In "Room" by Emma Donoghue, the protagonist is a boy named Jack. For this five-year-old, one room is everything he has come to known. He was born in Room and has grown, learned and played with his mother in it ever since. In the eyes of Jack, he lives in a perfect world, but to Ma they are locked in a prison by Old Nick. From what I have read so far, Jack’s personality has been revealed by his actions and his mother’s words. The circumstances do not stop Jack from being a curious child. His thoughts are always jumping and his actions follow suit. An example of this comes on page 4, “I jump onto Rocker to look at Watch, he says 07:14. I can skate-board on Rocker without holding onto her, then I whee back onto Duvet and I’m snowboarding instead.” Emma Donoghue does an excellent job portraying Jack’s playful personality by using capital letters and eliminating the word “the” to give objects in Room life in a child’s eyes. His juvenile nature becomes clear when he does things such as, “I stroke Table’s scratches to make them better, she’s a circle all white except gray in the scratches from chopping foods.” (6) This novel creates passage into a young child’s mind and I believe it is quite accurate in doing so.
The novel is told from the first person perspective of Jack and his dialogue makes the story so spectacular. After seeing his mother take two pain killers for her tooth ache on page 9, Jack asks, “Why don’t you take two killers all the bits of every day?” She responds by saying she’d be hooked which is, “Like stuck on a hook, because I’d need them all the time. Actually I might need more and more.” Then Jack says, “What’s wrong with needing?” (9) This excerpt is a perfect example of Emma Donoghue’s ability to express childhood innocence on paper. Jack does not understand the problems that can come along with someone’s actions like many children his age. However, the extent of this is much more extreme with Jack due to his isolation. Also, Emma Donoghue mixes up verb tenses and leaves out words to make Jack’s dialogue as child-like as possible. For instance, he says things such as, “How did a picture asleep?” (5)
On the other hand, there are certain parts of "Room" where Jack’s growing maturity becomes evident. This maturity is seen when Ma begins to speak of the existence of the world outside Room. In order to escape, a plan is made where Jack needs to fake sick and go to a hospital with Old Nick. Ma says, “I know it’ll be really weird to go on your own, but I’ll be talking to you in your head every minute, I promise.” However, Jack is mature enough to know that this is not the case and “Ma won’t be in my head really. My tummy hurts just thinking about it.” (108) At times, Ma’s frustration towards Jack shows through and he always sees this. After disagreeing with Ma’s plan, Jack understands that, “She doesn’t say anything she’s so furious with me.” (114) He is more mature than the reader’s original impression and his curiosity of the outside world and Ma’s past drive this novel during and after their escape.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Richard Ford Blog
A)
After reading “Leaving for Kenosha” and “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” and listening to Richard Ford’s interview it became clear that the city of New Orleans means a lot to Ford and also his wife. However, this connection is clearly tainted by the United States response to Hurricane Katrina. In “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy,” he describes New Orleans as “our great iconic city, so graceful, livable, insular, self-delighted, eccentric, the one New Orleanians always said, with a wink, that care forgot and that sometimes, it might seem, forgot to care.” Unfortunately, this is not the same New Orleans we know today. In his short story, “Leaving Kenosha,” Charbonnet Street is described as “a long street of wreckages. Where the floodwater had hurtled through, houses had been flattened, others moved off their foundations, others had their roofs floated away. Though others—the compact, sturdy brick ones—had simply been ruined in a way that left them seeming almost whole.” This is a more accurate portrayal of a large portion of the city. The deserted part of New Orleans was and still is in such ruins that “no one was living in any house now, or in the acres of streets in either direction, streets that looked like open fields. It was the Lower Nine. It was the land far below sea level, the submersible land that had always been poor and black but had been a place to live. Now that seemed finished.” When asked if the house on Charbonnet was his, Jerry says, “Some people came along and just built it. Volunteers from someplace. Said it was a model house. It’s where her old house was ’til the storm took it. She just moved right in like nothing ever happened. She’s from way in the country. Nothing surprises her.” It is very peculiar that a single model home was built surrounded by wreckage, but this is a regular occurrence in New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina came with countless setbacks for the people of New Orleans. I share the opinion of Robert Ford that the people of America forgot about this ongoing situation and were quite dismissive. Since the majority of the people suffering were poor blacks, it was as if they were deemed not necessary of getting assistance. In response to Martin Levin drawing this conclusion in the interview, Ford says, “To this day they have not been rescued. They've just been told to, “"come back if you want to."” Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Ford says, “if you come back and build a house on this land that was inadequate and is inadequate now. If you do that and enough of your friends do it we will begin to restore city services to you, but we’re not gonna say how many have to come back for that to happen.” In this excerpt he does an excellent job describing the government’s lack of initiative in New Orleans post-Katrina.
