Thursday, April 1, 2010
Lucy
Each day after we meet in groups, one member of each group is responsible for posting a summary of your group’s conversation. We want to hear about specific topics and themes that were discussed; major questions pondered, and key “take-aways” from your discussion. Your post should be free of grammatical and spelling errors and be at least one healthy paragraph.
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Chapter two of Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid was another interesting chapter where a few things were revealed. The main thing that we were shown was that Lucy is very mad at the world. We realized that somehow she was heartbroken in the past and that is why she is so negative. She shows us that she doesn't want to accept any happiness because she is scared to have her heart broken again. Lucy is still not over the cultural differences, and she is trying to make all the new experiences she is facing seem unimportant. We also touched upon the fact that her relationship with her mother is too casual. Her mom is also very negative, and we feel that it is also part of the reason why she is the way she is.
ReplyDeleteChristelle and I also discussed some things about Mariah and Lewis in this chapter. We both came to the conclusion that although they seem so happy on the outside, they may have some dark secrets hidden. We think that one of them are having an affair with another person. Mariah is the complete opposite from Lucy and this is proven in Chapter 2. Mariah is a very happy person and she gets what she wants, and we feel that Lucy is somewhat jealous of Mariah. One symbol of how opposite they are, is their views on daffodils. Lucy sees daffodils as a symbol of pain and oppression while Mariah sees them as symbol of happiness and growth.
Another big conflict in this book is race. Lucy seems to see the differnce between herself and all the whites, but Mariah doesn't look at color. Christelle and I are both curious to see what will happen next, and we are both enjoying this book so far.
-Elaines
On Thursday Elaines and I discussed chapter three in Lucy while Kaira was catching up. Chapter three was a very long chapter and had a few different topics. We talked about Lucy's past with men and how we found it shocking that she had lost her virginity at a young age of 14. We also asked the question Is she with so many men because of insecurity? We thought that she sought for love in men because she didn't get love from her parents. Some thing that was very interesting is that when she thought she got pregnant she started to freak out. She said that she would've been completely embarrassed to ask her mom for the herbs to get rid of the baby. This showed that no matter how hard she tries she still wants her mom to think good of her.
ReplyDeleteOne big part of our discussion was about how our hypothesis came true. Lewis is cheating on Mariah with her best friend. We had previously thought this would happen, but we hadn't known it would've been with Mariah's best friend. We then talked about why Lucy didn't confront Lewis and decided it was because she loved Mariah and she didn't want her to get hurt. This was a huge step forward for Lucy because before she was really cynical and didn't love anything( or told herself so). Now she actually admitted that she loved someone. We only have two more chapters left on the book and Elaines and I are eager to finish and to find out if Lucy fully opens up.
On monday I have finally catched up after my group and I talked about what we needed to read. What we needed to read was pages 83-123. It was long to read and elanies brought up excellent questions as her role for the discusser. One of the questions was, "Do you think that money has to do with lucy's unhappiness?" All of us said yes because in the book she said that she has heard that money buy's happiness and she does believes so.
ReplyDeleteAnother question that got asked by Elaines was "Why isn't Lucy opening the letters from her mother? And do you thing it's healthy?" We all agree that the reason why she does not open her letters from her mother is she does want to be reminded by her past. Also it is not healthy because the only way you can forget or get over your past is talking your way throught and the best person to do it with is your mother. Elaines had many others but these are the ones that we talked the most. We have a bout another chapter to get through and we are very eager to know about Lucy and her past.
-kaira
Lucy By: Jamaica Kincaid
ReplyDeleteLast blog for this book
This was our last discussion for the book Lucy, and we basically touched upon the questions we had since the beginning. Some of the main points we touched upon was forgiveness, and the hate Lucy had throughout the book. In this last chapter, we were told the secret we have not been told throughout the whole book. It was not so surprising to find that she was so upset because she was heartbroken by her parents. They neglected her so much as a child and she felt like the love they had for her was over once her younger brothers were born. This jealousy and hatred was what made her so upset, but she let all of this anger out while writing the letter to her mom explaining how she has become. She surprised herself when writing this letter, and she honestly surprised me too.
Another big topic of discussion was forgiveness. Christelle and Kaira believed that her and her mother will work out their differences, but I think that her mom will not be forgiven. They think that Lucy will start to understand where her mom came from, and because her mom apologized everything will work out. I in the other hand believe that this is not possible. I think that Lucy’s mom doesn’t deserve forgiveness, so she will not receive it. I learned a lot about Lucy’s personality while reading this book, and I don’t think she’s in the stage of her life to forgive a life of neglect and put downs by her mother.
It was a good book, and everyone in my group will recommend it. It is a short book, but very enjoyable.
-Elaines
Today we only discussed the first ten pages of our second book, The House on Mango Street. We only read a little bit because we were testing it out, but we still found out a few things about the main character, Esperanza. She is one of four children and her family and her move around a lot. Now she is living on a house on Mango Street and it is not in the most perfect condition. She also talks about how everyone in her family is a little different. One thing we really got to discuss was the role of older siblings in a Hispanic family. Ms. McGarry was a little confused when it said, "Until then I am a red ballon, a ballon tied to a anchor." She said this when talking about her responsibility with her younger sister. Kaira and I were able to explain that in a Hispanic family the older siblings are responsible for their younger siblings, and that is why she doesn't feel free. We saw that it is a more cultural difference, and I personally am curious to see what other cultural differences the author exposes to us. We didn't really discuss a lot, but we are looking foward to continue reading this book.
