when NIna asks her why her mother is seemingly insane
"Blame it on the alcohol."
Yet Vera is not afraid of Stalin, sure she knows she is not to do anything that might jeopardize herself or her family in the slightest, minuscule bit but she continues her life as it would be without him. She becomes a carefree adolescent, she falls in love, takes care of her sister. And above all, she is happy. That is Vera's ultimate defiance towards Stalin. Stalin is like a black hole, sucking in every star, anything that might shine against his darkness. He extinguishes that light in most people. Although they say they are in defiance of him, he has broken them. They have winked out. But not Vera, Vera is kept out of the black hole because her light shines on. But, alas, she is not invulnerable to the light of others. Vera's father is arrested under the unforgiving streetlights in front of their sparse home and Vera knows, deep inside that he will not come back. And so, she too becomes just another of Stalin's broken toys, her happiness and innocence destroyed because he has broken into her life and her bubble has popped.
So that is Vera Petrushka, but who is Anya Whitson? Why did she change her name and what isn't she telling her daughters about her past? This is what is going through the mind of Nina Whitson, Anya's daughter. Nina is a war photographer she uses her photos as a cathartic way for her to both help other people and distract herself from the loneliness she feels without her father, who has died recently and the fact that she is practically estranged from her mother and her sister Meredith. So Nina is used to investigating the facts. She is used to hunting down every single frame and shot until she has a compete clear picture of what has happened. And not only that, Nina is used to her photos being published, she relishes the idea of exposure, the fact that now everyone can know about the horrible things that take so much effort to hunt down, to triangulate the locations the names of things people want to keep covered up. So it comes at no surprise that Nina is the one to try to uncover her mother's hidden story. She needs to know the reason her mom can barely look at her, the reason she doesn't laugh, the tragedy or insanity behind the garden she plants in the winter when only ivy blooms. And Nina is used to getting her way.
So how does she find out what changed? What changed after the night Vera's father was captured in order to make this carefree girl into who Nina sees before her, a cold women with snow white hair, a woman who's age is unknown, who doesn't seem to love her own children. Just how much light could Stalin siphon off without killing the frail woman? Nina finds a way to get her mother to tell the rest of the story.
Get her drunk.
Not really something one anticipates from such a poignant and sensitive story. How does alcohol play a part in this play set in the Soviet? Does it melt the ice that surrounds Anya? Or does it penetrate her deeper and deeper into the despair and semi-madness NIna and Meredith already see in her? Over their daily shot of alcohol Anya begins to open up to her daughters, but is it the truth? Anya is spinning tales and stories about knights and gardens that bloom in the winter, princes and snow bridges and ballerinas who can fly. How do you discern what is real or fake in this myriad of fairy tales? If Anya finally telling her story, how she changed that night and who she became? Do these fairies lead to something greater? Or is Nina just searching a woman who has fallen down the rabbit hole? Meredith, NIna's older sister sums it up perfectly when NIna asks her why her mother is seemingly insane
"Blame it on the alcohol."
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Age Divided
I recently read the book "Cuba Turns 15" by Maria Osa. The book follows Violet Paz, a 15 year old Sophomore at the huge impersonal Tri-dist high school. Violet has two best friends, bubbly and hippy-like Leda Londquist t the serious and driven Janell Henry. Violet is spotted by her ax-like teacher, Mr.Axelrod as funny and is put on the speech team for original comedy. At the same time, her traditionalist grandmother and Polish mother are planning her a quincenera, or coming of age ceremony for a `15 year old girl. Violet is doubtful of having her quince, but she gradually comes around to it, as well as to the idea of exploring her Cuban Heritage. I think that the reason that Violet decides to join the speech team and explore her heritage is because of her quince.
Before Violet decided to accept her quincenera as something that she wasn't going to fight and something that she actually wants to do, she feels like she is 5, as she says, "a little girl still running home when the bell rings" She doesn't want to do anything at her school in terms of activities and doesn't want to involve herself in anything outside her comfort zone. Also, she tries to avoid mentioning anything that even remotely involves Cuba, a subject she knows that her dad doesn't want to talk about. However, after she accepts her quincenera role and responsibilities she decides to stick with speech team and her competition speech becomes better and better. Also, she begins to explore her Cuban heritage, no matter what her dad says. A quincenera and any coming of age ceremony is about accepting your responsibilities and becoming serious about her life. I think that Violet is realizing that she has a responsibility not only to herself but to the world to let loose and explore who she really is.
In conclusion, Violet became more risk-taking and open after she accepted the responsibilities of a quincenera. But I think that the quincenera was just a nudge that Violet needed to realize the responsibility she had to herself to be happy, and the responsibility to the world to show them what a great person she really was.