In the article, “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy,” Ford finds himself reminiscing about the beauty of the city before the storm. He loves New Orleans and often goes back to do what he can. However, he attempts to convince himself to let go of the memories and loosen his attachment to the New Orleans that no longer exists. He says, “But so much for memory now. It charms, but it confuses and possibly holds us back. It's hard enough to take things in. When I think of my friends in the city this morning, I think of them as high and dry, as being where they belong, being themselves in their normal life that was. I turn off the TV, as I did four years ago next week, just to think my own sorrowing and prospective thoughts of them.” This is a very insightful passage and shows Ford’s heartbreak caused by Hurricane Katrina. He is at a lost for words and describes this in “A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” by saying, “An attempt to set out a vocabulary for empathy and for reckoning is frustrated in a moment of sorest need by the plain terms of the tragedy that wants telling." However, Ford is confident in the city's ability to regain life. He believes that the lack of writing about the situation is holding the recovery back and with the help of others this can be fixed.
B)
In the article, “Gov’t on Our Minds”, Robert Ford describes the midterm elections as “the constitutionally mandated annoyance whereby all of the Congress and a third of the Senate (plus eight jillion local likelies) have to stand before us once again—pretty much insures that we can’t get government out of our minds, lives, hair, dreams, and just be satisfied being ““the governed.”” This is a perfect example of Ford’s feelings toward the government. He feels that people need to be less concerned with their governing body and should forget about elections after they have taken place because the past cannot be re-written. Ford believes that the general population are being drawn to the politicians who are constantly “yapping at us, lying to us, insulting us, pandering to us, eroding our peace of mind, inducing in us a state of frenzy so that we can’t escape the very thing we say we don’t want to think about.” He states that people should be able to live their lives and not have to think about government, but nowadays this is almost impossible.
In his interview with Martin Levin, Ford says, “Americans aren't interested in politics. To Americans, politics is a TV show every night between six-thirty and seven.” It is clear that he looks at politics with disdain and I believe he is right in doing so. When speaking of the Bush election in his interview, he says, “between when we Americans voted and when the republican via the Supreme Court stole the election. I thought that I could bring peoples attention to something that I felt Americans had slept through, which was our civic responsibility, our franchise, when we didn't rise and revolt, when we didn't do more than almost sheepishly vote.” Ford is clearly embarrassed that the people of the United States are not willing to do anything more than vote for their leaders. When asked about the most recent election, Ford correctly states that none of the candidates deserved to be the next President. Interestingly, he did not vote for Obama because he knew the least about him and what he did know was not unfavourable. Along with this, he believes that politics have a forgotten responsibility, which is taking care of our economic class. This often falls through the cracks during elections and Ford is correct in saying so.
C)
Robert Ford is a realistic novelist who likes to keep his stories simple. In his interview, he states that writing novels is as easy as “simply looking around you.” He says, “The truth is about writing novels, you cannot keep up with reality. There is nothing you can dream up or nightmarishly wake up in the middle of the night and write on a little piece of paper that isn’t already happening somewhere.” In the end, all writers want is to use their imagination and intelligence to produce the best possible piece of work and Ford says, “this is one of the things young writers have a hard time doing.” Ford writes short stories for this reason. He finds it easier to captivate the audience and in his interview says, “When I sit down to write a story I just think, well this baby is going to have to be shorter and it’s going to have to have fewer scenes in it.” This results in a more desired sleek piece of writing.
