THE END! :) April 29, 2007

             Yay!  It’s our last post for the semester!  I mean, not that it hasn’t been great and all! Haha.  Anyways, as we complete this semester we read Native Speaker.  I still have not completely figured out how I feel toward this book.  I must admit that it was an easier read than some, but it was also difficult at the same time.  This book had several flashbacks which made it confusing to follow.  For me, unless it is something visual, following flashbacks in a book is really complicated.  I had a hard time following it at times. 

            All throughout this book there has been this whole idea about language and Henry’s “obsession” with it.  It keeps popping up in various places.  In the beginning, when he had to try so hard to say Lelia.  It occurred when Mitt was meeting new friends and they taught them all the racial slurs.  It happened at the end of the book when Henry got his new job working with his wife with the children with the speech problems.  From beginning to end this was a major theme.  What was the significance of all of this?  Well, to me it set up how the story was going to be played out.  It began with this struggle with the language and saying Lelia’s name which led to many other struggles that he had to go through.  The struggle with his wife, their child and his job.  However, in the end it is what brought him and his wife back together.  Quite interesting I thought.

Native Speaker April 28, 2007

            So, here we are on our final book…Native Speaker.  Yay!  It is quite an interesting one to end it with too if I do say so myself.  There is much to talk about; where to begin? 

            Let’s start with the first page.  Lelia, Henry’s husband writes him this list.  This is how the story is beginning.  So, what is this list?  Why is it significant, or is it?  I just wonder why this is how the book begins.  So here is his wife, she hands him this list and leaves.  Now, does she leave as in she’s not coming back or is she just going on a trip?  That we later find out.  She just leaves and goes on these trips often.  But, she just leaves without saying anything. 

            Another interesting fact in this book is Henry’s job.  He is a spy.  Very interesting.  He works with Kwang.  Now who is he?  That is something that I must read more before answering.  He seems like a very complicated character.  However, as I continued to read, I still did not know much about him.  He was a confusing character. 

            And then there was Mitt, Henry and Lelia’s son.  He was in elementary school, and had a small group of friends.  When he first met the kids there they all teach him these racial slurs toward Asians and he had no idea what he was saying.  While they are all playing in the backyard one day, just fooling around, they dog pile, and Mitt is suffocated and dies.  After we find this out, we hear about these tapes.  They have recorded Mitt and they go back and listen to them.  Why?  I shall read on to try to figure that out!

End of Sula April 15, 2007

There is much hostility in this book.  There is a lot of anger and death, and talk about death.  Eva had killed Plum stating that the reason she did it was because she was brought back to the horribleness of when that bowel problem occurred when
Plum started acting a certain way. 

 

When Sula and Eva get into a heated argument about her leg things really begin to blow up.  Sula is yelling at her saying that it was not right for her to cut her leg off just to claim insurance money.  She did not have the right to change everyone’s lives as she did because of all of this.  Eva tries to blame Sula for
Plum’s death.  They also talk about Hannah’s death.  Eva reminds Sula that she watched Hannah burn to death.  Sula threatens to kill Eva in the way that she killed
Plum.  You can really see all this hostility and anger in these few chapters.  In response to Sula’s threat, Eva gets scared and locks her doors at night. 

 

Throughout these few chapters you can also see this idea of meaningless marriages with several of the characters cheating on one another.  Jude and Sula are caught having an affair by Nel, and this devastates her.  When this happens Jude abandons Nel and their children.  Again, this is not the first time that we have seen this happen in this novel.

 

All in all, this was an interesting book, but I must say that there were several disturbing parts that I could have done without.  It was an easy read, and I found it to have several of the themes that we have seen in the past.

Sula April 15, 2007

Sula is a nice read.  I am actually not minding this book to read.  To begin, I found it interesting when it explained how the Bottom for its name.  It was when a slave was promised that if he got so many of these difficult chores done, he would get this “bottom land” and be freed.  However, the man changed his mind when the slave had completed these tasks and instead gave him that land in the hills.  The slave took this before realizing how difficult the farming would be. 

 

The story then picks up and we begin to be introduced to the characters.  I found it oddly disturbing with the whole situation of Ralph who had the infected bowel.  It was very gross, especially when it was described that she removed it herself and all.  I did not enjoy that disturbing image in my head.  Eva’s husband had abandoned her, and then she abandons her own children for 18 months.  She leaves them with Mrs. Suggs saying she will be back in a few hours.  She returns 18 months later with a decent amount of money and also a missing leg.  This was all quite interesting.

 

In the beginning there is also this topic of sex reoccurring.  Hannah and Eva talk about this mostly.  Eva loves men, and flirts often.  Hannah will sleep with any man that she can.  This is a theme that we have seen throughout our past books as well.  We see this continuing throughout Sula also.