Before Violet decided to accept her quincenera as something that she wasn't going to fight and something that she actually wants to do, she feels like she is 5, as she says, "a little girl still running home when the bell rings" She doesn't want to do anything at her school in terms of activities and doesn't want to involve herself in anything outside her comfort zone. Also, she tries to avoid mentioning anything that even remotely involves Cuba, a subject she knows that her dad doesn't want to talk about. However, after she accepts her quincenera role and responsibilities she decides to stick with speech team and her competition speech becomes better and better. Also, she begins to explore her Cuban heritage, no matter what her dad says. A quincenera and any coming of age ceremony is about accepting your responsibilities and becoming serious about her life. I think that Violet is realizing that she has a responsibility not only to herself but to the world to let loose and explore who she really is.
In conclusion, Violet became more risk-taking and open after she accepted the responsibilities of a quincenera. But I think that the quincenera was just a nudge that Violet needed to realize the responsibility she had to herself to be happy, and the responsibility to the world to show them what a great person she really was.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Indians are from India
What do you think of when you hear the word "indian?" Do you think of intricately beaded moccasins and ponchos? Teepees and campfires and long feathered headdress? Or do you think of saris, swaths of fabric draped and folded around a women's body, bindis (dots of red on foreheads) and spicy curies? Although these descriptions are generalizing, most people's thoughts follow one of these two paths.
The truth is, "Indians" are from India. They factually fit the second line of thought. So why is it that when I asked my sister, two of my friends and my aunt, most of them said that they first thought of the first description when thinking about the word "indian?"
To fully develop this train of thought, we need to know a bit of historical information. When Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, he thought he had sailed around the world and was in India. That is why he labeled the Native Americans he saw and enslaved as "Indians." Although the term is factually wrong and even a little racist, people and text books use it to this day.
Its the text books that I have a problem with. In school we are given The US History text books that take us from colonization to present day. Although they are supposed to teach us what happened before we were alive, these text books gloss over many of the gross and unpleasant pieces of America's history.
When I read Howard Zinn's amazing and thought-provoking young adult non-fiction book, "A Young Peoples History of the United States" it opened up my eyes. I finally saw how my text book didn't give me all of the information about our world. For example, the text book talks about Christopher Columbus as a brave explorer, who did enslave some natives, but gave them work and paid them. The text book does not speak of the massive numbers of native who were killed, whole tribes driven to extinction as a result of Columbus' endless thirst for gold and other precious metals hidden in North America that Zinn's book does. Another example is slavery. Of course the text book does not justify slavery, but it never mentions some of the gorier details that were involved in it. One example, it was extremely common for female slaves to be raped and sometimes impregnated by their masters, who forced them to engage in sexual activities because they "owned" them. One of these men was none other than one of our "founding fathers," Thomas Jefferson. The textbook speaks of his ingenuity in penning the Constitution and his political role, but not the slave he impregnated.
I think that it is wrong for text books to gloss over details that might not be deemed "age appropriate." History is supposed to be about facts, not half-truths that don't include all of the details. I would rather know about the bad in people as well as the good things that they contributed to America. Because, as proven with the word "indian," people take generalizations and factually wrong things they read in text books and remember them, and truth is lost.
The truth is, "Indians" are from India. They factually fit the second line of thought. So why is it that when I asked my sister, two of my friends and my aunt, most of them said that they first thought of the first description when thinking about the word "indian?"To fully develop this train of thought, we need to know a bit of historical information. When Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, he thought he had sailed around the world and was in India. That is why he labeled the Native Americans he saw and enslaved as "Indians." Although the term is factually wrong and even a little racist, people and text books use it to this day.
Its the text books that I have a problem with. In school we are given The US History text books that take us from colonization to present day. Although they are supposed to teach us what happened before we were alive, these text books gloss over many of the gross and unpleasant pieces of America's history.
When I read Howard Zinn's amazing and thought-provoking young adult non-fiction book, "A Young Peoples History of the United States" it opened up my eyes. I finally saw how my text book didn't give me all of the information about our world. For example, the text book talks about Christopher Columbus as a brave explorer, who did enslave some natives, but gave them work and paid them. The text book does not speak of the massive numbers of native who were killed, whole tribes driven to extinction as a result of Columbus' endless thirst for gold and other precious metals hidden in North America that Zinn's book does. Another example is slavery. Of course the text book does not justify slavery, but it never mentions some of the gorier details that were involved in it. One example, it was extremely common for female slaves to be raped and sometimes impregnated by their masters, who forced them to engage in sexual activities because they "owned" them. One of these men was none other than one of our "founding fathers," Thomas Jefferson. The textbook speaks of his ingenuity in penning the Constitution and his political role, but not the slave he impregnated.