In his early writing life, Ford was not able to write short stories at all. However, he started hanging around with fellow writers and learned from his peers quickly. These writers included Anne Beatty, Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. All of whom were a part of the "dirty realism movement" during the 1970s and 1980s, which most likely sparked Ford’s use of dirty realism. He believes that, “Novels and short stories alike are experiments in language and they are opportunities for the writer to invite the reader to revel in well chosen language. And so less well chosen language is not better than more well chosen language.” There are multiple examples of this in “Leaving for Kenosha.” For instance, the following sentence is perfect in its simplicity: “Louise was now sunk in silence.” Robert Ford is quite honest when speaking of his writing style during his interview with Martin Levin and I am grateful for the opportunity to listen.
D)
Surprisingly, Ford does not support the idea of dirty realism. He describes it as a useful marketing ploy especially when a large portion of his writing is put in this category. However, it is clear that there are aspects of this technique in his writing. This label has been put on his short stories since the 1970s and a simple Google search of “dirty realism” comes up with multiple results relating to Ford. In the short stories I have read, it is clear that Ford’s writing is often concise and to the point. This style helps the reader visualize the setting and the feelings of the characters. An example of this is seen his short story, “Leaving for Kenosha.” Ford writes, “Louise’s mother was across the lake on Mitch Daigle’s screen porch. He would be at work tomorrow. Things were coming back to regular.” This passage is stripped down to the bare essentials and allows the reader to imagine the lake and relationship between Walter and his ex-wife.
Ford recalls a memory from his childhood in “A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” and does so using dirty realism. He writes, “I have a picture of my parents on V-J Day, in City Park, holding a baby, staring at the camera and the sun. They are a dressed up and happy. The baby is me. So, I wonder, how is that park faring tonight.” As this passage progresses, the reader is able to visualize the setting in more detail and imagine the strong feeling of love between parents and their child. Ford always tries to describe settings and characters as realistically as possible in his stories and this is why it makes sense that he would dismiss dirty realism. It is unfortunate that a unique writing style like his must be labeled and critiqued. I particularly enjoy his use of “dirty realism” and plan on reading more of his stories in the future.
After reading “Leaving for Kenosha” and “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” and listening to Richard Ford’s interview it became clear that the city of New Orleans means a lot to Ford and also his wife. However, this connection is clearly tainted by the United States response to Hurricane Katrina. In “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy,” he describes New Orleans as “our great iconic city, so graceful, livable, insular, self-delighted, eccentric, the one New Orleanians always said, with a wink, that care forgot and that sometimes, it might seem, forgot to care.” Unfortunately, this is not the same New Orleans we know today. In his short story, “Leaving Kenosha,” Charbonnet Street is described as “a long street of wreckages. Where the floodwater had hurtled through, houses had been flattened, others moved off their foundations, others had their roofs floated away. Though others—the compact, sturdy brick ones—had simply been ruined in a way that left them seeming almost whole.” This is a more accurate portrayal of a large portion of the city. The deserted part of New Orleans was and still is in such ruins that “no one was living in any house now, or in the acres of streets in either direction, streets that looked like open fields. It was the Lower Nine. It was the land far below sea level, the submersible land that had always been poor and black but had been a place to live. Now that seemed finished.” When asked if the house on Charbonnet was his, Jerry says, “Some people came along and just built it. Volunteers from someplace. Said it was a model house. It’s where her old house was ’til the storm took it. She just moved right in like nothing ever happened. She’s from way in the country. Nothing surprises her.” It is very peculiar that a single model home was built surrounded by wreckage, but this is a regular occurrence in New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina came with countless setbacks for the people of New Orleans. I share the opinion of Robert Ford that the people of America forgot about this ongoing situation and were quite dismissive. Since the majority of the people suffering were poor blacks, it was as if they were deemed not necessary of getting assistance. In response to Martin Levin drawing this conclusion in the interview, Ford says, “To this day they have not been rescued. They've just been told to, “"come back if you want to."” Unfortunately, it is not that simple. Ford says, “if you come back and build a house on this land that was inadequate and is inadequate now. If you do that and enough of your friends do it we will begin to restore city services to you, but we’re not gonna say how many have to come back for that to happen.” In this excerpt he does an excellent job describing the government’s lack of initiative in New Orleans post-Katrina.
