Poetry

In class, we were talking about how nothing in Black Swan Green is the same at the end as it was in the beginning. One of the best examples of this that I thought of was how romantically, everyone in the Taylor family is in a different place then when they started. Jason's parents start out married, and over the course of the book, the reader can see them fall further and further out of love. Jason's dad ends up with Cynthia and it's hinted at his mom might have a thing with Yasmin Morton-Bagot. In the beginning, Jason is trying his best to impress Dawn Madden so he can get it in with her. By the end, he has no feelings with her and he's all for Holly Deblin. Julia starts out dating Ewan, but by the end is dating Stian. Over the course of the year, every one of the Taylors falls out of love with someone and in love with someone else.  I feel like Jason was particularly influenced his parents in his loss of feelings for Dawn. Jason doesn’t really stop liki...

I feel like the function of memory in Housekeeping was one of the more interesting aspects of the book. One of Ruth's biggest points about memory is that by nature, it's flawed and not necessarily reliable. For example, take how Lucille and Ruth remember their mother. Lucille remembers Helen in a more idyllic way than Ruth does. Ruth remembers her mother as being indifferent and kind of odd. This is emblematic of the way that memories aren't perfect snapshots of exactly what happened, but rather are modified by different people for different reasons. Lucille remembers her mom in an ideal way because her goal in life is to be considered normal. Lucille remembers her mother in the way that best fits with what she wants. Ruth on the other hand doesn’t have this goal, so her memory of her mother is probably more accurate. In a sense, this is what makes Ruth a reliable narrator. She isn’t too concerned with what everyone else thinks of her and she isn’t really ...