I think that it is wrong for text books to gloss over details that might not be deemed "age appropriate." History is supposed to be about facts, not half-truths that don't include all of the details. I would rather know about the bad in people as well as the good things that they contributed to America. Because, as proven with the word "indian," people take generalizations and factually wrong things they read in text books and remember them, and truth is lost.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
The Thrill is in the Chase
Why, why, why,why? Why must girls insist on succumbing to the charms of troubled agnst-y and ridiculously hot monsters? I mean seriously, what do they see in the assorted vampires and werewolves? Because all that I see is something, yes thing, that I would keep on a 10 mile radius. This theme is prevalent in almost every book written for the clientele of none other than me, a teenage girl. Except I, unlike many other girls my age, do not see the attractions of the Edward-Jacob-Sam's of the parallel world of supernatural beings. It can't be denied that the para-normal romance craze has taken over my age group. In fact there's a whole section in Barnes and Nobles tired "Teen Para-normal Romance," which is larger than the "Mysteries" section, if that's not offensive to literature, I don't know what is.
So why are teen girls so attracted to the handsome conflicted monsters as boyfriends? I'm sure none of them in real life would want a vampire boyfriend such as Edward the handsome gentlemanly male love interest in the famed Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I'm also pretty sure that none of them would want werewolves like Jacob (also from the Twilight series) and Sam (star of the Shiver series) who could rip them apart with their unstable temperaments and shape shifts.
As I thought about this conundrum, I hearkened back to another book I'd read called the Perks of Being A Wallflower. In the book, Patrick is giving Charlie advice on how to treat a girl. He says, "the key to girls is that they always want to change us." He then goes on to tell Charlie that if you change the challenge is over and they get bored, they "break up with your sorry ass." I think this is why the Bella-Grace's of the world of books are so attracted to the monsters. If Patrick's advice is sound, then the monster is the ultimate challenge, and therefore boyfriend. A monster is something always affiliated with evil in context. To change a monster to something good is almost nearly impossible, it takes perseverance and patience and often, love. The challenge is rich and tempting, everyone believing they can do it.
Bella believes that she can change Edward from careful and held back into someone who can actually have a relationship and believe in their supposed love. She pushes him to start the relationship in the first book, Twilight. Edward wants to keep his distance, he knows that he could hurt her, kill her even and he doesn't want to put her in danger. It makes him more appealing to her as she finds herself "going crazy" for him even more as she pushes him away. However, he gives in eventually, he is still a boy after all. Her next challenge is getting him to have a physical relationship with her. Again he is afraid of hurting her, damaging both her phsyce and body. Again Bella keeps pushing and pushing, trying to change his mindset and feelings toward himself, as he hates himself for hurting others and being a vampire. Bella is constantly trying to change Edward and his resistance just makes him more attractive to her.
While Bella is trying to change Edward's mindsets, Grace of the series Shiver by Maggie Stiefire is trying to change her boyfriend Sam's physical being. Sam is a werewolf, his shift is triggered by coldness. In the winter he becomes a wolf for the whole seasons, while in fall he can shift whenever it gets cold. When he is a wolf, he doesn't remember Grace, and his love for her, he disappears from her life. Fearing this time, Grace is trying to find the cure for his wolf-ness. Although Grace and Sam both want to be together all of the time, they are both most attracted to each other when their problem of werewolves is most intense. In fact, when they have sex for the first time it is after Sam has had a false alarm of almost becoming a vampire. The chase is what seems to turn Grace on.
Both of these girls speak longingly of the "happily ever after" in their respective book series, but both are still extremely attractive to their monster boyfriends when they are trying to change them. As Patrick told Charlie, "Girls-want-to change us." and these two female protagonists prove this.
As I thought about this conundrum, I hearkened back to another book I'd read called the Perks of Being A Wallflower. In the book, Patrick is giving Charlie advice on how to treat a girl. He says, "the key to girls is that they always want to change us." He then goes on to tell Charlie that if you change the challenge is over and they get bored, they "break up with your sorry ass." I think this is why the Bella-Grace's of the world of books are so attracted to the monsters. If Patrick's advice is sound, then the monster is the ultimate challenge, and therefore boyfriend. A monster is something always affiliated with evil in context. To change a monster to something good is almost nearly impossible, it takes perseverance and patience and often, love. The challenge is rich and tempting, everyone believing they can do it.