In the article, “City Beyond the Reach of Empathy,” Ford finds himself reminiscing about the beauty of the city before the storm. He loves New Orleans and often goes back to do what he can. However, he attempts to convince himself to let go of the memories and loosen his attachment to the New Orleans that no longer exists. He says, “But so much for memory now. It charms, but it confuses and possibly holds us back. It's hard enough to take things in. When I think of my friends in the city this morning, I think of them as high and dry, as being where they belong, being themselves in their normal life that was. I turn off the TV, as I did four years ago next week, just to think my own sorrowing and prospective thoughts of them.” This is a very insightful passage and shows Ford’s heartbreak caused by Hurricane Katrina. He is at a lost for words and describes this in “A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” by saying, “An attempt to set out a vocabulary for empathy and for reckoning is frustrated in a moment of sorest need by the plain terms of the tragedy that wants telling." However, Ford is confident in the city's ability to regain life. He believes that the lack of writing about the situation is holding the recovery back and with the help of others this can be fixed.
B)
In the article, “Gov’t on Our Minds”, Robert Ford describes the midterm elections as “the constitutionally mandated annoyance whereby all of the Congress and a third of the Senate (plus eight jillion local likelies) have to stand before us once again—pretty much insures that we can’t get government out of our minds, lives, hair, dreams, and just be satisfied being ““the governed.”” This is a perfect example of Ford’s feelings toward the government. He feels that people need to be less concerned with their governing body and should forget about elections after they have taken place because the past cannot be re-written. Ford believes that the general population are being drawn to the politicians who are constantly “yapping at us, lying to us, insulting us, pandering to us, eroding our peace of mind, inducing in us a state of frenzy so that we can’t escape the very thing we say we don’t want to think about.” He states that people should be able to live their lives and not have to think about government, but nowadays this is almost impossible.
In his interview with Martin Levin, Ford says, “Americans aren't interested in politics. To Americans, politics is a TV show every night between six-thirty and seven.” It is clear that he looks at politics with disdain and I believe he is right in doing so. When speaking of the Bush election in his interview, he says, “between when we Americans voted and when the republican via the Supreme Court stole the election. I thought that I could bring peoples attention to something that I felt Americans had slept through, which was our civic responsibility, our franchise, when we didn't rise and revolt, when we didn't do more than almost sheepishly vote.” Ford is clearly embarrassed that the people of the United States are not willing to do anything more than vote for their leaders. When asked about the most recent election, Ford correctly states that none of the candidates deserved to be the next President. Interestingly, he did not vote for Obama because he knew the least about him and what he did know was not unfavourable. Along with this, he believes that politics have a forgotten responsibility, which is taking care of our economic class. This often falls through the cracks during elections and Ford is correct in saying so.
C)
Robert Ford is a realistic novelist who likes to keep his stories simple. In his interview, he states that writing novels is as easy as “simply looking around you.” He says, “The truth is about writing novels, you cannot keep up with reality. There is nothing you can dream up or nightmarishly wake up in the middle of the night and write on a little piece of paper that isn’t already happening somewhere.” In the end, all writers want is to use their imagination and intelligence to produce the best possible piece of work and Ford says, “this is one of the things young writers have a hard time doing.” Ford writes short stories for this reason. He finds it easier to captivate the audience and in his interview says, “When I sit down to write a story I just think, well this baby is going to have to be shorter and it’s going to have to have fewer scenes in it.” This results in a more desired sleek piece of writing.
In his early writing life, Ford was not able to write short stories at all. However, he started hanging around with fellow writers and learned from his peers quickly. These writers included Anne Beatty, Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. All of whom were a part of the "dirty realism movement" during the 1970s and 1980s, which most likely sparked Ford’s use of dirty realism. He believes that, “Novels and short stories alike are experiments in language and they are opportunities for the writer to invite the reader to revel in well chosen language. And so less well chosen language is not better than more well chosen language.” There are multiple examples of this in “Leaving for Kenosha.” For instance, the following sentence is perfect in its simplicity: “Louise was now sunk in silence.” Robert Ford is quite honest when speaking of his writing style during his interview with Martin Levin and I am grateful for the opportunity to listen.