ReplyDelete- Elaines
Today we talked about what we read on Tuesday. We just started a new book called,The house on Mango street. This book is about a girl who moves around a lot and is from Mexico. So far we have found out a few things about her. She really wants a best friend, and is starting to hang out with the wrong people. We are now wondering where that will lead her. One thing we noticed about the authors writing style is that every chapter is a new story, so in each chapter we get a little snippet from her life. We also talked about how the writer makes you feel like you are there in the story, watching as it happens. One part that really stood out was her use of similes." Out front there are twenty-one steps, all lopsided and jutting like crooked teeth" With her similes she gives us images of what happened. This book is an easy read so by Friday we will be half way through and we will read the rest in break, I can't wait to find out what funny story happens to Esperanza next and what she will do.
ReplyDeleteMy reading group and I have decided that for vacation we would read the rest of the book. However before vacation we read up to page 55 and the book is 134 pages long so it was not a whole lot. In the reading there were a few chapters that stood out in the book and one of them is "Papa who wakes up tired in the dark." The reason why this chapter stood out to me was because Esperanza put her self in fathers shoes. Because her grandfather died and her father was crying. After she tried to imagine her father who wakes up tired in the dark dead and she said she would hold him in her arms.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter reminded me a lot about the mockingbird and putting your feet in some other person shoes. Another thing that stood out was Esperanza believing going to hell. The reason why was she and her friends made up a game. The game was about imitating famous people and whoever guess who is the person that is imitating gets a point. One day the kids wanted to change it up a bit then they imitated people that everyone knows. It was Esperanza's turn and then she imitated her aunt Lupe. And she was very sick and blind she didn't knew that before the game but she got caught up in the game. So then the next day Esperanza's aunt Lupe died.
Reading these chapters were amazing because I can actually see myself doing the things that Esperanza does. I really liked the book a lot because I can relate and feel what Esperanza feels. I can't wait until school so my reading group and I can discuss the reading.
Christelle Said :
ReplyDeleteToday in class we talked about chapter two of The Great Gatsby. When we first began we didn't really like this book or understand it, but now things are starting to be clearer and we are seeing more action. We discussed the type of person that Tom is. We came to the conclusion that he doesn't love Daisy, but he also doesn't want to divorce her because he thinks of her as a possession and keeps his possessions close to heart. We came to this conclusion because when he was talking to Myrtle and she kept on saying Daisy's name, he got mad and physically abused her which showed that he had strong feelings for her because she was one of his many possessions. As the book gets more action me and my group are getting more involved. I can;t wait for the next time we meet to talk about all the new developments in the story.
Today it was only Kaira and I because Elaines wasn't here. We talked about why Gatsby is throwing these parties and came to the conclusion that it was because he wanted to see Daisy. The thing about his parties was that he would invite a few people and tons of people who weren't invited would show up. Since he was in the same social class as Daisy he hoped that she and her friends would show up to his parties because he couldn't go to her house because she was married. I personally found this really touching because he let all sorts of people into his house, but all along he was only waiting for one person. We also thought that there might be some romance about to happen between Nick and Jordan because they seem really close. I'm really curious to see what happens in the next chapter and can't wait to see how things progress.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 4 we had a really good discussion. First we talked about Gatsby and how it looks like he's not telling the truth about going to Oxford and about how his family made him rich. We also talked about him being a bootlegger and how that may be his source of getting money. We thought of that because people said that he did that and when he was at lunch with Nick and that man, the man seemed very suspicious and talked about "business" and if he would like to be part of it. Then when he went out with Jordan she explained a lot about Gatsby and why he would invite Nick, a lower class person to his party. As we had guessed it was because he loved Daisy and had a past with her until he went off to war. The whole reason he bought his huge house was because it was across from Daisy's. That showed a lot of commitment because he kept on going after her even though 5 years had passed and she had gotten married. I really can't wait to see how the tea party goes between Gatsby, Nick and Daisy.
ReplyDeleteGreat posts!
ReplyDeleteWhen Nick comes home Gatsby is waiting for him and they set up the tea party date the next day. Gatsby wanted everything to be perfect for his day with Daisy. In this discussion we thought that Gatsby doesn't know the real Daisy, but he's loving the old her, the thought of loving her and the fact that he has someone to love. We noticed that at first it was very awkward between them, but when Nick came back they were so engrossed in each other they didn't even know he was there.When they went to Gatsby's house I was secretly hoping that Tom would walk in on them looking for his wife while they had their moment. I think that Daisy deserves more than a cheating husband, but I think she also deserves more than a bootlegger. I really hope that Daisy can find true love in someone who is right for her. I can't wait to see if the relationship grow and if Tom finds out that she is hanging out with Gatsby and what happens between Jordan and Nick.
ReplyDeleteThe last time we talked about the book it was really interesting. We got to the part where Gatsby, Nick and Jordan go to Daisy and Tom's house. When Nick and Gatsby get there, Tom is on the phone with Myrtle who he is having an affair with. While he is on the phone everyone is sitting down talking and then Daisy goes over to Gatsby and kisses him and says she loves him right as Tom walks in. He didn't see her kiss him, but he heard her say she loved him. After that he is really irritable and he says that they should go to town though no one wants to. When they get to town the mood is still the same until Gatsby finally lets it all out on Tom. What he wasn't expecting was that Daisy said that she loved Tom. They end up leaving all mad. Daisy with Gatsby and Jordan and Nick with Tom. We find out that Daisy ran over Myrtle and so we were discussing if Daisy knew that Tom was having an affair with Myrtle or not. We are really interested in what happens next and can't wait for the next chapter.
ReplyDelete