Bella believes that she can change Edward from careful and held back into someone who can actually have a relationship and believe in their supposed love. She pushes him to start the relationship in the first book, Twilight. Edward wants to keep his distance, he knows that he could hurt her, kill her even and he doesn't want to put her in danger. It makes him more appealing to her as she finds herself "going crazy" for him even more as she pushes him away. However, he gives in eventually, he is still a boy after all. Her next challenge is getting him to have a physical relationship with her. Again he is afraid of hurting her, damaging both her phsyce and body. Again Bella keeps pushing and pushing, trying to change his mindset and feelings toward himself, as he hates himself for hurting others and being a vampire. Bella is constantly trying to change Edward and his resistance just makes him more attractive to her.
While Bella is trying to change Edward's mindsets, Grace of the series Shiver by Maggie Stiefire is trying to change her boyfriend Sam's physical being. Sam is a werewolf, his shift is triggered by coldness. In the winter he becomes a wolf for the whole seasons, while in fall he can shift whenever it gets cold. When he is a wolf, he doesn't remember Grace, and his love for her, he disappears from her life. Fearing this time, Grace is trying to find the cure for his wolf-ness. Although Grace and Sam both want to be together all of the time, they are both most attracted to each other when their problem of werewolves is most intense. In fact, when they have sex for the first time it is after Sam has had a false alarm of almost becoming a vampire. The chase is what seems to turn Grace on.
Both of these girls speak longingly of the "happily ever after" in their respective book series, but both are still extremely attractive to their monster boyfriends when they are trying to change them. As Patrick told Charlie, "Girls-want-to change us." and these two female protagonists prove this.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The Past, The Present, The Future
My first memory is from when I was two years old. It was when my sister was born. It wasn't that I was there at the birth, it was that my Aunt had come down from the apartment she rented upstairs to come and take care of me as my parents brought my sister into the world. All that I remember is a flash of a picture, just a snapshot of a bowl of the spinach-y mixture (I later found out it was quiche) and my hand on the wooden spoon, pudgy fingers gripping hard.That was in 2001. Somehow, 11 years later, I still remember that moment, among all other moments both before and for after that. Why? Why that flash?
The past has so much to do with our present, and therefore our future. The past, whether it be a minute ago or 20 years, is prevalent in our decisions and lives. Life is not like an essay, we are not given specific resources that tell us what to do.The thing is, the past is all of the back ground information we have on life. So we have to rely on it in order to base our life on anything.
The past is always on the mind of characters in books. Books are usually centered on a change that has happened in the main character's life, that's what makes books worth reading. In many of the books I have read recently, getting beyond the past which ties them down and becoming ready for the future or breaks them free. For although the past is a valuable resource, we can dwell on it too much. I found this theme in Between Shades of Gray, Looking for Alaska and The Secret Life of Bees.
In Between Shades of Gray, the past and present and the foreseeable future are so different that the contrast is startling. Between Shades of Gray is a story about a girl named Lina growing up under the rule of Stalin in Lithuania. Lina and her family (Brother Jonas, Mother Elena and Father Kostas) live a rich and happy life in Lithuania. Kostas is a professor and makes enough money to keep them all happy. Lina is pursuing what looks to be a successful career in art and Jonas chases bugs out of the house instead of killing them. Then the deportations begin. Lina, Jonas and Elena are separated from Kostas and deported first to a forced labor camp and then to Siberia to supposedly die; in trains marked "thieves and prostitutes."Lina's past and her present are so strikingly different that it seems they were from different lifetimes. Because of Lina's present situation, she frequently thinks about the past. She describes delicious meals to herself when she is starving in Siberia. She draws as if she still has that freedom. But both of these things just make her present situation worse when she feels more hungry and the guards catch her drawing. Lina feels that the only way she can survive is by living in the past which dulls the present. What Lina doesn't realize is that the contrast only grows stronger and that she cannot survive that way. Lina needs to stop dwelling on the past if she is to survive the present and future.
The dichotomy between past and present is also evident in the book Looking for Alaska by John Green. The book centers on a boy named Miles. Miles enrolls in the boarding school Culver Creek to set out to find the "Great Perhaps." Miles meets new friends, trouble makers Colenel and Tamiki and the beautiful Alaska. Miles falls in with them and soon acts just like them, smoking, pranking and having fun all the time. However, Miles is forgetting his past. He forgets his former loser-like existence at home and how he used to be more shy, more reserved, less impulsive. In forgetting this former side of himself he doesn't realize how much heartbreak and trouble he is getting into falling for Alaska Young. Sure she's hilarious and sexy, but she's dangerous and moody. If Miles had held on to a little bit more of his former judgement and reserve he would have realized a little of what he was getting into and maybe not have been so hurt and surprised when it fell apart.