D)
Surprisingly, Ford does not support the idea of dirty realism. He describes it as a useful marketing ploy especially when a large portion of his writing is put in this category. However, it is clear that there are aspects of this technique in his writing. This label has been put on his short stories since the 1970s and a simple Google search of “dirty realism” comes up with multiple results relating to Ford. In the short stories I have read, it is clear that Ford’s writing is often concise and to the point. This style helps the reader visualize the setting and the feelings of the characters. An example of this is seen his short story, “Leaving for Kenosha.” Ford writes, “Louise’s mother was across the lake on Mitch Daigle’s screen porch. He would be at work tomorrow. Things were coming back to regular.” This passage is stripped down to the bare essentials and allows the reader to imagine the lake and relationship between Walter and his ex-wife.
Ford recalls a memory from his childhood in “A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy” and does so using dirty realism. He writes, “I have a picture of my parents on V-J Day, in City Park, holding a baby, staring at the camera and the sun. They are a dressed up and happy. The baby is me. So, I wonder, how is that park faring tonight.” As this passage progresses, the reader is able to visualize the setting in more detail and imagine the strong feeling of love between parents and their child. Ford always tries to describe settings and characters as realistically as possible in his stories and this is why it makes sense that he would dismiss dirty realism. It is unfortunate that a unique writing style like his must be labeled and critiqued. I particularly enjoy his use of “dirty realism” and plan on reading more of his stories in the future.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Birth of a Winner?
The two excerpts that stood out the most for me were from "Room" by Emma Donoghue and "Cities of Refuge", by Michael Helm. While reading the excerpt from "Cities of Refuge," I found that the opening paragraphs were particularly well written. An immense amount of sensory detail allowed me to picture the story unraveling in my mind. It seemed as if I were following the "foreign girl" and watching her every move. This appeals to me immensely because I enjoy reading for detail. After reading this excerpt, it is clear that this novel is not a light read. This also appeals to me because I just finished reading "The Life of Pi" and I am looking for a more challenging novel.
Emma Donoghue has done an excellent job writing "Room" from the point of view of a young child. It is fascinating to imagine your thought process at this age, which ends up being surprisingly close to that of the boy in this novel. The concept of an isolated boy convinced that one single room is all that exists is interesting, but seems hard to convey on paper. However, Ms. Donoghue is successful in this excerpt by accurately portraying the relationship between a loving mother and her son. The boy’s dialogue is simple and effective. The boy says, “To sick me like when I was three with throw-up and diarrhea?” This is a perfect example of something a five year old would say and exactly why this excerpt seems almost non-fiction to the reader. This excerpt and novel appeal to me because of the surprising plot and fascinating dialogue. When I was introduced to the book a few weeks ago I was astonished by the plot and immediately interested in reading it. I believe that "Room" deserves to win the "Writer's Trust Fiction Prize" because it is the only novel that stood out for me. I plan on reading "Room" in the near future and hopefully it lives up to the excerpt.
"The birth of a winner?"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-birth-of-a-winner/article1776842/
Emma Donoghue has done an excellent job writing "Room" from the point of view of a young child. It is fascinating to imagine your thought process at this age, which ends up being surprisingly close to that of the boy in this novel. The concept of an isolated boy convinced that one single room is all that exists is interesting, but seems hard to convey on paper. However, Ms. Donoghue is successful in this excerpt by accurately portraying the relationship between a loving mother and her son. The boy’s dialogue is simple and effective. The boy says, “To sick me like when I was three with throw-up and diarrhea?” This is a perfect example of something a five year old would say and exactly why this excerpt seems almost non-fiction to the reader. This excerpt and novel appeal to me because of the surprising plot and fascinating dialogue. When I was introduced to the book a few weeks ago I was astonished by the plot and immediately interested in reading it. I believe that "Room" deserves to win the "Writer's Trust Fiction Prize" because it is the only novel that stood out for me. I plan on reading "Room" in the near future and hopefully it lives up to the excerpt.
"The birth of a winner?"
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-birth-of-a-winner/article1776842/
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