A third example of how the past really affects the future is in the historical fiction novel, the Secret Life of Bees. The Secret Life of Bees is about a girl named Lily who, when her black substitute mother Rosaleen insults some of the worst racists in town, finds the opportunity to run away from her abusive father. She is guided by some objects her mother left behind to the Boatwright sisters in Tiburon South Carolina. The Boatwright sisters help her to find the truth about the death of her real mother and she finds a home with them. Lily has been haunted all of her life by her mother's death, how she might have accidentally caused it and why it happened at all. It is only when Lily comes to terms with her mother's past which surrounds her at the Boatwright home, that she becomes truly content with herself and finds herself a home which feels right to her. When Lily was living with her father, she spent all of her time restless with the present and unsure about her future. Sometimes, reflecting on the past helps to steady the future.
The past affects the future, whether you need to reflect on it more, or dwell on it less which is a difficult balance to maintain. So I don't know why I still remember making the quiche and I'd like to figure out why someday, but I'm not going to dwell on it too much, there's still life out there to live!
The past has so much to do with our present, and therefore our future. The past, whether it be a minute ago or 20 years, is prevalent in our decisions and lives. Life is not like an essay, we are not given specific resources that tell us what to do.The thing is, the past is all of the back ground information we have on life. So we have to rely on it in order to base our life on anything.
The past is always on the mind of characters in books. Books are usually centered on a change that has happened in the main character's life, that's what makes books worth reading. In many of the books I have read recently, getting beyond the past which ties them down and becoming ready for the future or breaks them free. For although the past is a valuable resource, we can dwell on it too much. I found this theme in Between Shades of Gray, Looking for Alaska and The Secret Life of Bees.
In Between Shades of Gray, the past and present and the foreseeable future are so different that the contrast is startling. Between Shades of Gray is a story about a girl named Lina growing up under the rule of Stalin in Lithuania. Lina and her family (Brother Jonas, Mother Elena and Father Kostas) live a rich and happy life in Lithuania. Kostas is a professor and makes enough money to keep them all happy. Lina is pursuing what looks to be a successful career in art and Jonas chases bugs out of the house instead of killing them. Then the deportations begin. Lina, Jonas and Elena are separated from Kostas and deported first to a forced labor camp and then to Siberia to supposedly die; in trains marked "thieves and prostitutes."Lina's past and her present are so strikingly different that it seems they were from different lifetimes. Because of Lina's present situation, she frequently thinks about the past. She describes delicious meals to herself when she is starving in Siberia. She draws as if she still has that freedom. But both of these things just make her present situation worse when she feels more hungry and the guards catch her drawing. Lina feels that the only way she can survive is by living in the past which dulls the present. What Lina doesn't realize is that the contrast only grows stronger and that she cannot survive that way. Lina needs to stop dwelling on the past if she is to survive the present and future.
The dichotomy between past and present is also evident in the book Looking for Alaska by John Green. The book centers on a boy named Miles. Miles enrolls in the boarding school Culver Creek to set out to find the "Great Perhaps." Miles meets new friends, trouble makers Colenel and Tamiki and the beautiful Alaska. Miles falls in with them and soon acts just like them, smoking, pranking and having fun all the time. However, Miles is forgetting his past. He forgets his former loser-like existence at home and how he used to be more shy, more reserved, less impulsive. In forgetting this former side of himself he doesn't realize how much heartbreak and trouble he is getting into falling for Alaska Young. Sure she's hilarious and sexy, but she's dangerous and moody. If Miles had held on to a little bit more of his former judgement and reserve he would have realized a little of what he was getting into and maybe not have been so hurt and surprised when it fell apart.
A third example of how the past really affects the future is in the historical fiction novel, the Secret Life of Bees. The Secret Life of Bees is about a girl named Lily who, when her black substitute mother Rosaleen insults some of the worst racists in town, finds the opportunity to run away from her abusive father. She is guided by some objects her mother left behind to the Boatwright sisters in Tiburon South Carolina. The Boatwright sisters help her to find the truth about the death of her real mother and she finds a home with them. Lily has been haunted all of her life by her mother's death, how she might have accidentally caused it and why it happened at all. It is only when Lily comes to terms with her mother's past which surrounds her at the Boatwright home, that she becomes truly content with herself and finds herself a home which feels right to her. When Lily was living with her father, she spent all of her time restless with the present and unsure about her future. Sometimes, reflecting on the past helps to steady the future.
The past affects the future, whether you need to reflect on it more, or dwell on it less which is a difficult balance to maintain. So I don't know why I still remember making the quiche and I'd like to figure out why someday, but I'm not going to dwell on it too much, there's still life out there to live!
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